March 23, 2026
Did AI kill your passion—or rent did?
The machine didn't take your craft. You gave it up
Dev says “AI didn’t steal your job, you sold it” and the internet LOSES IT
TLDR: An opinion piece claims machines and AI don’t “steal” your craft, they just reveal what you truly value, and that blaming the system is a cop-out. The comments explode into a class war, with some defending personal choice and others arguing that when survival’s on the line, “choice” is an illusion.
A fiery essay about a woodworker and his machines just sparked an all–out identity crisis in the developer world, and the comments section turned into a therapy group with knives out. The author argues that tools like AI and modern software don’t take your craft — you choose to drop the hand tools for the shiny machine, so if you stopped loving the work, that’s on you. Cue immediate outrage.
One camp is screaming “This is just rich people philosophy!” and saying workers don’t really have a choice when rent, kids, and medical bills exist. They’re posting memes of a boss holding a chainsaw to someone’s neck saying, “You’re free to refuse the machine, king.” Others cheer the article as a big “grow up” moment, clapping back that blaming the system or “capitalism” for everything is just avoiding personal responsibility.
Drama levels spiked when the piece dragged Karl Marx into it, claiming “alienation” — the idea that work feels empty under capitalism — is basically an excuse to dodge responsibility for your own choices. That set off a full-on Marx vs. Ayn Rand cage match in the replies, complete with book-cover memes and “touch grass” comments. Meanwhile, devs cracked jokes: “I don’t feel alienated, I feel undercaffeinated,” and “If loving my craft is wrong, why do I keep opening Jira?” The real craft on display? The art of arguing on the internet.
Key Points
- •The article uses a narrative about a woodworker and new machines to illustrate how technology changes incentives but does not inherently eliminate a person’s love for their craft.
- •It rejects the idea that tools or market pressures can "reach inside" a person and remove their passion, arguing that adoption of new tools reveals existing priorities and values.
- •The concept of alienation, associated with Karl Marx, is presented as resting on the premise that an individual is not the final authority over their relationship to their work.
- •Marx’s critique of rights in "On the Jewish Question" is cited to argue that he opposed the independent, self-interested individual enabled by capitalism, not just profits or markets.
- •Concerns that developers are being pushed away from coding by tools like large language models are framed as a general human tension between personal enjoyment and market rewards, not a new or system-specific phenomenon.