From Joelotter · · 2m
Fuck it, make it anyway
A developer watches AI flatten the craft he loves, then finds the only path that still feels like his.
In brief
A developer watches AI flatten the craft he loves, then finds the only path that still feels like his. If you only make things to keep up, you lose twice. Keep making them the way you enjoy, and the point stays yours. Originally reported by Joelotter.
The quiet crash
Joel Auterson describes a week where his resolve fell apart, not with drama but with a slow collapse. He wrote it down for anyone else in that spot, including his future self.
“not in an explosive, dramatic way, but an implosion, a collapsing of the self”
The reason is AI
The trigger is the steady devaluation of artists and makers. He thinks AI art stays cringe enough to resist. On the programming side, he is less sure.
“chewed up and regurgitated back to us like a mother feeding a baby bird with a subscription model”
Every programmer went insane
He calls this the most turbulent stretch he can remember in software, where each person has to pick a response with no hindsight to help. He does not blame anyone for going along.
“Denying that is, I think, a race against a moving finish line.”
His position, stated plainly
He is not trying to convert anyone. Set aside the environmental and social costs, he just does not enjoy coding with an assistant. The output never feels like his.
“It isn't fun for me, the output doesn't feel like mine, and I take no pride in what it produces.”
Nobody wants your doodads
He built an interactive git branch switcher he uses daily and was proud of. Now anyone can order one off a prompt, and the peer approval he admits he needs is gone.
“It feels gauche to admit but I do actually need those head pats from my peers to feel fulfilled.”
Games hit the same wall
A Zach Gage thread about game making becoming more like music set off the crash. Years of learning a hard craft suddenly read like wasted time.
“I think it's a good insight but I found it utterly devastating.”
What Shad did instead
His friend Shad builds Uncamera, an iOS camera using raw sensor data and lookup tables for real film looks, with no generative AI. Same anxieties as Joel, but Shad kept shipping.
“Shad has kept updating Uncamera in spite of those anxieties, while I wallowed in self-pity.”
Three paths, one answer
Use AI and stop enjoying the work. Stop making things, which is not really possible. Or keep going the hard way, in his own C++ engine, because he wants to.
“That's why we make games. That's why we make anything.”
In short
If you only make things to keep up, you lose twice. Keep making them the way you enjoy, and the point stays yours.
