AI and Creativity

AI has enabled me to be more creative. I consider this a win. Early in my career, when I was still a software engineer, my focus was improving my craft. My goal was not to change the world or have an impact, but to write good, clean, well-designed code.

Now that I am very senior, my focus has shifted. My passion has shifted to building things that interest me and solving problems. The challenge was never finding problems or finding interesting things. I can spend a lifetime learning about encryption or security architecture. The challenge was finding time to build solutions to those problems. I believe this is where AI has benefited my career the most.

In the past, I found a solution and would spend weeks or months implementing it. Projects would get started and reach 75% completion before the next shiny research topic appeared. The increase in development speed and the structure provided by tools like lode/speckit have enabled me to iterate on my ideas more quickly and see the output before the inevitable boredom sets in.

While this may not lead to any grand contributions to science or technology, it has led to a more rewarding learning experience and greater personal growth.