--- title: A hell of a time to be a builder | daily.dev description: A personal essay adapted from a conference talk at App.js 2026, arguing that AI tools are not eliminating developers but giving them unprecedented leverage and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A hell of a time to be a builder | daily.dev og:description: A personal essay adapted from a conference talk at App.js 2026, arguing that AI tools are not eliminating developers but giving them unprecedented leverage and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hK9egMEYT.png og:image:alt: A hell of a time to be a builder og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A hell of a time to be a builder **[Expo Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog)** · 8 min read · 41 upvotes · 12 comments ## Summary A personal essay adapted from a conference talk at App.js 2026, arguing that AI tools are not eliminating developers but giving them unprecedented leverage and momentum. The author shares a deeply personal story about building a communication app for his dying father in a day and a half using React, then connects that experience to the broader shift happening in software development. The core argument: as mechanical coding tasks get cheaper, human judgment, taste, and product intuition become more valuable. The bottleneck for software is no longer engineering capacity — it's ambition. The audience for software creation has expanded dramatically, enabling designers, musicians, teachers, and teenagers to ship real products. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@elmarchavez** · 8 upvotes > > ***"And as the mechanical parts get cheaper, the human parts get more valuable."*** > > I don't know why but this article needs more upvotes on this platform. You discussed your points so elegantly. I am most fascinated by how well you captured the quote above. If its easier to ship code, then we should upgrade our human-skills more to elevate our products even further. We got more time now, we got free mentors in the form of AI. > > The bottleneck moved and it all comes down to you. **@idoshamun** · 2 upvotes > I'm bullish on this mindset ever since coding agents got hyped. Most engineers just take it the wrong way, since they were so used to their routine and now it's nowhere close to that. "Good engineer" is also changing and that scares many engineers who are good in writing code but had less ambitious or business/product understanding **@jenueldev** · 1 upvotes > The line about ambition becoming the bottleneck hits hard. AI does not remove taste or judgment; it just makes it painfully obvious when those are the missing pieces. **@starfallcodes** · 0 upvotes > first of all, who said Shakespeare died, nu uh, here's the proof. Omg that writing style is so good. > > and the the fact now knolege amongst developers is not the most needed thing, but willpower. Willpower to keep the project maintained. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Software Engineers are Obsolete](https://daily.dev/posts/software-engineers-are-obsolete-u0mexbdss) · Ibrahim Diallo · 2 upvotes · 2 comments - [Software engineering’s bottleneck is no longer code](https://daily.dev/posts/software-engineering-s-bottleneck-is-no-longer-code-qxqgvlbgm) · The Next Web · 5 upvotes · 1 comments - [AI Is Already Better at Coding Than Most Software Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-already-better-at-coding-than-most-software-developers-vivynmbng) · DEV · 194 upvotes · 53 comments --- Tags: [#react](https://daily.dev/tags/react), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A hell of a time to be a builder","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt"},"datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:49:45.440Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:55:42.017Z","description":"A personal essay adapted from a conference talk at App.js 2026, arguing that AI tools are not eliminating developers but giving them unprecedented leverage and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/11ddaf1535cf78b5c2baa74a8eb1ebf9?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/11ddaf1535cf78b5c2baa74a8eb1ebf9?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Expo Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Expo Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--E7LK6L3y--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774179051/logos/expo-blog?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog"},"commentCount":12,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":41},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}],"keywords":"react,productivity,ai-coding","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Expo Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A hell of a time to be a builder"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-hell-of-a-time-to-be-a-builder-hk9egmeyt","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"“And as the mechanical parts get cheaper, the human parts get more valuable.”\n\nI don’t know why but this article needs more upvotes on this platform. You discussed your points so elegantly. I am most fascinated by how well you captured the quote above. If its easier to ship code, then we should upgrade our human-skills more to elevate our products even further. We got more time now, we got free mentors in the form of AI.\nThe bottleneck moved and it all comes down to you.","datePublished":"2026-07-09T15:19:49.262Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hK9egMEYT#c-DWwK4R7LN","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elmar Chavez","url":"https://daily.dev/elmarchavez","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--7PjH979T--/f_auto/v1780994221/avatars/avatar_bK85rJb2OXXID2LX2wi5y?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m bullish on this mindset ever since coding agents got hyped. Most engineers just take it the wrong way, since they were so used to their routine and now it’s nowhere close to that. “Good engineer” is also changing and that scares many engineers who are good in writing code but had less ambitious or business/product understanding","datePublished":"2026-07-10T07:36:57.145Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hK9egMEYT#c-8UVqBKDy9","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ido Shamun","url":"https://daily.dev/idoshamun","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---xy_OAwk--/f_auto,q_auto/v1703781380/avatars/avatar_28849d86070e4c099c877ab6837c61f0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The line about ambition becoming the bottleneck hits hard. AI does not remove taste or judgment; it just makes it painfully obvious when those are the missing pieces.","datePublished":"2026-07-11T03:14:56.093Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hK9egMEYT#c-iMab4ZOtJ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jenuel Oras Ganawed","url":"https://daily.dev/jenueldev","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BadmiNyj--/f_auto/v1787625077/avatars/avatar_JJtZr4Sjm?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"first of all, who said Shakespeare died, nu uh, here’s the proof. Omg that writing style is so good.\nand the the fact now knolege amongst developers is not the most needed thing, but willpower. Willpower to keep the project maintained.","datePublished":"2026-07-13T06:19:54.299Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hK9egMEYT#c-Wdsrrldwt","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Starfall :D","url":"https://daily.dev/starfallcodes","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--4xoTqFbk--/f_auto/v1786806197/avatars/avatar_ecPDW57nUVRidLxwsxruz?_a=BAMAMicg0"}}]} ```