The age of Rock Stars is ending
A 2024 reflection on AI, programming, and the importance of collaboration: code got cheaper, and design, communication and business understanding matter more.
“Jensen Huang: ’ kids shouldn’t learn to code …’” CEO NVIDIA
This phrase might have shocked the unshakeable world of programmers. To be honest, we haven’t seen many significant changes in our field; the demand for developers has always been at its peak.
But this has recently changed.
We are now facing something entirely new. The advent of AI is enhancing developer performance and, in some cases, replacing developers with AI that can identify patterns and fix issues quickly without human intervention.
This can be quite intimidating, not just for developers but for anyone venturing into this new world.
How many years will it take for AI to become more effective at our jobs?
I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that things will never be the same.
But What Do I Know?
It’s the end for “monkey coders.”
When I started 20 years ago, we used to admire those who knew Unix commands or many programming languages “like the back of their hand.” They were the Rock Stars of our world, often behaving as such. They didn’t communicate well or work well with others, but everyone tolerated them because they were “geniuses”.
This is no longer as important. It’s not about the code language anymore. Don’t get me wrong; of course, you need to understand what you are doing and the kind of code you are applying to your application.
What I am saying is “code is cheaper than ever”.
It’s not about typing code quickly on your mechanical keyboard and impressing everyone in the room anymore. ChatGPT or any LLM can do it faster than you.
Now, it’s about understanding the best options for your features, using the right design patterns to improve your application, adhering to code standards to optimize the maintenance of your code, choose the right tech to your project, and most of all knowing how to communicate with your team to move your project forward and with your clients to deliver something truly innovative.
You need to truly understand the business and know how to translate that into your application.
The age of Rock Stars is ending, and a more collaborative and creative environment is beginning to flourish.
Editor’s note (2026): lightly corrected for typos (“NVDIA”, “IA”) and a title that said “(about IA)”. Otherwise this is the July 2024 post as published; the quote attributed to Jensen Huang is reproduced as it appeared there, without a linked source.