Ask HN: Is there a term for feeling sad about forced AI adoption?

I’m a Luddite when it comes to this stuff as well. I use it, but mostly just in Ask mode. The agentic stuff I do not like at all. It’s not perfect, and that means I have to troubleshoot and fix it anyway, so I would just assume do it myself so I properly understand what’s going on and can speak to it and be accountable for it. Lucky for me, my management talks about AI a lot, but they’re not over my shoulder hitting my knuckles with a ruler if I write actual code.

I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. I want to see what things look like on the other side of the crash, when people get more realistic about using the things as tools instead of replacements, and get more realistic about their limitations. I’ve seen articles where a reporter with no stated experience created a dashboard for a few different things. While she admitted she wanted to throw her laptop in the ocean, she seemed to gloss over much of the hardship and didn’t mention how long it took to get something working. She also didn’t post a link, so there was no way to gauge how functional it was, beyond a couple screenshots.

My suspicion is that once the hype wears off, maybe anyone can code, but most people won’t want to. Then we’ll have the question of how professional developers best work. WYSIWYG web page editors used to be all the rage… anyone can make a website… but look at what we have now, professional are back to code and people not looking to write code are using very structured web-based platforms.

I’m with you on saving up money to get out, even if it’s just as an insurance policy. That said, I don’t think the collapse of the profession is inevitable just yet.

Smart move to wait for the other side of the crash.

I'll coin a word for it: slopression.

Anyway, I'm a hobby coder and, unlike you, I've really enjoyed AI-assisted development. I was never a strong developer, so coding always took me a long time, and my interest in projects faded quickly that forced me to relearn them from scratch after long breaks. With AI, I can actually finish projects, and my code quality has improved. GPT is a better developer than I am. Example: the first time I had it analyze a personal project, it found over 50 vulnerabilities.

I enjoy learning and understanding how code works, but since AI has largely automated typing code I've since then shifted my focus to higher level topics like software architecture and systems engineering. I am reading the book "designing data intensive applications" right now.

Yeah that's cool to hear in my case I'm forced to use it or get fired kind of thing.

Sometimes, I get bored. Writing code was so much fun. Trying to figure out, how to resolve the issue, and they feel the excitement, the joy when the task is done. This is now gone. I case of issue, ask the AI, tell the AI to write it. Where IS the JOY?! Some people find the joy in making the product that they were not being able to do, because of lack of the needed skills, and this is not bad. :) But for me, with my 20 years experience as back-end Java developer, I sometimes feel this big gap.

AI can produce garbage, it can produce excellent results. As long as you know what you are doing, and provide perfect specification, it can come with results, that you alone can't think of, or they can take a lot of time for 'manual' research and implementation. Some people still find issues, and don't trust, but the topic is big here: what's the model, how good is the specification, what's the used process/workflow, what are the agents, what's the technical background of the person leading the agents. Not that easy to say: AI does not work, why people want to use it after all, when it produces garbage

Life changes, customer demand it. We have no choice, and we need to adapt. Of course, there will be places that code will still be written manually. Banking, military, and other highly confidential areas have no other way to do it.

How did people feel in the beginning of the industry revolution? Have they felt the same way back then ?

Seems to me the issue isn't so much the "AI adoption", it's the "forced". Forced to use a tool even when you don't think it's the best option, even when you think it's going to produce sub-optimal outcomes.

We're being devalued. Our engineering judgment is being devalued. We're being driven toward a cliff by those who know less than we do but think they know more.

If I had to give it a name, I might say: marginalized.

>> If I want to keep my job I need to use it.

So use it. I've been programming for 45 years, and I've found it to be a really useful tool.

I'm still writing code, still doing all the fun stuff, but I'm moving along MUCH faster than before. Mostly because when I get stuck I ask the AI questions. About the code, about the API I'm talking to and so on. In the past I remember spending days finding really obscure bugs, or reading soooo much material to try and figure out that "in this case call A before B, but in that case call A before C.".

To me, it's made programming (the creative) part more fun, while removing the unfun stuff (like bug fixing.)

I'm using "chat" more than agents though - The AI doesn't edit my code directly.

My company doesn't really care how we use it, just as long as we use it to make ourselves faster. "Ignoring" it out of some nostalgia for the past is not helpful from an employer perspective.

I certainly don't miss the pre-internet days (when you sought out programming books, and coded with a reference manual in one hand) or the even the google days where trying to do the right search lead you to some answer you could kinda interpret.

Yeah I use AI from Google search then I type I'm a sample piece of code.

The vibe coding where you have the side panel say copilot integrated into vs code and android...

Idk it's like ego I guess. Anytime somebody presents some app I'm like "wow you made that? Crazy" then it's like "no AI made it" and I'm like oh...

I mean I'm gonna do it since I'm broke and can't quit right now but I am gonna leave eventually. Find another way to make money.

It's not about just making money it's hopefully passion/joy of doing it. I have coworkers gloating like "I only work 10 hours a week since AI codes fo me" which is fine but I also think it's an ends to a means thing. No passion... which again is fine personal choice but not my choice for me.

Yry and separate your sense of self worth from your job. You are not defined by your job.

