I’m just going to say it straight, the way I always do:
If you still call yourself a “coder” in 2025, you’re advertising that you’re about to become obsolete.
Harsh? Yeah. True? Also yeah.
The part of the job that most people spent the last decade doing (turning tickets into clean React components, Node endpoints, or Python scripts) is no longer a career. It’s a commodity skill on its way to $8/hour on Upwork or free from Claude.
Real talk: Cursor already writes better boilerplate than 80 % of the engineers. And it never gets tired, never argues about tabs vs spaces, and never asks for a raise.
So no, coding isn’t coming back as a six-figure job.
Programming, though? Programming is eating the world harder than ever.
The Only Definition That Actually Matters
Coding :
Taking a perfectly clear spec and translating it into working syntax.
Input → precise.
Output → predictable.
Example: “Make this button call /api/save and show a toast.”
AI already wins here. Game over.
Programming
Taking a messy pile of human problems, half-baked ideas, budget limits, legacy garbage, and future unknowns, and turning it into a system that works, scales, stays up, and doesn’t make you hate your life in 18 months.
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Input → chaos.
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Output → calm that pays the bills forever.
Coding is typing.
Programming is judgment + taste + ownership + scar tissue.
The Market Has Already Decided (Check the Paychecks)
High-end offers in 2025 ($400k–$900k total comp):
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“Own the payments platform”
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“Define the data architecture for 200M users”
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“Ship and operate search ranking for the entire product”
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“Break down ambiguous problems into ruthless execution plans”
Zero of them mention the word “code.”
Low-to-mid offers in 2025 ($80k–$140k, 800+ applicants):
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“Convert Figma designs to pixel-perfect React components”
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“Implement features from detailed Jira tickets”
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“Add unit tests to existing codebase”
That second list is 100 % coding. And it’s dying fast.
Why AI Murdered Coding But Supercharged Programming
AI eats problems that are:
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Well-defined
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Heavily exemplified
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Instantly verifiable
That’s coding.
Programming is the opposite:
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Stakeholders who change their mind twice a week
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Constraints nobody wrote down
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Edge cases that only appear at 3 a.m. on Black Friday
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Trade-offs that won’t surface for two years
AI can write the code.
Only you can carry the pager when it breaks.
That gap is the new moat. And it’s getting wider every single month.
The 2025–2030 Career Ladder (Memorize This)
1. Pure coders → augmented → replaced → $0–$80k freelance
2. Programmers → 3–5× leverage with AI
3. Programmers who communicate, ship outcomes, and own the blast radius → $500k–$1M+ or profitable indie businesses
Move up one rung up and your options explode.
Stay still and you’re competing with a $20/month subscription.
How to Stop Coding and Start Programming Tomorrow
No bootcamps. No certificates. Just habits:
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Measure your week in solved problems, not merged PRs.
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Before you open your editor, write one sentence: “The real problem is ___.” If it’s fuzzy, go fix the fuzziness first.
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Ship the smallest thing that kills the pain. Delete everything else.
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Write every line like you’ll be the one on-call when it fails (because you probably will).
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Let AI do 80–90 % of the typing. Keep 100 % of the judgment.
Do this for six months and you won’t recognize your own career.
Final Reality Check
Coding is a solved problem.
Programming is the highest-leverage skill on earth right now.
The coders are panicking, refreshing LinkedIn ten times a day.
The programmers are quiet, shipping, and cashing checks most people think don’t exist anymore.
Don’t get it twisted: coding is still one of the best ways to train your brain.
It teaches logic, precision, patience, and how to break big scary things into tiny solvable pieces.
I’d put every kid on Scratch or Python before I’d let them loose on TikTok.
It’s just not a career anymore when it’s the only thing you do.
Keep coding to stay sharp, but build the programming muscle if you want to get paid and stay relevant.
Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts.