Six months ago, I was barely using AI to write code. Maybe once a month.
Then, in about half a year:
- I started to use it in my day job.
- Then I started to use it on my side projects at home too.
- Then I stopped handing it individual tasks and started handing work to groups of AI agents, whole swarms of them working together on my behalf.
My basic way of working is completely different than it was six months ago, and I don’t mean a little different.
If you feel like the ground under your job is moving every month, you’re not imagining it. For a lot of people, it is.
This is the fifth article in a series on the human side of the AI shift. If you’d like to start with the first one, go to The Computer Works for Us.
Change can be good, and it’s still exhausting
Honestly, I’m really enjoying this.
Part of the reason is that as my work changed, I made a choice about which parts to keep. I kept the parts of engineering I love most, like creative brainstorming and solving hard problems and the people side of the business, and I let the agents take more of the rest.
So this isn’t a story about how change is bad. But even good change, at this speed, can leave people feeling adrift. When the tools change every month, it’s hard to feel like there’s anything solid to stand on. You get good at something, and by then that skill is already outdated.
I think that feeling is worth taking seriously. Constant change wears people down, even when the change is good.
What doesn’t change
When I feel lost, I come back to the things that haven’t changed.
Principles don’t change. In software, good engineering principles are the same as they were before AI. Software should be testable. Don’t repeat yourself. Build things that are simple enough to understand. An AI agent writing code still has to follow the same principles a human does. If anything, the principles matter more now, because the code comes faster than ever.
People matter more than process. That’s been true on every good team I’ve ever worked on, and a new tool doesn’t change it.
The point is still to help someone. We’re trying to solve real problems that bring real value to our customers. That was the goal before AI, and it’s the goal now. The tools are new, but the reason we use them isn’t.
North Stars don’t change. The tools are how we get there. The North Star is where we’re going.
Every job has its own version of this. A nurse’s tools change, but the patient’s well-being is still the point. A teacher’s tools change, and a student learning is still the point. An accountant’s software changes, and honest books are still the point. When the tools are moving, hold on to the point.
Hold your tools loosely
There’s a new habit I think we all need. Give yourself permission to re-examine your tools about every three months.
That’s a real change in mindset. A lot of us were trained to pick a tool, master it and stick with it for years. That worked when tools lasted for years, and it doesn’t work now.
So I think a healthy posture looks something like this:
- Principles: fixed.
- North Stars: fixed.
- Tools: loose. Expect to look at them again in a few months. Expect some of them to change.
If you’ve decided ahead of time that the tools are going to change, then a new release doesn’t feel like the floor falling out from under you. It’s just the next scheduled check.
Build on the rock
Jesus told a short story about two builders. One built his house on sand. The other built on rock. When the storm came, “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:25).
The storm hit both houses. What made the difference was what was underneath.
My deepest foundation is my faith. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). My work changes constantly, and I take a lot of comfort in knowing there’s something at the bottom of it all that stays the same.
You don’t have to share my faith to see the wisdom in the story. If your sense of stability is built on the tools you use, every new release is going to shake you. But if it’s built on deeper things, like your principles and your purpose and the people you serve, then the tools can change all they want.
And then there are the pants
One more thing that hasn’t changed.
I still get up in the morning and put on my pants one leg at a time.
I say that with a smile, but I do mean it. The ordinary rhythms of life are still there: getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, saying good morning to the people you live with. AI hasn’t touched any of that. When work feels like it’s spinning, those small, steady things are a good place to plant your feet.
What to do this week
Write down your North Stars. What’s the real point of your work? Who does it help? Keep that list somewhere you’ll see it.
Name your principles. What does good work look like in your field, no matter what tools you use? Those are your fixed points.
Schedule your next tool check. Put a reminder on your calendar for three months from now: “Look at my tools again.” Then stop worrying about every new release in between.
Keep your ordinary rhythms. Get up, get dressed, eat with someone. One leg at a time.
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