كانت جدتي العظيمة حدادة في ماندري-ان-باروا، فرنسا الريفية، التي ا过渡ت من حصان الأحذية إلى becoming ميكانيكي when cars arrived in the neighboring town. Like every man in my family after him، he adapted his purpose from helping people get around with horses to doing the same with engines. I see parallels today as developers wonder what will become of them with AI's rise.

The Industrial Revolution's impact is often romanticized، but it was local—changing neighbors' lives immediately. They didn't have X to doomscroll then، yet still feared the unknown. A century later، my great-great-grandfather's struggles are forgotten؛ the garage feels like it's always been family.

My father loved his job deeply، as if tradition ran in our blood. We kept doing what we always did: helping people get around. Just as some families still farm the same fields، mine preserved the same purpose.

Not every farrier became a mechanic، and I've never heard of those who didn't. So what if what we loved about this job was never only the code? Many of us are driven by the joy of making things، solving problems، and seeing people use what we built than by coding itself. After all، many of us wanted to be developers before learning to code—to create video games or websites.

The desire came before the code. Be willing to let go of the how to hold on to the why.