42 Years of Coding: 3 Ways AI is Changing the Game, According to a Veteran Developer
- AI is changing the very essence of coding.
- This technological shift is fundamentally different from previous ones.
- An identity crisis has begun for seasoned developers.
A Developer’s Confession, Starting at Age 7
A developer named James Randall posted an essay on his blog. He’s been coding for 42 years, starting at the age of 7.[Original Article] The core message is simple: AI is changing the nature of programming itself.
Back in the Sinclair Spectrum days of 1983, every pixel was placed by hand. The process of finding solutions within constraints was a joy.[James Randall Blog]
This Time, It’s Different
There have always been technological changes. We’d learn new tools and apply our existing expertise. AI breaks that pattern.[Hacker News Discussion] Instead of writing code directly, we review, instruct, and modify. The satisfaction of solving puzzles is compressed into the space between prompt and response.
The Paradox of the Abstraction Tower
Developers were already distanced from the underlying systems. It’s common to use over 400 dependencies in a JS stack. AI has just pushed this to the extreme.
Randall says he might be the last generation to mourn this. Fewer people will have actually experienced a complete system. He admits that while he can work productively with AI, the meaning of “creating” is shaken.[Original Article]
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Will AI completely replace programmers?
A: Unlikely in the short term. AI helps with code generation and review, but system architecture design and interpreting business requirements are still human domains. However, the role definition of junior developers is likely to change significantly. Coding education methods will also change.
Q: How can experienced developers adapt to the AI era?
A: Realistically, focus on problem definition skills and system design capabilities rather than just code writing. You need to be able to skillfully use AI tools while maintaining the insight to judge the quality of the results. Deep technical understanding will actually become a differentiator.
Q: What is the actual quality level of AI coding tools?
A: They excel at boilerplate code or well-known patterns. However, human review is necessary for complex business logic or performance optimization. Each tool has its strengths, so choose according to your purpose.
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References
- I started programming when I was 7 – James Randall Blog (2026-02-10)
- Hacker News 토론 – Hacker News (2026-02-10)
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024 – AI Section – Stack Overflow (2024)