[ido]

I empathize with all of the above, but ive honestly felt that way more or less the moment I went from “programmer” to “founder” (I run a small startup since 2021, so a couple years before “agentic programming”). At some point I accepted this as the cost of working at a higher level of abstraction (and getting more done as a result, whether via a human employee or an LLM doing the work I used to do).

I know older devs that reminisce for the days of programming straight to the metal in assembly (e.g. on DOS or Amiga) and “knowing exactly what the computer is doing” which feels somehow familiar!

Even more familiar are senior devs moving to management (I know this isnt an original metaphor).

[alexmuresan]

While I agree with this, I think these are two different stances: the one you mention is a natural progression of moving, the way you put it, from programmer to founder. It’s something you want to do. An intentional move. While my stance is more similar to saying: “I want to be a programmer but I am forced to be a PM”. I’m forced by corporate culture (so to speak) to coordinate AI agents.

I don’t mind adapting. And you are right. I just loved writing code too.