The Software Engineer Who Codes on His Commute to Stay Sharp in the Age of AI
AI tools are writing more code at more companies. Some engineers are quietly going back to basics to make sure they still can.
Key points
- Software engineering ranked among the highest-paying US professions in 2022, before widespread AI adoption began reshaping the field.
- One engineer reports that his job shifted noticeably toward reviewing AI-generated code over the past six months.
- He now writes code by hand on his daily commute, not for work, but to keep skills he fears are fading.
- Engineers across the industry are weighing whether AI tools help them or quietly hollow out their expertise.
Every weekday, a software engineer who goes by Matt boards a train to Pawling, New York, and opens a side project: a browser-based video game he codes entirely himself. Not because his employer asked him to. Because he is worried about what happens if he stops.
"I am actively trying to keep my axe sharp," Matt told The Guardian, asking that his real name not be used to protect his job.
He has good reason to worry. Over the past six months, Matt says his day job has quietly shifted. Less writing code, less solving problems from scratch, less designing how software systems fit together. More reviewing code written by AI, meaning software that a large language model, the same underlying technology behind ChatGPT and Claude, generated automatically. His job went from builder to checker.
That shift troubles him. Skills, like muscles, weaken without use.
"I am trying not to use AI where I can," he said.
Matt is not alone. Software engineering was one of the best-paid professions in the United States in 2022. Then AI coding tools arrived at scale. Layoffs followed at major tech firms. Hiring slowed. Engineers who kept their jobs found their roles changing under them.
The pattern is real, and the numbers back it up. What is harder to measure is what it costs an engineer to spend their days reviewing AI output rather than producing their own.
Is this actually a threat to your career?
Honestly, yes, for some people, and the honest answer depends heavily on your employer and your role. Engineers whose value sits mainly in writing routine code face the clearest pressure. Those who design systems, talk to clients, catch the subtle errors AI tools routinely miss, or explain technical decisions to non-technical colleagues are in a stronger position.
The survivorship bias here is worth naming. The engineers who tell confident stories about thriving alongside AI tools are visible. The ones who quietly left the industry, or never broke in, are not.
Matt's train-commute strategy is low-tech and unglamorous. It is also sensible. He is treating his core skill like a second job, protecting it from the drift he sees happening at work.
If you are in any knowledge-based job watching AI absorb pieces of your role, the lesson is straightforward: find the parts of your work that still require a human to do them well, and do more of those things deliberately, even if no one is asking you to.
That is the honest, doable move here. Not a course, not a certification. Practice, on purpose, before the skill quietly disappears.
