Author Reflects on AI's Impact on Coding and Writing

Long before billion-dollar AI companies took control of software development, I was painstakingly learning to 'code' on computers. This was in the mid-2000s. I was a child with unrestricted access to my home computer. With the help of a basic 'text editor', I learned to build websites. I started with simple ones and gradually became capable of building complex websites. I could do the work from start to finish myself. My work might not have been as amazing and beautiful as I imagined, but I would accept it and move on. I knew I was learning a new skill. Even when I had to abandon a task after spending hours on the computer 'debugging' code and poring over related software development documents, I didn't feel like time and energy were wasted. That too was part of my learning. Looking back now, all those activities seem pointless and strange. Nowadays, anyone can build an attractive-looking 'application' in minutes with the help of OpenAI's 'Codex' or Anthropic's 'Cloud Code'. Those who dropped out of school are earning millions from 'AI startups'. To be frank, my educational journey was certainly not very effective or efficient. I used to try many things alone. I tried to learn based on various self-created curricula. Curiosity kept me motivated, and the desire to understand kept me engaged. In that process, I started to like thinking in a particular way. That not only taught me four years of computer engineering but also prepared me for various types of software development work.

Those were all by-products of my thought-building process. Every writer can go through a transformative process of writing. They start writing with one idea but can end up with something completely different.