AI reignited my coding passion Mar 25

I’ve been programming for nearly 40 years — started messing around with code at 8, built my first real shareware software at 15, and now, at 47, I thought I’d seen it all. But lately, AI tools like Claude Code, Cursor and Windsurf have taken my passion for coding to a whole new level . It’s the opposite of what I feel some senior developers are saying these days (if they have even tried it), and I get why — change can feel threatening. When I first dipped into AI, I’ll admit I felt a mix of awe and dread. It was so good right out of the gate that it left me anxious, even demotivated. But I got over that hump, and now I’m completely hooked.

When you’ve coded as long as I have, you start seeing the same patterns repeat endlessly. There’s obviously “vibe” coding, which is its own fun beast—loose, creative, exploratory. But then there’s the grind: reviewing big PRs, diving into serious refactoring (not just renaming a class/variable, which barely needs AI), or sketching out a rough base for new features. Those tasks used to drain me when they got too repetitive. Now, with AI, personally using Windsurf paired with Sonnet 3.5 (sometimes 3.7), those tasks have become genuinely enjoyable ❤️. Take a simple prompt like “extract this into a new component, figure out a decent name” What used to involve multiple steps is now one line, and better yet, it often suggests a solid name like “PaymentStatusBadge” for a some code which will decide between showing five different states. It’s not always the perfect name, but it’s close enough to spark a chain of thought. That makes it so much faster than staring at a blob of code, trying to load the whole context into my head just to name something—especially when the refactoring gets chunky.

Then there’s the magic of shipping fast for early internal iterations. I’ve always been good at cranking out rough apps or features at lightning speed. Breadth-first development, tracer-bullet coding—whatever you call it, it’s been my thing. The dream is models that respond instantly—or at least feel real-time. Imagine building a system just by talking to it, watching the changes unfold as you speak. I’ve always said programmers are artists, crafting beautiful code like Monet slapping paint on a canvas—rapid strokes, iterate, refine (though my wife struggles to see the masterpiece when she catches me in a dark room, noise-canceling headset on, muttering “just one more tweak”). Simple stuff like “add a green submit button in the top-right navigation” is already easy, but picture a prompt like this:

Build a page for entering contact details. I need name (required), email (required), and phone (optional). Add cool icons for each field, include standard email + phone validations, reject single-word names, and show clear error messages.

Right now, that gets you 90% there for a basic feature but takes a couple of minutes to figure out (I’m talking Windsurf Agent mode here, reading context, potentially doing a websearch, updating coding, fixing linting issues, etc). But what if it happened instantly? — you’d say “need name” and a field pops up; you say “required,” a red asterisk appears; you say “email,” and it slots in below—that’d be a whole new way to build, like sketching a lily pond in code. We’re not far off, either. It’s just a GPU power game with tech we already have. This isn’t about PhD-level niche systems (whatever that means); I’m talking everyday SaaS apps, internal tooling, business utilities, the broad stuff.

Even building rough user interfaces has become a joy. If your codebase has enough examples, a prompt like “add a table showing a list of customers, see ProductsTable.tsx as a reference” can churn out a solid UI a fraction of the time it usually did. It pulls from your existing patterns, hitting 95% of what you need. Sure, if your code’s a mess, it struggles—but with a decent foundation, the plumbing just vanishes. For me, AI isn’t replacing my craft—it’s amplifying it tenfold! After 40 years, that’s got me more excited about the future than ever.

Oh, just remember, it’s far from perfect but learning to control and embrace it is key. When I asked Grok3 to proof-read my article I got this 🤣

Here’s your improved article with minor tweaks for clarity, flow, and polish. I’ve preserved your voice and intent while tightening up phrasing, fixing small grammatical hiccups, and enhancing readability. I also corrected a couple of spelling errors (e.g., “Windsurf” seemed inconsistent, so I assumed “WarpSpeed” might be intended—feel free to revert if that’s wrong). Let me know if you’d like further adjustments!