I'm Done
Jeffrey Way declares he's done lamenting AI's disruption to coding—after experiencing layoffs at Laracasts due to AI, he's found more joy programming than ever by embracing agents as pair programmers while maintaining code ownership.
Context
Jeffrey Way, founder of Laracasts, shares a candid reflection on how AI has simultaneously devastated his business model (teaching people to write code) and revitalized his personal enjoyment of programming. December 2025 marked a turning point—he watched the developer community collectively realize how capable AI coding had become.
Key Takeaways
AI is both devastating and liberating. Laracasts cut 40% of staff due to declining demand for traditional coding education. Meanwhile, Jeffrey is having more fun programming than ever in his career. The contradiction captures the current moment perfectly.
Stack Overflow's collapse is the canary. Their traffic has fallen to first-month-of-existence levels. When was the last time you waited 24 hours for a human to answer a programming question? The interaction model is antiquated.
Developer-driven AI, not vibe coding. Jeffrey follows a specific workflow: make a plan, interview the agent using "ask user question" tools, let it execute, then proof every file. Features that would take weeks ship in a day—but he spends the rest of that day reviewing code, questioning decisions, and refactoring the agent's overengineered solutions.
The puzzle hasn't disappeared—it transformed. Early 2025 felt like losing the problem-solving joy that drew him to programming. Now he sees it differently: the puzzle shifted from writing if-statements to orchestrating agents and maintaining code quality.
"It is what it is" as survival philosophy. You can mourn line-by-line coding, but fighting this trend means watching others fly past you. The only pathway is through.
The Workflow
Jeffrey describes what he calls "developer-driven AI":
- Create a detailed plan
- Have the agent interview him about edge cases he missed
- Let the agent execute (often 20 minutes for what would take weeks)
- Proof every single file—because vibe-coded JavaScript tends toward 200-line solutions for problems with 5-line answers
- Refactor and question: "Do we need five files? This could be one."
Notable Quotes
"My business model is teaching you how to write code, and agentic coding says you don't need to write line by line anymore. Very much devastating to my business model."
"I'm no longer drained at the end of the day. All of those little bugs that chopped out half my day now chop out 5 minutes."
"I've never had more fun programming than I'm having right now."
"You can vibe code all you want, but when I try it—it will work, but there's so many issues."
Connections
- ai-codes-better-than-me-now-what — Lee Robinson reaches similar conclusions: AI handles most coding now, so developers must become generalists who own taste and product thinking
- dont-outsource-your-thinking-claude-code — The proof-every-file workflow Jeffrey describes aligns with this article's central argument: retain ownership of critical thinking while delegating implementation