THE 4 STAGES OF AI TAKEOVER — WHERE DO WE, AS DEVELOPERS, FIT IN?
Hey Papafam 👋 I just read an awesome reflection on how AI is changing the value of skills especially for us developers. One framework that really stood out to me is TYLER COWEN’S 4-STAGE MODEL OF HUMAN-AI EVOLUTION, originally inspired by chess. I’ve put a developer spin on it: 1. HUMANS > AI Early days of AI in dev. AI writes buggy React code or hallucinates Python syntax. But it’s fast, cheap, and GOOD ENOUGH for boilerplate tasks. Companies start using AI workflows to replace junior devs. Sound familiar? 2. ELITE HUMANS > AI > NON-ELITE HUMANS Top engineers still beat AI on complex tasks, architecture, debugging distributed systems, making tricky trade-offs. But mid-level devs? AI now outperforms them on speed, test coverage, and cleaner commits. This is WHERE some work ARE NOW. 3. CENTAUR MODE: HUMAN + AI > AI ALONE The sweet spot. You’re not just coding you’re ORCHESTRATING. Prompting, validating, curating, iterating. You know WHEN AI LIES, HOW TO BYPASS ITS LIMITS, and WHICH AI TOOL IS RIGHT FOR EACH TASK. Think: DevOps, but for AI teams. This is where MOST OF US are 4. AI > HUMAN + AI The future “black box.” AI designs, deploys, monitors, and improves everything without human input. You’re no longer coding or prompting, but MANAGING OUTCOMES. Or maybe you’re doing something entirely new. QUESTIONS FOR THE PAPAFAM: - Which stage do you think will last the longest? - Is CENTAUR DEV our new career peak, or just a stepping stone? - What skill should we RIGHT NOW double down on to stay ahead? Peace PAPAFAM 🔥