Letting go of being a coder

Coding has been a part of my identity for a long time. My ability to program, to write code, to create something almost-tangible from scratch - the ability to sit down, type away with focus for hours on end, my typed words turning into an user experience - has separated me from others. It has been an easy way to describe what I did. Even as I was a CTO, doing a whole lot more, I would jokingly say I was a “glorified programmer” because it was somehow an easier description for most people to understand.

Unfortunately, trillions of dollars have been coming after that core part of my identity. We now have multiple large language models, driven by even larger datacentres, who have been working hard at automating away that skill that I once proudly stated was my value proposition to the world.

I believe that there is far more to being a CTO, or even an engineer, than writing code. I deeply believe that this will always be the case. Thank fuck.

But that doesn’t mean that this ‘great replacement’ hasn’t chipped away at my identity. It doesn’t mean this doesn’t hurt my soul.

I can no longer say proudly, I am a programmer. I am a coder. I can say “I can code” or “I used to program” - but to say that my value to the world is coding, I might as well be saying that I sell encyclopedias. I still have a broad set of skills beyond coding that I can still present as value to the world, but put simply, a part of my identity has become obsolete.

So - if I can’t say that anymore - then what can I say? I still would like an alternative to ‘CTO’ for casual conversations. ‘Engineer’ is also not really showing a complete picture, or something I would feel accurately reflects who I am.

One word that does come to mind is ‘builder’. That feels good. It feels like me. But context is important, I mean, to most I think they would picture a labourer of sorts - the kind that asks for 2 sugars in their tea. (I’m much more of a coffee and nootropic supplement sort of guy.)

So what. Interface builder? No, too narrow. Product builder? Too broad. Tech builder? Maybe.

I guess I’ll have to try these out and see what feels good, what sticks.

But for now, I need to let go of saying I code. It’s time to accept that the skill is obsolete, and move on. Now; I build. There’s a great deal of joy, satisfaction and pride to be garnered from that verb, too. I’m excited to try it out.