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    • AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.
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statement of purpose

21 Sep 2026 - 21 Sep 2026
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    • overwhelmed with Futility, but if I had any motivation it woud be based on these.

    • work

      • AI and UI. Blah blah and I already wrote it somewhere didn't I?
      • It's obvious that the nature of any kind of intellectual work is going to change radically, or already has.
      • What is the value-add of a software dude in the AI-dominated future?
        • Ask Claude
          • Here's a direct breakdown of where a software developer's value-add lies in an AI-dominated future:

          • The Honest Picture First

          • Fresh CS graduates are already facing unemployment rates of 6.1–7.5%, and as AI automates code creation, people are starting to ask whether software engineering is "cooked."
          • And
          • the average value of simply typing code is going down.
          • That's real. But the full story is more nuanced.

          • Where the Value Shifts To

          • 1. Judgment, Ownership, and Oversight

          • While the value of typing code drops, the value of judgment, architecture, product thinking, debugging, verification, security, and ownership is going up. The developers who survive won't be the ones who ignore AI — nor the ones who blindly trust it. The strongest engineers will be those who use AI aggressively while still thinking clearly, reviewing carefully, and owning the final result.

          • 2. **System Architecture & Complex Problem-Solving**

          • Critical tasks such as debugging, refactoring, and systems analysis still require expertise and comprehension, and rely heavily on internal mental models that allow programmers to simulate execution and infer complex cause-and-effect paths within a codebase.
          • AI can't fully replicate this.

          • 3. Translating Business Needs into Technical Reality

          • With AI platforms becoming high-level frameworks, engineers' true value will not lie in memorizing syntax, but in orchestrating complex AI workflows, integrating services, and formulating the right questions. Non-technical skills — critical thinking, business strategy, systems architecture, and ethics — will become core to development. An engineer's ability to translate a complex business problem into clear instructions for AI will be infinitely more valuable than mastery of any specific programming language.

          • 4. Creativity and Innovation

          • The elements which AI cannot replicate — creativity and innovation — will be in high demand. Organisations must prioritise building teams that bring creativity, innovation, problem-solving abilities, and diverse perspectives. Creative skills including innovating, exploring, communicating, and verifying will become more valuable than technical skills in an increasingly complex AI environment.

          • 5. **AI Wrangling — Prompting, Evaluating, Correcting**

          • While AI handles code generation, testing, and documentation, it still depends on human direction, oversight, and critical thinking to produce anything meaningful at scale. Programmers are using AI tools not to hand off responsibility, but to extend what they can accomplish — reducing time on basic tasks and opening the door for deeper focus on architecture, system performance, and user experience.

          • 6. Security, Infrastructure, and Platform Engineering

          • Security engineers remain in high demand because organizations cannot afford major vulnerabilities or data breaches. DevOps and platform engineers are essential for reliability, performance, and scalable deployment.
          • These are areas where the consequences of AI error are severe and human accountability is non-negotiable.

          • The Uncomfortable Part: Entry-Level Pressure

          • AI is automating routine coding tasks, increasing pressure on entry-level roles across global technology hiring markets. Human developers remain essential for system design, decision-making, creativity, and the management of complex real-world software challenges.
          • The squeeze is most acute at the bottom of the ladder, where AI can now replicate the work that junior devs traditionally cut their teeth on.

          • The Bottom Line

          • The future of programming isn't total automation, but human amplification. By freeing developers from manual and repetitive tasks, AI pushes them toward higher-value work: strategy, purpose, and oversight. Programmers who remain anchored to the line of code will be left behind.
          • The "software dude" who treats AI as a force multiplier — and builds skills in architecture, product thinking, security, and domain expertise — remains extremely valuable. The one whose only skill is writing boilerplate CRUD endpoints is in trouble.
        • That wasn't bad.
        • I really, really wish I had someone to bounce ideas off of. Thought Alan might be that but he's been pretty quiet. Ken not really. Feel so isolated.
      • Coding is dead, but designing software is not, although everything about it might be different.

    • reality

      • learning. LLMs are death to education but perfect for learning
      • freedom aka slack-maxing