Tokenmaxxing within some companies is creating a new divide, fueling burnout among some software engineers.
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Software engineers may be paying the price for Silicon Valley's tokenmaxxing frenzy.As companies push developers to use AI coding tools in the hopes of driving productivity up, a growing divide is emerging inside some engineering teams, says Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, where he invests in AI and enterprise software companies. First are what he calls the "lazy" engineers — workers who rely heavily on AI to write code, answer questions, prepare updates, and complete tasks with minimal engagement.Then there are the "craftsmen," experienced engineers who bear the burden of understanding, reviewing, and fixing the growing flood of AI-generated code."Most software engineers are facing an identity crisis bordering on depression," Das said in an X post over the weekend.'The craft they loved is dead'Das' comments tap into a growing debate over how AI coding tools are reshaping software engineering, a theme at the center of Business Insider's latest series, The Great Coding Reset.As companies encourage developers to generate more code with AI, some engineers say their role is shifting from writing software to reviewing, managing, and validating machine-generated work — a change that is forcing some to rethink where their value lies.
