These days, as a developer, I find myself with somewhat complicated feelings.
We have entered an era in which AI writes code, designs systems, and even performs all kinds of tasks in place of people. In more than 20 years as a developer, I have lived through countless technological changes, but I think there have been few times like now, when changes in technology make me think about something as deep as the meaning of one person’s life and existence.
I feel the same way watching the recent series of hacking incidents.
Not long ago, a security incident occurred at Railway, a platform many developers use. API keys for AI-related services and all kinds of secret information became targets of the attack, and attacks that use AI are getting faster and more sophisticated. We now live in an era in which we can no longer simply assume that even the development tools, frameworks and cloud services we trust and use are safe.
On the one hand, I marvel at the fact that AI is an amazing tool that extends a developer’s abilities. On the other hand, it is also a little frightening.
I have been developing for more than 20 years. I have solved countless problems, learned new technologies, and wrestled with how to build better systems. But now I see AI catch up in an instant with the knowledge and skills I built up over a long time, or, in some areas, already get work done far faster than I can.
A thought suddenly came to me.
Then what have I been running so hard for all this time?
What meaning will the experience and knowledge I have built up over so many years have from now on?
Could it be that, in the world I have grown used to living in, the place where I exist is slowly getting smaller?
As much as I have pride as a developer and curiosity about new technology, I honestly also feel fear and a sense of alienation in the face of these changes.
But when I think about it quietly, these worries probably do not belong to developers alone.
The faster the world changes, the more we feel that we must constantly prove ourselves. We think we have to know more, move faster, and get ahead of others. Perhaps we run like that our whole lives and end up forgetting what we are actually living for.
Raising children as a parent, I often think that I do not have much to pass on to them.
Perhaps that is why there is something else I often emphasize to my children.
It is about the attitude with which we look at the world, the way we accept a situation, and how we will face what happens to us.
In the same situation, one person despairs while another discovers new possibilities. Facing the same hardship, one person gives up while another finds something to learn in it.
We cannot choose every situation, but I believe we can learn, little by little, how to look at it and how to live through it.
Thinking about this, a scene I once experienced while traveling came back to me.
It is the memory of walking through a park at dawn.
Calm air, quiet streets, a sky slowly growing light. Nothing special happened, and I did not see anything remarkable. Yet that moment was truly good. Even now, when I think of how it felt, my mind is at ease.
A thought suddenly came to me.
The people who live there see that scenery every day, so they might not feel the emotion I felt.
Conversely, the same is true of the path I now walk to work every day at dawn.
The path I always walk, the park I always see, the quiet streets that seem not yet fully awake, and the calm air.
Because I see it every day, I pass by without much thought, but perhaps a traveler visiting for the first time would walk that path and feel how good it is.
In the end, the same scenery becomes a completely different experience depending on the frame of mind in which we look at it.
For the past two or three days I had been suffering from body aches, and then, for the first time in a while, I slept soundly.
And this morning at dawn, I woke up refreshed and walked as usual again.
It was the path I always walk, but today it felt especially good. All that had changed was that my body felt a little more at ease and my mind a little lighter, yet the familiar scenery felt new.
Nothing in particular had changed.
The world had not suddenly become better, and the worries I carry had not been resolved. The advance of AI had not stopped, and my fear of the changes to come had not completely disappeared.
I had simply slept soundly, felt a little better, and walked while breathing in the dawn air.
And yet it was good.
Perhaps this is exactly the kind of happiness we miss as we go about our lives.
Not the happiness of having to gain more, but the happiness we feel when we can see anew the things that are already beside us.
No matter how far AI advances, no matter how much more knowledge we gain, no matter how convenient the world becomes, we still have days to live, one after another.
Days of opening our eyes in the morning, feeling how our bodies are, meeting people, listening to someone’s story, sometimes worrying and sometimes laughing.
Technology can change the way we work. It can also change the meaning of the abilities we have. Perhaps much of what we have considered important until now may no longer be special.
But even amid that change, we are still human.
We are people who feel better breathing good air, who are comforted by a single warm word shared with someone, and who feel grateful simply because our bodies are at ease again after a while.
I will keep learning new technologies, using AI, and working to build better things. Nor do I think the past 20-some years I have lived as a developer were meaningless.
But from now on, I want to treat the question of what kind of person I will be in the midst of it all as just as important as keeping up with the pace of technological progress.
How I live today, rather than how fast the world is changing.
How much joy I can find in what I already have, rather than how much more I have come to have.
And how faithfully I am living my life, rather than how far ahead of others I am.
Perhaps growing older is not about gaining more from the world, but a process of learning, little by little, what truly matters.
This morning, walking the path I always walk, I thought about these things.
Technology will keep advancing, and the world will keep changing quickly. I do not know what change will surprise us tomorrow.
Even so, today I can simply live today as it is.
By breathing good air, taking care of my body, sharing warmth with the people around me, and finding small joys in familiar everyday life.
Because the life we live is, in the end, made of such days gathered one by one.
It is a happy holiday.
I hope that everyone working hard in their own place today can feel a moment of ease, and find small happiness even in an ordinary day.
I hope you all have a happy day. ^^ 😀 😃