Today is my 54th birthday. Although age is very much a number I find the number of my similarly-aged peers who are still doing coding as their main job to be dwindling.

This is fine -- I discovered a long time ago that being a manager was not for me. Mozilla showed me that there still a path forward for folks who enjoyed solving problems with code -- they called it being an "Individual Contributor".

So, here I am, 28 years into being in the industry, and still going.

I don't think I've ever felt such a strong inflection point as I do today with the panic-driven push being made by many folks to adopt Large Language Model tools to either supplement or outright replace people who do the type of work I do.

I have no idea how any of this is going to shake out. Neither do you. I do know that as I write this I see a bunch of things that lead me to believe that things might not be as bad as many have feared.

I have been using LLM's (mostly Microsoft Copilot) because my employer gives me access for free. I treat them as a code-generation tool to give me the skeleton for things.

Given how crappy search results are, I have not seen any noticeable difference between what Copilot tells me and what I find on various web pages.

I still prefer the official documentation for projects I am using.

I then backfill the code guided by tests. I also use them as a replacement for searching on how to solve coding problems.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. 20 years spent telling people that writing tests is the path towards faster deployments was totally worth it. Vibe-based coding has definite limits and people who have no previous coding experience literally lack the skills to debug and fix the many, many issues that LLM's will introduce into your code.

I continue to make use of the same sets of tools:

• MacOS (always upgrading to the latest stable releases)
• Homebrew for package management
• PhpStorm for my PHP needs
• PyCharm for Python
• NeoVim for everything else (including writing blog posts)
• KinesisAdvantage2 LF keyboard
• Ploopy Trackball
• Apple Studio Display

My day job remains the same in 2025 so far as in 2024 -- working for Ziff Davis Shopping helping to build out their loyalty platform. Lots of honest-to-goodness translating business requirements into code. The team is now 40% of the size it was when I started working there, so the scope of what we are doing has drastically changed.

This hasn't changed in several years. They all work well together for now. I am starting to make some alternate plans to leave the MacOS platform and switch to running some kind of "open hardware" whether it's Framework (I hesitate because they are are American-based and being Canadian in the early part of 2025, I have no desire to give American companies any more money than I have to) or MNT Reform (which appeals to me more because they are not American). I think the biggest issue I have is my beautiful monitor doesn't work well with either of those options. I could be wrong. Let me know!

Getting the rest of my family out of the Apple ecosystem does not seem like a viable path forward. They need consumer-grade devices (phones and tablets) that Just Work. I don't know, could I get us all into the Android ecosystem (replacing iPhones and iPads) and not be constantly supporting them? If you read have some suggestions, let me know.

On a personal level, my health has been a little better in that past 6 months. I have all my stomach issues under control (chronic acid reflux mostly fixed through diet changes and some minor weight loss) with the extra added bonus of enough hearing loss to require hearing aids. I just got them. It has been a very weird experience so far. I am fortunate to have the financial resources to afford them.

My wife commented "it is nice to not have to yell at you in the grocery store". I wasn't ignoring you! I could not actually hear you.

One last change is that I am now writing a column for PHP Architect magazine called "Yelling at Clouds" where I get to (within reason) get to talk about whatever I want. Cranking out a monthly column does not currently feel like a challenge, so I look forward to sharing my thoughts on whatever is bugging me when I sit down in front of my computer to write.

I am, at the time of writing, 1/3 of the way through a new book about testing patterns. At some point in early April I will open up pre-ordering the book on LeanPub and see what I write as I go. I have some new hobbies that I want to pay for and this book will be a big help.

Thanks for taking the time to get this far into the post . Being a non-tech-bro programmer is really hard in 2025. I could've made so much more money with less ethics and a willingness to exploit others. Got to be able to look at myself in the mirror with no regrets.