Edition 14

A Message of Hope for Software Engineers in 2025

Today I’m going to show you that the future of software engineering in 2025 is as bright as it’s ever been.

If you’ve been following any developer related news or account online I know you probably feel lost, confused and maybe a bit hopeless with the message and narrative that’s being driven at the moment.

It’s important to not let the masses of opinions swamp our thoughts and distract us from making progress.

Most people will fail to stay the course because of fear.

Fear is a very dangerous decision maker.

It’s rarely a good idea to make big decisions or changes based on an emotion especially if it stems from fear.

Software engineers shouting doom for our craft and profession due to AI are simply fear mongering. They’re just like all the wrong doomsayers of the past. Don’t let fear make your decisions.

In this newsletter we’re going to cover:

The Doomsday message summarised and analysed

People keep screaming the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

They preach doom and gloom with wild takes like the one below with no context, no thought having gone into it and they’re not helpful in the slightest.

They think they’re whistle-blowers or helping people avoid disaster when all they’re doing is just rage and click baiting people.

Programming languages will disappear and will be replaced by English apparently.

I don’t know about you but even the most articulated people struggle to communicate what they want in spoken languages so that doesn’t really bode well.

Also apparently anyone can code now and is now technical.

That’s like saying everyone is a polyglot because they can have Google translate run a conversation for them.

Or you can just have AI do all the coding for you!

Never mind when there’s a bug or it breaks or does something unexpected.

So many people use these tools, see what looks like magic (which to be fair it does look like and I felt the same way seeing it) and because they don’t understand it assume it’s over.

And let’s be real they’ve been saying this for decades.

People who put little thought into their words and have big claims should be scrutinised.

Sagan’s Razor states:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

I’ve paid close attention to this topic as I am in the line of sight for these claims.

And yet I haven’t seen substantial evidence to prove that these claims are anything but speculation.

Let’s be honest most companies are still behind by 5-10 years with their tech.

And some companies can barely keep their tech together with dedicated people who look after it. But we expect them to replace all software engineers with AI models that they’ll have to look after, support and supervise?

So with the doomsday narrative summarised and out of the way let me tell you why I think programming and software engineering will do just as well in 2025 if not better and what I plan to do that you can copy to become an even better software engineer in 2025.

This is not the end
 this is just another path


Like Gandalf said:

I don’t think AI is the death of programming but if it were then it’s simply a passing into another life for software.

The software field has always been evolving and changing over the decades.

One technology and language being phased out is simply replaced by another that’s more suited to the time.

AI is going to be an augmenter for people who can already code and an enabler for those who can’t.

If you play around with any of these tools you’ll find they’re capable of a lot of things.

And as I’ve played with some and watched/read about others I observed a few things that stood out to me:

The human still plays a big role in the process. Without us, the humans, the AI does not exist, the training data doesn’t exist and they can only get so far.

To help the AIs to fix problems you need to be technical to observe the problem and fix it.

These are tools.

Tools can be incredibly powerful but without the craftsman they remain just tools.

How to conquer fear in 2025

Hopefully the last section was a compelling enough reason to feel hope.

In this section I want to share with you what I plan to do in order to conquer the fear and doom people are spreading online.

Put your blinkers on

Have you ever seen a race horse?

They have these little eye patch looking things on the side of their head.

Stolen Bride blinkers.jpg

By Chabata_k(Japan) - Picture taken by Chabata_k(Japan).,

CC BY-SA 3.0

, Link

Do you know why they have them?

It’s so their peripheral vision is restricted. They can mainly see straight ahead.

They put these on so the horse has an easier time concentrating, is less likely to be spooked because of something around them and so they’re vision is protected.

They create focus on the direct line of sight, their goal.

If you want to make progress and give yourself the best chance of reaching your next goal then put your blinkers on.

Reduce the amount of tangential information coming in so you can focus on driving 100% towards something meaningful instead of listening to random people who have no investment in you.

Main character syndrome

There’s a whole subreddit around this idea which is really funny and depressing at the same time.

Don’t take it to that extreme but do treat yourself as the main character in your life’s story because
 you are!

A lot of people spend their time wishing they were somebody else, following somebody else, acting, behaving and choosing based on somebody else’s motives and expectations.

Tell your own story, follow your own path and yes, put yourself first.

