A gentle nudge for my future self: if you ever code less or feel your skills slipping, remember why you started.
It all began with my first line of code.
I was 11 years old. The moment sparked a journey I'll always be grateful for. It's given me a fulfilling career where I hand-crafted serious VC-backed ventures and fun side projects, connected with incredible peers and internet-friends, and earned the privilege of financial stability. Coding was the one thing that kept me up late at night and got me out of bed, even when I was running on empty.
I lost my edge.
Over the past 5 years, this passion faded. Life got in the way: less time, the pandemic, London's endless distractions, managerial work, a circle dominated by product-management-y big-tech-y folks, and endless excuses. I stopped coding for the joy of it. Naturally, I tinkered less, operated at a lower learning rate, and felt less like a 'builder'.
Like a lot of people who were into coding in their 20s, I gradually grew less capable over time as I grew into managerial roles... — @sriramk
I'm sooo back.
Over the last 12 months, I turned this around. I’ve spent weekends and evenings rediscovering my love for coding—building fun projects, sharpening my skills, and hanging out with builders outside my usual circles. I’m back, and it feels incredible.
I owe this comeback to two things:
Thank you, LLMs. I'm unstuck.
Looking back, it wasn't just about time or priorities. It was the inertia: the cold start, the boilerplate, deployment headaches, juggling full-stack syntax—all the grunt work before getting to the fun stuff.
Enter LLMs and Coding Assistants - Copilot, Claude, Gemini, Cursor. Everything changed.
AI won’t replace programmers, but rather make it easier for programmers to replace everyone else. — @naval
Now I can code more in less time. I can procrastinate and still code. Even during a busy week, I can squeeze in coding. I learn on the fly, without a book. I'm no longer stuck waiting for Stack Overflow replies or IRC wisdom. My only blocker is me, and switching tabs to an LLM.
Thank you, Xitter.
I've been following indie builders obsessively. Their energy and knowledge inspire me. They've raised the bar for what a single person can achieve. They've made me feel both inadequate and incredibly motivated. It's envy in the best way—the kind that pushes you to be the best one-person version of yourself.
So, why code, even when you don't have to?
- I love building. It's my low-stake way to feel good about creating something.
- Coding is high-leverage: it compounds my learnings, sharpens my skills, and makes me better at everything else.
- It improves focus. It's the only time I'm 110% heads-down and immersed.
- It's my way of contributing to the internet.
There are more reasons, but these will do for now.
Until then, thanks for coding.