My company strongly encourages us to use copilot for coding. I have two “vibe coders” in my team. Sometimes they do funny things (like writing a separate java class with getters for two constants, complete with a test class - all AI generated and absolute BS), but most days, it’s taking a toll on the rest of us. The most annoying part is that the management praises the “creative duo” while we struggle, trying to put out their fires and keep the code quality decent.

I’m a 35-year-old in Seattle, and I’m genuinely terrified that I’m already becoming too old for this industry. I looked around our all-hands meeting yesterday and realized that except for upper management, almost everyone on the engineering team is fresh out of college age. They can pull all-nighters without blinking, while my back hurts if I sit in the wrong chair for two hours. Are we all just silently sliding toward an expiration date once we hit our late 30s? How do you stay relevant?

If every employee had an AI assistant that doubled their productivity, would companies hire fewer people or expect twice as much work?

I’m realizing that my coworkers who are being hired externally are making so much more money. I’m now thinking what’s the benefit at staying g at a company and rising the ranks?

I got dinged on my latest review for not participating enough in the team channels, and I feel like I’m back in middle school. Apparently, shipping clean, bug-free code ahead of schedule takes a backseat to not dropping enough memes in the #random channel. My manager literally told me that social presence is a core metric for our remote culture this year. Is this normal? I’m so grumpy about it.