The Programmer Identity Crisis ❈ Simon Højberg ❈ Principal Frontend Engineer

Inside companies, power dynamics are shifting as this new identity is pushed. In a mad dash to increase productivity in the wrong place7, developers are forced to use LLMs in increasingly specific ways. Conform or be cast out. Use the products that herald our obsolescence, or resign. Scarcely has management mandated such specifics of our tools before. Tools, like those of a chef or carpenter, that we’ve taken great pride in curating and honing ourselves: careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments. As part of the craft, we’ve been dedicated and devoted to personalizing our toolsets to match our thinking. It feels like a violation to have this be decreed by management, who have little to no connection to the day-to-day, and who should instead be concerned with outcomes, process, and facilitating creativity. For decades, programmers have been pampered within companies. These narratives offer a new way for management to tip the balance back in their favor.