I’m going to set up a stall and let you know that I’m still an AI skeptic. Well, I still often put it in quotation marks when I talk about “AI”. But I’m a skeptic about the present, not the future. I can’t say I’m positive or excited about where AI is going, but I think in development circles I’m not convinced that AI will penetrate more deeply into our work. It’s inevitable.
We joke in the industry that the recommendations provided by AI are often terrible, but they get better over time. A good basis for that theory is how quickly generative AI has improved in image and video generation. Sure, generated images still have that “shrink-wrapped” look, and generated images of people still have extra…erm…limbs, but over the past 12 months… But consider how much better the AI images generated have been.
In some cases, VC money across the industry appears to be invested exclusively in AI. Combine this with the ever-turbulent technology hiring landscape, with large-scale layoffs, and even a skeptic like me wonders how our jobs as developers will be affected. You can see the writing on the wall as to who will take it.
The biggest risk factor I can foresee is that if writing code is your only responsibility, your job will almost certainly be at risk. I don’t think this is an immediate risk in many cases, but as generative AI improves code output, as is the case with images and videos, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a redundant risk for real human developers. is. .
Do you think this is correct? Absolutely not. Do you think it’s time to panic? Not yet, but I think there’s a lot of value in evolving your skillset beyond writing code. I especially see value in improving soft skills.
What are soft skills?
It’s best to think of soft skills as life skills. Soft skills include:
Communicating with others, organizing ourselves and others, making decisions, and adapting to difficult situations.
I’m a big believer in soft skills, so I call them core skills. In the remainder of this article, we will refer to them as core skills to emphasize their importance.
The path to becoming a truly great developer is about more than just coding. At the end of the day, it comes down to how you approach everything else: communicating, giving and receiving feedback, finding practical solutions, planning, and even thinking like a web developer.
I’ve been using CSS for over 15 years now, and its capabilities have changed a lot. What hasn’t changed, however, are the core skills (often referred to as “soft skills”) needed to advance to the next level. I’ve spent the better part of 15 years as a consultant helping organizations, both global corporations and small startups, write better CSS. In almost every case, improving the organization’s core skills was the key difference.
The main reason for this is that, in many cases, the organizations I worked with have pushed themselves into a corner. They did it because they barreled through Jira ticket after Jira ticket instead of taking a step back and asking themselves, “Is our approach actually working?” By focusing on their team’s core skills, we were often, and very quickly, able to identify problem areas and come up with working solutions that were rarely available in development solutions. Instead, these solutions were:
Improve communication and collaboration between design and development teams Reduce design “handoffs” and instead make web-based output a source of truth Proceed slowly and methodically Proceed quickly Improve developer and designer interaction Before any production work begins, we are replacing the idea of ”getting things done” by taking a step back to thoroughly assess the problem and come up with simpler solutions that work collaboratively and on behalf of others. Change to develop.
Does improving your core skills actually help?
One thing that AI cannot do, and (hopefully) never can do, is be human. Because the way we communicate is uniquely human, core skills, especially communication skills, are very difficult for AI to successfully replicate.
I’ve been in this job for a long time, and what has certainly pushed my career forward is the fact that I’ve always been versatile. Having a multifaceted skillset, like in my case, learning CSS and HTML to improve your design work, can only benefit you. It also opens up other opportunities for you, which is especially important in the current climate of the technology industry.
If you’re wondering how to start improving your core skills, I can help. This year, I created a course called Complete CSS, which is actually a core skills course that uses CSS as a context, so it’s a little bit intimidating. As a bonus, you’ll also learn some ironclad CSS skills in addition to these core skills. If you’re interested in developing your core skills, it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you receive a training budget from your employer.
summary
The main message I want to convey is that developing core skills is just as important, if not more important, than staying up to date with the latest CSS and JavaScript. It may be uncomfortable for you to do so, but trust me, being able to set yourself apart from the AI is a good thing, and improving your core skills will do just that. This is a surefire way.
