I’ve been thinking about how my job has changed over the years.
Earlier in my career, most of my mental energy went into technical decisions. Choosing frameworks, comparing libraries, researching tools, evaluating trade-offs between technologies, figuring out which approach would still make sense two years later. I’d say around 80% of my work was technical and maybe 20% was focused on the product itself.
Today it feels almost reversed.
Most of my time is spent thinking about users, product behavior, safety, evaluation, edge cases, and whether we’re solving the right problem in the first place. The implementation still matters, but AI has significantly reduced the cognitive load of many day-to-day technical decisions. Instead of spending hours comparing libraries or writing boilerplate, I’m reviewing solutions, setting direction, and validating whether the result actually solves the problem.
There are still moments when deep technical work becomes essential. Greenfield projects, new infrastructure, foundational architectural decisions—those still require careful engineering. But they’re exceptions rather than the default.
Looking back, I don’t think engineering has become less technical. I think the center of gravity has shifted. Less effort goes into choosing the right tools, and much more goes into asking the right questions.