You need to help yourself before you can help others.

That’s why they always tell you in the safety instructions on an airplane flight that if the oxygen masks come down put your own on first.

Of course we want to look after our loved ones and support people but we can’t do that if we waste our effort and time on things that don’t directly benefit us.

And instead:

Follow your genuine curiosity and you will be more fulfilled and valuable as a result.

Delete X or mute people

As much as I love using X for seeing what’s trending, communicating with people around the world and seeing some incredible work produced by incredibly talented people, I kind of hate it as well.

It can be a big time suck with doom scrolling and getting lost down a rabbit hole of interesting information.

It can also be a big anxiety inducer for me as I compare myself to other people’s capabilities.

Comparison is the thief of joy but also progress.

I’m going to delete the app off of my phone so that I only use it when I sit down at my desktop computer for a work session that includes social media engagement.

At least then I limit my exposure and don’t ruin my mindset, my mood and clutter my headspace with more information that stops me from taking action.

I’ve also started to unfollow/mute/swipe away accounts that trigger these negative spirals.

If they’re just noisy accounts with no value to me I just get them out. Simple, no need to complicate it.

I’m relatively thick skinned so I don’t really care too much about unhelpful criticism and rage bait but I am a harsh critic so I will critique myself against people who are doing great work.

If their work doesn’t inspire me and instead fills me with anxiety and self doubt then I’ll block it out.

Ignorance is bliss so better to be unaware with a healthy mind then bombarded with information and miserable.

Test yourself and the machine

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

It’s true in the sense that you want to know what your enemy is up to. So keep the AI tools close at hand.

Going back to the lack of understanding inducing fear, get a basic understanding.

Use these tools yourself, see what they’re capable of.

See how they can benefit you.

Don’t treat them like the plague at arms distance at all times.

Try Bolt, Windsurf, Cursor, Copilot, Chat GPT and Claude.

Use them and understand them.

See how much you’re both capable of. It could very well be that AI can enhance your skillset and open up doors to implementing things you might have struggled with before.

Test your technical might and test the machine.

Learn faster than before

Nothing beats a great teacher.

Truly great teachers are irreplaceable because they not only understand domain and technical knowledge but they also know how to relay that information onto someone who doesn’t already know it.

Unfortunately great teachers are hard to come by and can be expensive for personalised tutors.

AI could actually be very good for parts of teaching.

By having a conversation with AI we can get personalised learning based on our specific input.

There’s still hallucinations and inaccuracy to deal with but it can be a valuable source for us to actually learn things faster with more real time feedback then watching a video, reading a blog etc.

Use AI to get to your goals faster.

Get that AWS certification, complete that project, study quicker and more effectively for an exam.

Use it to go faster, probably 80% of other software engineers out there are not taking advantage.

Remember why you started programming

I remember why I started programming.

It was the first time where I could match with what I could see in my mind with what I could create.

It was a creative medium for me.

I still sucked at the beginning but it was a form of creation that I enjoyed more than any other because it combined my systematic mind and my creative mind.

I loved being able to create something that could serve a real purpose too.

Both of those things are still true today.

Friedrich Nietzsche said:

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

If you have a strong why to your want to programming then follow it.

Why not?

Genuine curiosity, meaning and purpose will carry you further than just simply leaning into whatever trend is happening currently.

Fundamentals are always valuable, always

This tweet from Guillermo Rauch summarises my point beautifully:

He doesn’t explicitly mention AI here but the logic still applies.

If you outsource your thinking and understanding you’re going to handicap yourself in some way.

Especially when things go wrong.

When things go wrong what tends to happen?

The person who really understands comes along and fixes it. Everyone else can only sweat, panic and run around like a headless chicken trying to figure out the answer.

The Primeagen makes a good point with this short:

If we all just accept that AI is going to take over everything wouldn’t it be better to understand what it’s capable of and what it’s building?

Software engineering is not just programming. It’s problem solving, communicating, designing etc.

It’s thinking.

Use it or lose it they say.

Thanks for reading

Remember what Bruce Lee said:

Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotions, because the body always follows the mind.

Be conscious of your emotional reactions to things.

Acknowledge them but take a step back and analyse things with a neutral, objective mind.

Don’t give into the fear.

Thanks again 🙏

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