It's all over the headlines.
Every so often, someone reveals a model X% faster.
A tech CEO makes bold claims about the future of coding.
The stock market reacts with euphoria. Prices go up.
AI has also brought new buzzwords. Agents, prompts, workflows, integrations...
Pick your battles
FOMO is real.
Almost every week, I find tutorials about MCP, agents, loop engineering...or whatever it's the new trend. I skip most of them. I've chosen my battles to stay sane in the hype cycle.
I'm still figuring out how to adopt AI without losing my skills and identifying the problems it brings.
That's keeping me busy enough.
Some things haven't changed
If you're also experiencing FOMO:
Don't worry. Fundamentals matter more than ever.
Plenty of codebases still suffer from:
- N+1 problems
- Missing pagination
- SQL injection
Most were written before the AI hype. Now imagine the chaos inside vibe-coded codebases.
There's still work ahead before (or if) AI really takes over.
Don't forget about AI. But build real skills first. Then leverage AI—In that order.
To help you build lasting skills beyond the hype, I wrote Street-Smart Coding. The roadmap I wish I had starting out.
