There's this weird emotion I've been experiencing lately, that I can only seem to describe as a desire to climb on a roof and yell: "It used to be hard!".
It used to be hard to build software, to program computers to do your bidding. To study computer science for a few years, building an understanding of control flow, logic, and computer architecture. To learn the languages, protocols, networking primitives, to read documentation about database indexes, or Kubernetes configurations, or the latest Javascript framework. To port an iOS app to Android, or build a robust ETL pipeline into a data lake. To learn all the terminal commands, or adapt to a new codebase, or write a suite of unit tests that covered every edge case. To create pixel perfect web design, or heck, center a <div> in CSS.
I feel like an old rock and roll guitarist watching a DJ sell out a stadium.
Is it bad that the barrier to entry for a DJ is lower? No, it's probably great for the amount of music in the world. Is there skill and creativity there? Of course. But it's not what I spent my time getting good at, and that's a little frustrating. If you told me 3 years ago that my job would turn into managing a fleet of agentic coding agents, I don't know if I would be excited or terrified. But here we are. Might as well learn how to DJ.
It's my turn to feel this today, but I'm probably not alone:
Building a financial model to compare recent S-1 filings? It used to be hard
Photoshopping recent presidents onto Mount Rushmore? It used to be hard
Turning this essay into a song in the style of 2000's Hip Hop? It used to be hard
Many of us were taught hard work as a virtue, that if we put in the effort, and do the hard thing, that we will be rewarded. Some of us believe that unless we are doing the hard thing, we are not enough as people and worthy of good things.
This might be why despite AI automating so much work, the 996 grind culture is more alive than ever. This might be why you see so many software founders pivoting to hardware or biology. Now that the hard thing is easy, it no longer has the same meaning.
Maybe, like Tibetan Mandalas, the effort was the point. Maybe, when given the option to trade away that effort for economic abundance, many people will refuse to push the button.
I legitimately think this will be the biggest sociopolitical issue over the next few years. The frustration of seeing your hard work getting one-shotted. The frustration of facing a world of immense production and output, that you have very little to do with. Longer term, I'm optimistic that we will adapt to new, creative, and fun ways of living. But the next few years are going to be weird, so I won't blame anyone for shouting from their roof.