The New Old Skills

AI hype has created plenty of fear about being replaced by robot overlords, which has made me ask myself: What are the essential, non-replaceable parts of our jobs?

Cassia's Three C's of Software Development

It's ridiculous, I know. But the three attributes I thought of all started with C, so here they are.

Critical Thinking

AI tools raise the spectre of disillusionment with our work. When we become disillusioned, we stop thinking critically. Microsoft's recent study showed that people do not think critically when under pressure to produce work and don't have time to pause and think about what they are making.

Critical thinking is essential when using AI tools to write code. We should not expect more and more output from developers because they have AI tools. Instead, we should expect extensive research, more thorough solutions, and a greater variety of alternatives.

AI tools should, more than ever, emphasize the need for deep-focus work to develop unique and impactful solutions.

Creativity

With AI tools, a developer can iterate at mind-boggling speeds. A good test suite, clear compiler feedback, and precise prompts can quickly produce iterative changes.

With that in mind, focusing on creative exploration will produce impactful results. Creativity with AI tools shifts from innovative use of code to creative iteration and measuring the impact of our work.

Curiosity

Poor code copy-pasted from Stackoverflow has always been frowned upon, yet it is in every code base. AI slop is the new copy-paste.

The only truly effective tool against copy-paste rot is curiosity. Why did the previous author write it this way? Why did the LLM suggest something that is only somewhat correct? How do I get the LLM to understand what I'm asking?

Be curious about the code you're writing and the AI tools you use.

Conclusion

As I wrote previously, this has always been the job. I am hopeful for a future where we use AI tools to refine the skills that make us uniquely capable of creating software that delights.