"I Code, Therefore I Am"
What am I if not a programmer?
"I can't imagine not writing my own code."
It's the same visceral reaction nearly every developer has when first presented with the idea of AI coding. Several valid reasons justify this instinct.
AI can be:
- Unpredictable
- Unreliable
- Overconfident
- Incompetent
- Sycophantic
- Careless
- Too cautious
- Too cavalier
But none of those reasons could explain my reflexive revulsion to the idea.
Identity Crisis
Upon deeper reflection, I realized the thought of AI coding was triggering in me an identity crisis of sorts.
I've thought of myself as a programmer since I was about 12 years old, transcribing BASIC code from a printed book into a Commodore 64 to create a red circle that would bounce from one wall of the monitor to the next. I felt like I was performing some powerful dark magic. (Especially since I didn't really understand how it worked; I was just typing in someone else's sample code.)
The idea that a machine could replace the thing that's defined me for the past three-plus decades was upsetting.
I'm a Builder, Not a Coder
Then, in February 2026, I took on a twinBASIC challenge to build a fully functioning game in one month.
The result was Karma Kargo, a fully playable island trading game:
Over the course of those 28 days, I realized that my identity was safe; I had simply misunderstood my own nature.
It turned out I was a builder. That's my true identity. Writing code was simply the toolset I had been using my whole life.
Paradigm Shift
Once I embraced that perspective, everything was flipped on its head.
I no longer worried that AI would one day put me out of a job. Instead, I suddenly had a powerful new set of tools that would allow me to be many times more productive than before.
Generating code was no longer my biggest time sink–it was my smallest. Adapting to that reality was a whole new puzzle that needed solving. (And I love a good puzzle.)
I went from software developer to software architect in 28 days.
Now? I can't imagine writing my own code ever again.
