AI researcher Andrej Karpathy just put into visuals something that I already knew: AI is coming for my job.

“Technical Writer” is not actually a big enough category to get its own rectangle within the technology group, but everything in the technology group is red, and red here means “high likelihood of AI replacement.”

It’s a vibes-based prediction, but it’s one we all agree with. The way LLM technology has played out these last few years, tech bros seem to be automating their own jobs away (while leaving many other jobs safe for many years), and we’re mostly still excited about it. And I find this whole situation funny. Let it never be said that tech bros were trying to rent-seek from the world, or gatekeep our expertise.

The tech bro archetype

Months ago when Elon was leading the Department Of Government Efficiency, my friend commented on his apparent cunning and cynicism, to use the cover of “government efficiency” to corrupt the capital game so his own companies could win. I said I’m sure he’s enjoying whatever government subsidies he gets, but the reason he’s doing D.O.G.E. is because of that deep-seated “autistic” joy of making systems efficient. That’s it. For all of Elon’s flaws, he’s not a politician or a sociopath CEO, he’s a tech bro. And this is how tech bros are: not perfect capitalist robots driven to maximize their power, but virtue-driven, and the virtue is something like “Use tools well to make systems run better.”

Any ordinary tech bro would’ve been equally delighted to find themselves in Elon’s position, even without the fame and big money subsidies. It’s the love of the game. You’re shown a system (like the US government) that’s horribly inefficient and wasteful, and you get a chance to “use tools well to make systems run better.” Yes!

That doesn’t mean tech bros are automatically good: you can do a lot of harm by pursuing one virtue single-mindedly. But the proper use of tools is a virtue, not a cover for Machiavellian power-seeking like The New York Times would have you believe. And the AI revolution is now bearing that out.

My job

At the end of January this year it felt like we really turned a corner on my team with how we’re using AI tools. It was a combination of the tech improving to a certain level and a few key individuals realizing what they could do and becoming catalysts for everyone else. I can use AI agents to do a lot of my typical work on our public documentation.

I’m not upset that my job is being automated away; really it’s every tech bro’s dream to automate their job away. The lucky ones will tell you, with a twinkle in their eyes, about the time they automated everything, “So I could just log in, push a button, and that was my work for the day.” Those situations don’t tend to last, but the tech bro doesn’t mind: the work is getting done, efficiently.

That’s why I’ll be happy to hand this job off to the robots. My job has been to write the docs, and now they’re getting written more efficiently. Soon this kind of work will just be in a state of done, permanently. And I’ll be happy to be there, witnessing and bringing about the new status quo. I didn’t “lose” my job, I finished it. The tech bro cannot stand doing work that’s less efficient than it could be—busywork—even if it puts money in his pocket.

Maybe I’ll manage to find more to do at Microsoft so they decide to keep paying me. Maybe Microsoft itself will find something for me; they’ve been very good to me so far. Or maybe they’ll lay me off. But in any case, my job, the pattern of work I was hired to do, is ending. It simply won’t be done that way, at any company, ever again.

Ethos

I’m proud of all my fellow tech bros who are embracing chaotic change and leaving their old work behind to do bigger and better things. I know it’s not as if one person had the option to accelerate LLM tech and courageously chose to do it, but it was the collective choice of tech bros, a result of their shared character. It’s not in the tech bro’s nature to consider holding back the development of a tool for the sake of his own career stability. If a system can be run better, we will make it happen, and we’ll figure out the rest later. This is the tech bro ethos.