The Balanced Engineer • Issue #36
Coding agents, the current job market, and the 996 work culture with articles from Steve Yegge, Gergely Orosz, and Armin Ronacher.
The Balanced Engineer Newsletter
Week of September 8, 2025 • Issue # 36
🔧 Technical Excellence
Building skills that last beyond any framework
Revenge of the junior developer by Steve Yegge from Sourcegraph
Summary: Steve Yegge argues that software development is rapidly evolving through six waves of AI assistance, from traditional coding to the current "coding agents" phase where AI can autonomously handle entire tasks like fixing JIRA tickets without constant human supervision. Unlike chat-based coding that requires back-and-forth interaction, these agents work independently for hours at $10-12/hour while delivering junior developer-level output, but companies will need to budget $50-100 per developer per day to stay competitive. By late 2025, developers will manage multiple agents simultaneously, and by 2026, they'll oversee entire "fleets" of AI workers through supervisory agents, fundamentally changing the role from writing code to managing AI teams. Ironically, junior developers are adapting to these tools faster than senior developers who often resist change, creating a competitive reversal where newcomers have the advantage—leading Yegge to conclude that the new job of "software engineer" will involve little direct coding and a lot of "agent babysitting," making adaptation essential for career survival.
Why this resonates: I love AI predictions and this one is no different. It's fascinating to see how folks are projecting out the future and the impact that AI will have. Obviously none of us knows the future, but it does seem like coding agents are likely to be heavily featured in it. I have personally only spent a lot of time with a single coding agent, the Copilot coding agent. And I have to say... It is pretty impressive for what it does. Yes, sometimes the results are nonsense. But they are generally pretty decent! And it's something that I can do easily from a GitHub issue, even on my phone if I'm away from my computer. That's incredibly cool!
The amount of context-switching when giving tasks to an agent right now, though, is pretty unsatisfying. I could totally be wrong, but I don't see myself able to manage several coding agents completing different work streams any time in the near future. But who knows what the future will bring! Either way, whether this is our future or not, it's worth tinkering with coding agents right now to make sure you don't end up behind the AI learning curve.
Tags: Artificial intelligence, Coding agents
🚀 Career & Growth
Intentional choices for long-term success
State of the software engineering job market in 2025 by Gergely Orosz
Summary: Good news, the TL;DR is that the tech job market seems to be recovering from the contraction experience in 2022-2023. Posts have been increasing, although not back to the boom of 2020-2022 (and it's unlikely we will get back to that point anyway). Big Tech companies are hiring again and have returned to 2022 headcount levels, but are shifting to a more senior-heavy positions and more AI-focused roles. Average tenure at Big Tech companies has increased, which indicates many engineers are staying put. Remote work opportunities are in decline and folks in a tech hub are finding it easier to switch positions.
Why this resonates: I'm very fortunate that at this moment I really like my job, because switching jobs has seemed incredibly daunting in the past few years. However, it seems like it's finally turning around. Having an AI skillset seems pretty critical to getting a job right now, and although we aren't quite at the level of employee power experienced in 2020-2022, things aren't as dire as they were in 2023 and 2024. I'm particularly sad about the remote work opportunities, in part because I have settled in a spot that isn't much a tech hub anymore, although working in person does seem awfully appealing recently as I've realized I've spent the last 5+ years in this house.
Tags: Job market
⚖️ Work-Life Integration
Sustainable practices for long-term success
Summary: In this article, Armin Ronacher critiques the silicon valley glorification of "996" work culture (working 9am-9pm, 6 days a week). This is being promoted by some tech leaders and startups as a method of "getting ahead" in the current busy climate. But, sustainable success requires balance, not extreme hours. Armin mentions the important point that meaningful work should be measured by output and not hours logged.
Why this resonates: Promoting 72-hour work weeks is straight-up irresponsible. and not a great way to build a business or your career. Luckily like many silicon valley fads, like bland soylent, this one is unlikely to catch on outside of the extreme startup culture. As it turns out, much like folks like actual flavor in their food, they also like having time off of work. And most evidence supports that you can actually work better when you take more time away. This article easily resonates with me since a healthy work-life balance is kind of important to me. After all, this is The Balanced Engineer Newsletter, not The Burnt-Out Engineer Newsletter 😉
Tags: Work-life balance
What I've Been Building
A quick look at what I've been working on this week
- Overcommitted: Ep. 23 | Mastering Storytelling in Tech - How do you tell a compelling story when showing off your work?
- Overcommitted Book Club: Check out the async Looks Good To Me book club!
Have comments or questions about this newsletter? Or just want to be internet friends? Send me an email at brittany@balancedengineer.com or reach out on Bluesky or LinkedIn.