I have a confession: Coding is not as fun as it used to be.

Remember the satisfaction of spending a whole afternoon crafting a perfect generic function? Or the "hacker" feeling of typing out a complex algorithm from scratch?

That specific kind of fun is dying. Why? Because now, AI can implement that same function in 3 seconds. And it usually does it better, with comments and tests included.

When you can generate an entire module with a single prompt, sitting down to manually type out function (req, res) { ... } starts to feel ... inappropriate. It feels like washing clothes by hand when you have a washing machine next to you. It "does not make sense" in many cases anymore.

The Age of Agents

It’s not just about code generation (Copilot) anymore. We are in the era of AI Agents.

AI engineers are now building agents that don't just write code—they do work. They automate tasks for people, they automate processes for companies, and yes, they are automating parts of our own jobs.

The "grunt work" that used to take up 80% of our day—writing boilerplate, refactoring, writing unit tests—is being handed off to bots. For those of us who loved that grunt work, this feels like a loss. The tinkering is gone.

The Bright Side: From Builder to Conductor

But before we get too depressed, let’s look at the reality. Can we just trust the AI blindly?

Absolutely not.

If you leave an AI agent unchecked, it will eventually build something that compiles perfectly but solves the wrong problem. Or it will introduce a subtle security flaw that no linter can catch.

This is where we come in. We are moving from being Implementors to being Planners and Reviewers.

We still need human monitoring. Otherwise, AI will end up with something that doesn't fit the business needs. We are the guardrails. We are the safety net.

Creativity Unbound

Here is the most exciting part: We can now build things that were previously impossible.

In the past, if you had an idea for a side project, you had to weigh the "implementation cost." Is it worth spending 3 weekends writing boilterplate auth code just to test this idea? Often, the answer was no. The idea died on the vine.

Now? You can scaffold the entire backend in 10 minutes. You can focus purely on the unique value of your idea.

• Solo Founders can build unicorn-level software.
• Small Teams can compete with enterprise giants.
• Juniors can punch way above their weight class by leaning on AI for syntax and best practices.

The barrier to entry for creation has never been lower. Coding is no longer a gatekeeper; it's a gateway.

Adapting to the New Normal

So, if coding (typing) is no longer the main job, what should we focus on?

More and more work is being automated. We need to adapt to AI-based workflows in all industries, not just tech.

The engineers who will survive and thrive in this new era are not the best "coders." They are the ones who:

1. Understand Business: You need to know why you are building something, not just how.
2. Master Communication: You need to articulate problems clearly—both to humans and to LLMs (prompt engineering is just communication, after all).
3. Think Like Architects: You need to see the big picture. How do these AI-generated components fit together? Is this scalable? Is it secure?
4. Solve Problems: At the end of the day, we are paid to solve problems. Code was just the tool we used. Now we have a sharper tool.

Conclusion

Coding might not be "fun" in the old way—the meditative trance of typing syntax is gone. But it’s replaced by a new kind of fun: the power of orchestration.

We are no longer just bricklayers; we are the architects, the conductors, and the visionaries. We aren't just typing characters into a file anymore—we are breathing life into systems at a speed we never dreamed possible.

And honestly? That's not just fun. It's exhilarating.