DRAFT OPEN FOR COMMENTS – Agentic Coding - I Surrender
Agentic AI is changing software engineering. I recognize its importance, but I'm not ready to guide others through the transition.
I’ve struggled for months to make meaningful progress on this blog entry. I’ve tried several approaches, but I haven’t found a narrative that I’m comfortable sharing.
Agentic AI is important. I believe it is already changing software engineering, and I expect that change to continue. I don’t want to ignore it. But recognizing the importance of a subject and being able to tell its story are two different things.
Write what you know. I have decades of experience in software engineering, but I don’t have the practical experience with Agentic AI that I would need to write confidently about how it is changing the way we develop software. And the field is evolving so rapidly that even if I felt qualified to write about its current state, much of what I wrote might be out of date in a few months.
I don’t know what software engineering will look like in the years ahead. I suspect that even those working with Agentic AI professionally are still figuring out what it means for the future of our profession. There is plenty to learn and share, but I’m not the person to guide others through this transition.
So, for now, I’m waving the white flag and moving on.
I’ll continue writing about topics where I feel more qualified, such as Design Patterns. Still, I can’t help wondering how much longer the skills I’ve spent several decades acquiring will retain their value. Sometimes I feel like an expert buggy whip maker in the early days of the automobile.
Even so, I’ll keep writing about what I know. Those topics may help developers direct and evaluate AI agents, or they may preserve some of the knowledge and experience that shaped how we developed software. I don’t know how much their relevance will change, but I believe they’re still worth discussing.
Agentic AI deserves attention. I just have to accept that I’m not the one to tell its story. At least, not yet.