The Evolution Of Developer Crutches

Ah, the classic bell curve of AI anxiety. The folks at the low end of the IQ spectrum are blissfully confident they can't be replaced because they don't understand what's coming. The geniuses at the high end know they're safe because they're the ones building the AI overlords. Meanwhile, the rest of us in the middle—just smart enough to understand the threat but not brilliant enough to be irreplaceable—are sweating bullets. This is basically the tech industry's version of "ignorance is bliss" meets "knowledge is power," with the vast majority of us stuck in purgatory. Twenty years in this field and I'm still not sure if I should be learning to code better or learning to make coffee for the robots.

The JavaScript ecosystem's greatest fear: finding out some random AI model was trained on their npm packages. The title "I Tsc Alled Dis Ti Lla Tion" is a play on "distillation" - the process where AI models learn from other models - but butchered to include "tsc" (TypeScript compiler) and broken into syllables like someone having a panic attack. Nothing sends a JavaScript developer into hysterics faster than discovering their precious code snippets are now being regurgitated by ChatGPT. Meanwhile, the logos for TypeScript, React, and Node.js perfectly represent the frameworks watching their intellectual property get slurped up by the AI void.

That moment when your gaming investment turns into an AI research lab. You bought that RTX 4090 thinking your kid would be fragging noobs, but instead they're fine-tuning language models and talking about "hyperparameter optimization." The betrayal is immeasurable. Next thing you know, they'll be explaining why they need a server rack for Christmas.

The classic programmer paradox. Manually writing code for 30 minutes? Absolutely disgusting. But spending 3 hours configuring LLMs to generate code that would've taken 10 minutes to write? Now THAT'S what we call "productivity." It's the same energy as spending 5 hours automating a 30-minute weekly task and calling it "efficiency." The math doesn't add up, but the dopamine from avoiding actual work definitely does.

Oh look, it's the modern developer's daily ritual! That moment when you check what you stepped in and discover it's not regular garbage—it's AI Generated SQL . The perfect representation of what happens when you let AI write your database queries. Sure, it looks like SQL from a distance, but examine it closely and you'll find a horrifying abomination that would make even the most battle-hardened DBA weep. Nothing says "I've made terrible life choices" quite like debugging code that was hallucinated by an algorithm with the database knowledge of a caffeinated squirrel. Next time just write the query yourself, unless you enjoy explaining to your boss why the production database is suddenly identifying as a toaster.

Oh honey, look at these programmers having their little existential crisis over ChatGPT! Meanwhile, mathematicians are standing there like the seasoned gallows veterans they are, rolling their eyes SO HARD they can see their own brain. 💅 Calculators literally DECIMATED mathematical jobs decades ago, and these math wizards just adapted and found more complex problems to solve. But sure, programmers, keep clutching those mechanical keyboards while sobbing into your Stack Overflow bookmarks! First automation rodeo, sweetie?