Woodworking
It's becoming clear in the AI development apocalypse that a lot of developers saw themselves as master woodworkers.
The code they wrote was hand-crafted, artisanally produced, and even the back of the cabinet was sanded and varnished. Not a byte was out of place.
Now they're realising that customers never cared as much as they did. Customers only care about outcomes, like whether or not the cabinet stops their dishes from falling on the floor.
No customer has ever asked if we used snake case or camel case for variables, if we believed in multi-inheritance, or used MVP. Even tabs or spaces is not your typical pre-sales question. They just want you to solve their problem.
The existential crisis that many developers are now going through is what happens when IKEA comes along and demonstrates what the market really wants. If you're a developer who believed the skill was coming up with the most elegant solution, rather than just solving the problem - AI code generation is likely much harder for you to accept.
Anyone can now pick a SaaS tool or app from the AppStore and create their own vibe-coded version in a weekend. But without the human vision of the people that made those original creations successful, it's going to be very difficult to make yourself stand out. Having a perspective, a unique approach or personal insight is going to be more important than ever.
Hand-made, beautifully crafted furniture still exists. And I believe that software with a clear human touch is still going to be in demand.
Just realise that you might need to be more boutique.