Why AI Is So Divisive for Developers

Hey guys. So, if you saw my last video, you know that I I kind of went rant mode over a comment that I felt was a little distasteful and just plain false. And since then, the person that made that comment actually apologized and admitted that it didn't have full context, which is huge by internet standards because most people would double and triple down and be more toxic. I was also reminded of what a cool and supportive community I have. But there were more toxic comments on that Vibe Code opinion video than I've ever had in my history of YouTube. And that's what led me to what I actually want to talk about today. And that is how divisive the tech community has become over AI. And this is not a video where I'm going to take a side. I'll I'll talk about both sides as well as the the reasons why I think it's become a little bit like talking about politics. All right. So, I made what I think is a completely reasonable video, but because the title had the words vibe coding in it, I actually lost subscribers, people who have probably been subscribed for years. And even if I had said vibe coding is great, which I definitely did not say, and especially if you don't have any experience as a developer, that would be just a single opinion on a single topic. And it offended people so much that they actually unsubscribed. And the reason I bring that up is because that's not really a normal reaction to a tech topic. That's something else. And tech has always been uh you know, it's always been pretty toxic and we have disagreements. We have framework wars, language wars, tabs versus spaces, stupid like that. But this feels different than you know, spelt versus react. So something about AI specifically is breaking people's brains in a way that I've never seen in the industry. And it honestly reminds me of politics, specifically US politics, because that's really all I know. Um, where everyone's at each other's throats over everything. And you disagree with me, you're my enemy. And I hate that more than anything. I actually see it in my own family all the time. And there's no middle ground anymore. You either love it or you hate it. And if you try to sit in the middle and say, you know, both sides may have a point, you're labeled the enemy. That's the same energy that that I'm getting from AI conversations now. You're either an AI bro or you're a doomer. So, pick a team or get shouted at. So, why is this happening? Why this topic? I think it's a few things layered on top of each other. So, first off, the the stakes are actually pretty high. You know, some of the anti- AI anger is legitimate. It's legitimate fear about real things. And there's junior developers out there right now watching a job market dry up and they're wondering if the career that they've been studying for is even going to exist in in 5 years, in two years. and the whole junior dev role is is pretty much gone. And that's not paranoia. That's what's happening. So when they hear an influencer talking about AI tools, they're not hearing, you know, a tech demo. They're hearing your career is over. And anyone would react strongly to that if that's how they felt. Then you got people who, you know, have been writing code for 20 years, watching some kid who doesn't know what a closure is build a working app in in a weekend vibe coding. and whether or not that code is actually any good. It kind of stings a little and it feels like the rules of the craft that you spent your life on are being thrown out. And anger is the the natural reaction to that. Overall, I mean, the bigger picture of AI. I just watched a video the other day. It was like 12 possible outcomes of AI and they literally talked about machines ruling over us and having human zoos. I I don't think anything's off the table. nobody actually knows what this thing is going to be in 10, 20 years. And that kind of uncertainty, it makes people lash out. And it's easier to just hate something than to just really sit with the fact that none of us really know Now, on the other side, there's a whole world of stuff happening that doesn't get talked about enough. And there's devs out there that are building projects now that they couldn't have built before. You know, they they might have had an an app idea for 10 years, but they just didn't have the time to build it. single parents in their basement at 11 PM finally make the app that they've been thinking about and people in other countries no boot camps, no mentors, no opportunities. They now have a senior engineer as a co-pilot, not a pilot. There's a difference. I think a a developer using AI to ship faster is not the same thing as a non-developer prompting their way into a broken app. I think people just keep conflating those two and it just muddies the conversation. Now, for people who already know what they're doing, I think AI is a a force multiplier. You know, the the the good senior developers, they're not being replaced. They're shipping more ambitious stuff than ever. And I've always been an entrepreneur more than, you know, someone that wants to work at a company. And I think that AI gives more power to the individual to create faster. And honestly, I don't know about you, but I hate boilerplate. I hate writing the same code over and over. That's the stuff that AI is fantastic for. I want to write the parts that actually make me think. The logic, the architecture, the parts that are actually solving a problem. And that's why I got into this. I didn't fall in love with coding so I could write the same damn div structure, you know, 10,000 times. But what I think is making all this worse is the influencers on both sides. You got the AI bros, the business niche guys telling you that you can build a billion-doll company with Vibe coding, which we all know is And you have the doom and gloom. AI is ruining everything, guys. Screaming the opposite. And most of those people on both sides, they don't believe everything they say, right? They they do it for views. Just like politicians don't believe everything they say. They do it for votes. And what gets me is I know for a fact that some of these influencers you watch that are constantly just on AI daily are using it themselves and vibe coding at that. Not testing, not writing spec files, not reviewing their code. These are the same people that, you know, look at everyone's project and call it AI slop without even looking at it and they grift off that frustration. And the people watching them, they eat it up because it confirms what they already feel. It confirms that fear. That's the whole loop. You know, frustration becomes content. Content fuels more frustration and nobody ends up any closer to thinking about this stuff clearly. I could easily play that game. A good chunk of my audience would probably love it. In fact, I've said plenty of negative things about AI and and people do love it. But the way that I grew up and the people I grew up with, your word and your loyalty and just being a solid guy, it just means something. So, that's wired into me. I'm I'm going to say what I think regardless of if it loses me subscribers. Um, because the alternative is just being a grifter, which I that's not what I want to do for a living. So, here's where I land. AI is not a fad. If you think it is, then you haven't been paying attention for the last two years. And I would say two things are objectively true. You have to know fundamentals to use AI well. And you have to learn to work with AI if you want to be successful as a software developer going forward. Both of those can be true at the same time. I think most of this divisiveness isn't because one side is right and one side's wrong. It's because nobody on either side is allowed to hold both ideas at once anymore. You have to pick a tribe. And I'm I'm not I'm just not going to do that. You know, I've I've always made videos about what's hot in the industry, which obviously right now is AI tools. I also make videos on what I actually use and enjoy. And I've been getting really into not just AI tools, but I've been getting into like networking and upgrading my home lab, which I do use a lot of AI tools on, not coding per se, but Hermes agents with paperclip to do anything from CIS admin tasks to organizing my finances. You know, I have a bunch of equipment on the way. And I want to actually make some videos showing you guys my setup and how you can replicate some of this stuff. So, I I'll keep making videos on things that I'm passionate about and what I'm doing in my life. And that includes coding tutorials, AI tools, other industry topics. And I, like I said, I'd also like to do some networking and and hardware stuff. So, let me know if that's something you'd be interested in. But yeah, I just wanted to kind of make this video to just kind of wrap up the the past week or so, the things that happened, the videos that I made, and just my take on this whole divisive AI topic.