Mark Rober uses physics to build things that make millions of people smile. 3Blue1Brown uses code to create animations that make complex math feel intuitive. Neither of them would describe themselves as "software people" — but both use software beautifully.
I envy that. Not the success, but the relationship they have with software. It's a means, not an end. A tool in service of something they actually care about.
Somewhere along the way, a lot of us — myself included — made software the whole point. We optimized for frameworks, chased stack trends, and measured ourselves by the code we shipped. But code that doesn't serve a deeper interest or solve a real problem is just… code.
Steve Jobs called the computer a bicycle for the mind. Not the road. Not the destination. A vehicle that amplifies what you already want to do.
AI is making this shift more real than ever. The barrier to building software is dropping fast, which means the differentiator is no longer can you code — it's what do you want to use it for?
That question is uncomfortable for people who've only ever identified as software engineers. Layoffs are hitting hard, and the ones struggling most are those without a second dimension — no side projects, no cross-domain curiosity, no answer to "what would you build if the code was the easy part?"
The opportunity now is to find that other thing. The interest, the problem, the craft that software can serve. Because the people who thrive next won't be the best coders. They'll be the ones who know what to build.