--- title: AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy | daily.dev description: A developer reflects on how pressure to adopt AI tools threatened the joy they found in writing code. After stepping back, they reframe their role around three... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/vqwneq1gd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy | daily.dev og:description: A developer reflects on how pressure to adopt AI tools threatened the joy they found in writing code. After stepping back, they reframe their role around three... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/vqwneq1gd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vQwneQ1GD.png og:image:alt: Post cover image 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. # AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy **[Fabian Letsch](https://daily.dev/sources/v7balm8y0o32yjz1hhf5a)** · [@fabianletsch](https://daily.dev/fabianletsch) · 107 upvotes · 14 comments ## Summary A developer reflects on how pressure to adopt AI tools threatened the joy they found in writing code. After stepping back, they reframe their role around three new sources of satisfaction: solving real problems for real people, mastering AI craftsmanship (prompting, context-setting, constraints), and owning quality by catching AI mistakes through planning and code review. The conclusion is that meaningful work didn't disappear—it shifted from writing code to building product outcomes. ## 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. **@ricktonoli** · 12 upvotes > I stumbled across this a few weeks ago, changed my whole outlook on AI: [Outcome Engineering](https://o16g.com/manifesto/) > > Once you switch your mindset from "writing code" to "producing great outcomes" you see the arrival of AI in a whole new light. **@elmarchavez** · 2 upvotes > > "**People Don’t Pay for Code. They Pay for Outcomes."** > > > This is actually a good way to put it. AI just gives us code but never the novelty of thinking for a solution for a modern problem. That task is still up to us developers. **@confidentcoding** · 2 upvotes > I resonate with this. I think the term "vibe coding" is ready to go away finally, but I definitely think AI assisted coding has brought me more joy, because I've learned that they are essentially "delegation tools", and being able to delegate work to "someone else" has been invaluable. It also has taught me that the skill of [troubleshooting and debugging](https://confident-coding.com/) is going to be increasingly ever more important as time goes by. These tools can assist with that, too, but its a mindset, and one that compliments the flowstate of AI coding quite well. **@a\_meb\_a** · 1 upvotes > Q&A people, that's the end of all of this... **@troikas** · 1 upvotes > Yes, but in this way we teach the machine to write correct and good code. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Something About Coding Stopped Feeling Good — and It Took Me a While to Figure Out What](https://daily.dev/posts/something-about-coding-stopped-feeling-good-and-it-took-me-a-while-to-figure-out-what-3i9mrgkxo) · DEV · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI is slowly munching away my passion](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-slowly-munching-away-my-passion-ny3obiud2) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [You had a story](https://daily.dev/posts/you-had-a-story-aluw9sjxe) · Read the Tea Leaves · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I miss thinking hard.](https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/vqwneq1gd) ```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":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/vqwneq1gd","headline":"AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy","text":"Shared: AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vqwneq1gd","datePublished":"2026-03-02T00:22:11.701Z","dateModified":"2026-10-15T02:22:19.557Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Fabian Letsch","url":"https://daily.dev/fabianletsch","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKR6BVy_wn23EoOKq7-BlszlcXcLmASlnb7l-GtS-q1bePnkaJf=s96-c","description":"Hey, i'm Fabian and I deeply care about helping devs ship more code with less bugs in less time! 🔥","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":50270}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--58gMhC4P--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2012","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":107},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":14}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/ZdBGjGKQf"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I stumbled across this a few weeks ago, changed my whole outlook on AI: Outcome Engineering\nOnce you switch your mindset from “writing code” to “producing great outcomes” you see the arrival of AI in a whole new light.","datePublished":"2026-03-02T01:27:12.843Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vQwneQ1GD#c-y2J6J7WsF","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rick Tonoli","url":"https://daily.dev/ricktonoli","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1mKwVOZD--/f_auto/v1745813607/avatars/avatar_54gVqSdbL9DajhGSKNFpY"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":""People Don’t Pay for Code. They Pay for Outcomes."\n\nThis is actually a good way to put it. AI just gives us code but never the novelty of thinking for a solution for a modern problem. That task is still up to us developers.","datePublished":"2026-03-08T10:57:16.159Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vQwneQ1GD#c-7CLuNeI0q","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":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I resonate with this. I think the term “vibe coding” is ready to go away finally, but I definitely think AI assisted coding has brought me more joy, because I’ve learned that they are essentially “delegation tools”, and being able to delegate work to “someone else” has been invaluable. It also has taught me that the skill of troubleshooting and debugging is going to be increasingly ever more important as time goes by. These tools can assist with that, too, but its a mindset, and one that compliments the flowstate of AI coding quite well.","datePublished":"2026-03-05T18:51:35.194Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vQwneQ1GD#c-Hqtmf3BpZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lars Faye | Confident Coding","url":"https://daily.dev/confidentcoding","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OGZu5DEc--/f_auto/v1772569630/avatars/avatar_umWZ9aQAng34qk5aaJl2q?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Q&A people, that’s the end of all of this…","datePublished":"2026-03-05T11:31:56.327Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vQwneQ1GD#c-TKcMMfyGy","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Phillippe Michel Weir","url":"https://daily.dev/a_meb_a","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BwH-uTMq--/f_auto/v1740136991/avatars/avatar_N403VFK9lAHNRwlSAhl1h"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Yes, but in this way we teach the machine to write correct and good code.","datePublished":"2026-03-07T20:49:13.322Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vQwneQ1GD#c-dseQ47SG2","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dimi Aggel","url":"https://daily.dev/troikas","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14Ggi-lMy5u0I_b0mBF2jShtMbjpbg95skpojj6_dpg=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/v7balm8y0o32yjz1hhf5a","name":"Fabian Letsch"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fabian Letsch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/v7balm8y0o32yjz1hhf5a"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AI Made Me Hate My Job… Then I Found New Joy"}]} ```