Were we blue-collar workers all along? - Peter Bryant
Short summary
The author argues software engineers have always been blue-collar skilled workers, not white-collar professionals, and their current anxiety about AI reflects the same technological disruption other trades have weathered for centuries. The shift means developers lose their special status in companies but can adapt by mastering new tools, just as carpenters learned to use power tools.
- Software development is fundamentally a skilled trade like plumbing or carpentry—making and fixing things—except in code rather than physical materials, and should be categorized as blue-collar work.
- Blue-collar workers historically adapt better to technological disruption than white-collar workers because they're accustomed to tools changing; developers' panic about AI suggests they've misunderstood their own position.
- The "honeymoon period" for software engineers—30 years of inflated salaries, protected time, and outsized company influence—is ending as AI commoditizes their labor, but those who learn to use new tools will survive, similar to how lumberjacks adopted chainsaws.
Full summary
The author argues that software engineers have always been blue-collar workers, just operating in the digital realm instead of the physical one. The traditional split between white-collar (office, knowledge work) and blue-collar (manual labor, skilled trades) doesn't actually apply to programming. Developers make and fix things—code instead of plumbing or electrical systems—and like electricians or carpenters, they require years of practice to master their craft. This isn't a demotion; if anything, framing development as skilled tradework gives the profession more credit than treating it as some abstract knowledge job.
The reason this distinction matters is that it reframes how developers should think about AI and automation. Blue-collar workers have historically adapted when technology disrupted their fields—a carpenter who learned to use power tools stayed employed. White-collar workers, by contrast, tend to face the most economic upheaval from major technological shifts. Software engineers are panicking about AI because they've been operating under the false assumption that they're in the white-collar category, which supposedly insulates them from automation. In reality, they're discovering what plumbers and electricians already know: your skills can become commoditized, and you either learn the new tools or get left behind.
The author sees this as the end of software engineering's 30-year honeymoon period, where developers commanded premium salaries, protected time, and unquestioned authority over technical decisions. That era is closing. But there's a path forward: developers who learn to use AI effectively—treating it like a chainsaw or a loom rather than a replacement—will adapt just fine. Some people still sew by hand and chop wood by hand because they enjoy it, even if it's no longer lucrative work. The same will likely be true for coding.