For the Developers who feel lost this year
How we can fall back in love with building things again
The problem.
The past year has been the year of many things. AI Agents. AI Automation. No Code Tools.
But there’s one thing that is definitely true… Developers don’t recognise this place anymore.
I know I’m not the only one who feels like this. Sometimes it really does feel like working in tech is becoming more like a rat race every day.
The constant need to keep up with the new technologies and stay up to date with the latest tools.
We thought it was hard when new JS frameworks were being released every month, try listening to a new company bang on about their “game-changing AI” which is just an LLM call every single day.
We shouldn’t feel like this.
The thing is, we shouldn’t feel like this, and I don’t actually think the problem is as bad as it seems.
All day every day, we’re being told that the job market is tough, AI is replacing programmers, it feels like constant negativity.
Unfortunately, negativity generates clicks.
Positivity doesn’t really have the same scroll stopping effect. Clicks = Ad views. Ad views = revenue. It’s a shame, but it’s true.
The reality is that the world of software development has changed, not as much as we think, but it has definitely changed. As developers we do need to figure out how to adapt, in the same way that we all did when we first started learning to code.
Falling out of love with coding.
I’m sure that computers (the profession - people who computed numbers) felt exactly the same when computers (the technology) came along, but actually, early computing machines needed people who understood mathematics and large-scale calculation workflows.
Anyone who’s met a vibe coder knows that using an AI coding assistant without having any coding knowledge usually results in either a poor quality product or a security issue.
I think a lot of this is just mental, at least in my head anyway. And it’s caused many of us to fall out of love with building things.
The Path Back to Loving Tech.
So how do we fall in love with this industry?
This answer will be different for some of you, but for me, I’m revisiting what first got me interested in learning to code (building things that make me think “Wow that’s cool” and “Wow I built that”).
Sounds lovely Tom… But practically, what does that mean?
It means:
Tinkering with things for fun, not with the intention of making a profit
Exploring new tools because they just might make my life easier or give me an idea
Sharing my projects to hopefully receive positive feedback from other people
Building for the sake of building
I’m going on a bit here. My point is that you need to go back to your roots, understand why you started in the first place.
2026 and beyond.
So I don’t think the year 2026 will be the year of AGI. It’ll be the year developers remember why we started building things in the first place. Not for productivity. Not for hype.
For curiosity. For joy. For the magic of turning an idea into something real.