A lot of ink has been spilled on the programmers who got replaced by AI agents. But it doesn’t sound like it’s a whole better for the ones who avoided getting the axe, either.

According to Deedy Das, a partner at the VC firm Menlo Ventures, the rapid embrace of AI tools is tearing companies apart by creating a “class divide” between brainless vibe coders and experienced engineers. The veteran “craftsmen” engineers — the ones who actually care about their profession — are forced to wade through and fix the swamp of terrible AI code that comes their way, leaving them despondently questioning their livelihoods.

“Most software engineers are facing an identity crisis bordering on depression,” Das wrote in a lengthy X post, spotted by Business Insider.

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Some studies have explored this phenomenon. One harbingered the bureaucracy of “workslop” — shoddy AI-generated outputs that lazy workers pass onto their colleagues. This creates the illusion of increased productivity, but in reality needs to be corrected by a fastidious coworker. Brewing resentment ensues.

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