Neither a Clear nor a Simple Solution

Humans celebrate happiness together. We share excitement and good moments. They also mourn together, share sadness, and cry together, but we are always alone in our fears. We fear as individuals. That’s why we think, “It’s only me feeling this way.”

Currently, we live in a world where nobody knows what to do. The old is dying, and the new has not yet been born. It’s difficult to find a balance, and as a leader, you have to understand different perspectives and preferences.

There are many different thoughts out there:

Some have moral concerns about AI. They see it next to global war and environmental threats. They don’t like to use AI and consider it capitalist and a form of digital feudalism. What would you do if the company mandated using AI? Should those people drift away from the industry?

Others find this much context switching overwhelming, running so many contexts and agents at the same time—a recipe for burnout.

I know people who tell me, “I can’t enjoy the depth and quality of what I do anymore. I don’t enjoy my craft, and I feel I build things in which there is no trace of my thoughts.”

I also understand those who love to work with agents in silos. They might not even sleep. Would they get burned out? Who knows?

I know CTOs and VPs who think about going back to IC roles and building more, which also makes sense.

The State of Developer Experience report this year shows that it’s possible to play the numbers game to show more AI consumption in companies. Is the goal to improve productivity or to overcome fear?

These are all so confusing. What should we do? How should we balance our core values with all these new vibes?

I don’t have a clear and simple solution, but I have 4 thoughts floating around in my mind:

1. Figure out your own workflow. What do I want to use AI for? Where is my pain point or bottleneck? Use AI for that. Buzz will scare us—a fear that you need to tolerate alone. Find your genuine use cases and how to set AI to help with that.
2. Humanity is way beyond tooling. Those who compare themselves with AI might not be thinking deeply about what humanity means. You can’t replace a smile in a meeting and genuine care within a group with AI. AI will soon become a super smart tool, but it is not human.
3. Responsibility is a unique asset. The other day, someone posted a technical claim in Slack that could have changed my team’s decisions. When I asked him to verify it, he said, “Oh, I don’t know. That was my agent posting that.” Your name is on the message. Your agent is not real. Take responsibility.
4. Replace fear with experimentation: It’s time to just experiment and understand what is possible. Remember, fear is experienced alone.