A job is primarily a way of adding value - you sell your time and get paid.

If your job offers you more than just money that's great. But if you find your satisfaction elsewhere that's better. Jobs can come and go, nothing is guaranteed.

Of course you want to do your job well. Of course you want to be the best version of yourself. But ultimately you are selling your time to your employer, it belongs to them not you.

Personally I love my job. But if it ended tomorrow I'd be OK. My job is part of who I am, but I am more than just my job. I would morn it like a dead relative. But I will exist after my job is done.

The only reason I'm concerned with the job ending is I don't have savings just poor life decisions

It's crazy though what co-pilot is doing in Android Studio, it's going through hardware stuff that's beyond what I can do and I'm just typing in words.

I'm getting the picture, the car still needs a driver.

Yeah I need money so I'll focus on that/do well to keep the job. I can do passion on my own time.

AI Luddism?

It's not about hating the AI. It's about pushing back against our value being stripped away. Never thought We'd actually relate to the industrial workers this way.

Also the replacement of craftsmanship with mass produced lower quality output possible for workers with less training and partial understanding to produce.

Processes are more efficient, machines are faster, workers are easily replaceable. The quality and complexity of the product is limited by these requirements.

>Never thought We'd actually relate to the industrial workers this way.

Programmers were always labor.

A few got wild salaries and perks and deluded themselves into thinking they stood with the elites but as far as their employers were concerned they were no different than assembly line workers or dish washers.

The terms are Zoomer, Bloomer, Gloomer or Doomer.

Personally I'm a bit of an AI Gloomer because I do think it's effectively inevitable, and putting people out of work is not a good thing. People out of work eventually tend to do desperate things. Not a doomer because I don't think it's going to literally end the world.

From my perspective it's not about losing the job, it's that I don't use my brain anymore, I just write words... sure you need some architecture but I don't feel as engaged anymore, like I'm the one shaping the wood vs. a 3D printer making it kind of thing. I was thinking of analogies like driving through a track vs. just teleporting to the end of it... it seems inevitable, companies are about shipping features. That's why yeah from my side I think I will be getting out of it/do it for fun.

That was not my experience. I tell it roughly what I would tell a subordinate developer to do, then make changes to suit my taste. Every line is accounted for, but I spend less time on tedious things like remembering how to parse yaml with python. Same quality, faster.

I am self employed and coding is not my main job though. No one is forcing my hand.

It's funny it's like those horror movies where people are trying to run away from this hive mind that's converting people. Then you see the creature latch on and control the person, their eyes go blank and stare off into space, now everything's fine.

I feel that now ha, I was so against it... now I've tasted it, had it reverse engineer a bluetooth stack... I see the power. I still don't like how I didn't really do anything other than drive it... but yeah. I need to stay in the job for the high pay but still feel the same about loss of joy.

In a few years this[0] is going to be the reaction towards anyone who hasn't fully assimilated their minds and wills to the machines.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUXHB5U-Vl4

(spoilers for the ending of the remake to Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Deep Blue? https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/15/deep-blue/

Oh that's funny, kinda recent too, I try to listen to their podcast, the main guy's speaking can't seem to keep up with his brain

How would you feel for a secretary who refused to use a typewriter or an accountant who didn’t want to use a spreadsheet?

Times change. You’re just sad the times changed for you in a way you didn’t like.

Is it the same thing

It is the same thing

I don't think so, an AI can think for you, a spreadsheet you manually fill in, sure there are calculators you could use, some summing function.

An LLM/agent could drive a spreadsheet

How would you feel about a machinist refusing to use CNC machines and only manually machining parts?

I think that becomes the same argument as high level to assembly

I think it is the same thing. It’s a tool that if you don’t adopt then you’re likely to struggle professionally.

Blinkenlichtdenkmaschinenberufsverlustverzweiflung.

Pretty accurate

The satisfaction and joy of solving things on your own is lost and many feel this way.

Do you actually see your co-workers blowing past you in productivity?

What is driving you to feel this adoption pressure? Is it the actual results other people on your team are producing or just the discussion/hype?

My manager telling me I need to use it. That's the thing, I'm not behind. I know how to code already. It's just that thing of "it can be done faster, we all should use AI". It's not just me, they're rolling out this AI thing that can generate Vue code now and the front end people here some are considering quitting ha. But yeah I've gotten past it, I see the usefulness in rapidly developing prototypes in areas I don't know like I was trying to reverse-engineer the bt stack of some peripheral and was just banging out android apps trying different bluetooth profiles to figure out what commands were being used to drive this thing. I'm not an android developers o that was helpful.

The flip side... if I don't care about something I'll just vibe code it

The app doesn't do this... (AI makes changes) Run again

It's good for POCs in unknown tech territory

I just don't feel good about it

It is funny when you run out of tokens

Yeah I'm dealing with that now where I made this app that's heavy on bluetooth and I don't understand that right now so when I run out of tokens I'm f'd.

What about "said" ("sAId" if it's not obvious enough :-D)?

MeloncholAI

DisenfranchAIsed

AIpathy

Swaillop

Ennui

Socialism