Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder “why, why, why?”
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
The urge to understand has been one of my strongest driving forces as a developer. Does it remain just as strong in the face of the upheaval AI brings?
Before AI, I often spent much of my time just getting to the starting line. There was so much to understand, set up, connect or configure before I could tackle the problem I actually wanted to solve. Then the environment would stop working. By the time I was finally ready to begin, it would already be Friday.
With that still fresh in my mind, it feels almost unnatural to watch Codex or Claude chew through a complex problem with the appetite of a thousand undead developers. I’ve had that creeping feeling that I’m being replaced. But is it that simple?
I see AI as my shortcut to the starting line. It lets me start closer to the point where my abilities get to shine. Now I’ll parachute into places I once had to make my way through the jungle to reach.
But there’s still a jungle down there. Reality is detailed and messy, and understanding is as crucial as ever. I need to distinguish between the details I can leave to the machine and those I need to have a firm grasp on. There’s a paradox in this liberating automation. Coding with AI also has a surprising amount to do with freeing yourself from it:
- I need to build [lasting context](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/effective-context-engineering-for-ai-agents) that outlives the LLM’s fleeting attention span.
- I need to [extract verifiable, deterministic logic](https://replicated.live/blog/away) from the LLM’s non-deterministic processes.
- I need to develop and maintain my own mental models so I can understand and take responsibility for what the LLM produces.
Without this discipline, it’s like building a house I have no intention of living in myself. The excitement of getting the house finished can overshadow my interest in what it will be like to live there.
Curiosity and the urge to understand are qualities that never go out of fashion. I still have to take responsibility for building houses fit to live in, and be honest about which rooms I have yet to enter. The difference is that I now get to the starting line faster.