You’ve either asked this question or someone has asked you: “Do you know a good __?” A project needs to be done, and you’re terrified of hiring the wrong person. The contractor who leaves your house half-finished for months. Or, worse, someone who builds a façade of completion only for it to fail inspection or fall apart under real-life use.

Software engineering is having that same moment with vibe-coded apps that fail in production. Now, instead of Ryobi packout kits and HGTV convincing homeowners they’re contractors, it’s AI-generated code convincing non-engineers they’re programming experts.

Big Box Stores Made Everyone a Contractor

Big-box home improvement stores have been a boon to those of us who enjoy working on our homes.1 My DIY projects—running an extra outlet, replacing fixtures, and patching drywall—have earned polite nods from the electricians, carpenters, and plumbers I’ve had at my house to do serious work. The same polite nods software engineers give “vibe-coded” PRs.

Today, AI can generate code almost instantly.2 Professional craftsmanship distinguishes a software engineer from a technical product manager with a vision. Just as contractors build to code, professional engineers convert prototypes into reliable, secure, observable systems that survive real users.

AI can start any idea; Experts finish them

The explosion of AI-generated projects is a mirror of the HGTV-inspired DIY Homeowner Special. AI makes starting ideas cheap. It can be used as a rapid-prototype builder and accelerate writing code from days to hours.

But what AI cannot do is compensate for the limitations of someone’s expertise. AI assumes everything will go according to plan. Professionals know it never does. When you open the wall and find knob-and-tube wiring, or the product team pivots requirements mid-sprint, you need someone who knows how to adapt—not just follow instructions. Recursively prompting AI to “fix the last error, no mistakes” is like painting over mold: The surface is clean, but the underlying rot remains.

Every project reaches a point where specialized3 experts are needed, and I for one am ecstatic to see so many new projects being started with AI; it means more projects will need experts to ship them. So, when someone asks, “Does anyone know a good software engineer,” I know that what they’re really asking is, “Who can we trust to finish what we started?”

Significant Revisions

  • Jan 18th, 2026 Originally published on https://www.jsrowe.com with uid 6956020C-60C0-4AB1-AB55-948CA8DDA6E1
  • Dec 27th, 2025 Draft Created.

Footnotes

  1. I do the small jobs, the long tail of home repair, because the risk/reward trade-off makes it cost effective to do myself. I also never start a job without having a professional in mind to come bail me out. ↩

  2. Every year, SWE is less about writing good syntax and more about building solutions. ↩

  3. As organizations grow, specialization occurs through division of labor. This is why every profession needs a broad base of junior apprentices/journeymen. Today’s juniors are tomorrow’s seniors. ↩