[UPDATE] I fear the future of AI

Hi, guys! Hope everyone is doing fine.

Some of you may remember me. About two months ago I posted here about an anxiety breakdown I've gone through regarding "AI", "Programming" and how "human programmers would end" and stuff like that, which was a major concern for me since programming was my job and my favorite thing to do.

I was wondering for some time if I was supposed to share an update here. I decided to do so since somebody out there may be feeling the same as me. So I not only have an update but I also want to give some advice to whoever is going through this sh*thole.

After that post, I talked about my feelings with a lot of people around me (friends and fiancée), and everyone was very supportive. At first I thought they would laugh at me, since there are a lot more to worry today. They didn't. This feeling of "they'll laugh at me" was nothing more than the anxiety itself bringing me down. Everybody helped me feeling better. And that's my first advice: you're never alone. If you think you're alone, you're not. Even some people here in reddit sent me some supportive messages (thanks guys, I mean it).

Although they helped me, they did not magically cured my anxiety. I was still thinking about the future and how "I was wasting time doing something that was going to die" (I also could not sleep. I was sleeping 2h per day at max). After some weeks feeling depressed and living from breakdown to breakdown, I started looking for something to distract my mind. Another hobby to replace programming. After spending almost all my life hating, I started learning electronics. I don't know why or how or even when, but it felt like something new was born inside me. I love to learn new stuff, and at the same time I would still be able to code. For the first time in weeks (maybe months) I felt a spark of joy. Right now I'm doing some projects and I am having a lot of fun.

Before you comment down here how "electronics also is going to die" and stuff like that, I don't care. I simply don't care anymore, because now it's just a hobby. And that's my second advice: look for a hobby. Distract your mind, forget everything else for at least 1, maybe 2 hours a day. I know there are a lot of people that can't have this luxury, but if you can, do it. You'll feel so much better, I guarantee.

One of the worst things I've done in the past was to only code. Coding was a hobby and a job. You can't do it. You can't turn your job into a hobby. That's incredibly dangerous for your mental health. This may work for some people, I thought it worked for me too... but it didn't. A great part of my life I considered myself a good programmer. People around me told me the same thing over and over again. Not only friends and colleagues, but even past/current bosses. It felt (and feels) good to see that people cherishes and admires you for at least one thing in life. But, at the end of the day, a little idea was planted inside my brain: "coding" was my personality. I felt like the only interesting part about myself was that I was a good programmer. That was my worst mistake, and this will be my best advice: you're not your profession. It may be coding, gaming, architecture, cooking, teaching, whatever. You're not only what you do for a living. Explore what you really are and seek self-knowledge.

And last but not least: money. In my previous post, one of my major concerns was about money. Well, there's not much I can't talk about it here. Right now I'm trying the best I can to still be relevant in the market. Now I know how to work with AI tools for development (I really dislike many of them, but right now they're in my toolbox). I also took the advice of some people who commented on my previous post and started learning AI itself. I've always been a all-around programmer -- from web to low-level coding, games, graphics and compilers -- but AI never really interested me. Not because of the anxiety or anything like that, I just didn't have any interest in it. But then I gave up and started learning, and boy oh boy it was VERY cool! I've built a little NeuralNetwork from scratch in Rust and in C, learnt about transformers and started playing with projects like langchain. Everything is so new to me but at the same time it feels really good haha... But, even with everything I told you, it's still pretty much a mystery whether I'll be relevant for the market in about 5years from now. So I reached a conclusion, and that was the final step for my full rehab: stop thinking in 5 years from now. I mean, yeah, this sounds really dumb, I know it does... but I did anyway. I really don't care anymore where I'll be in 5 years from now, I just want to live day after day. Saving money, investing money, planning to migrate to other areas (I love cooking and love managing stuff, talked to my fiancée and we're planning to open a restaurant in the future haha). I don't have any advice regarding money since it'll vary from place to place, but I hope that you guys can at least reach some conclusion reading this paragraph.

And, finally, for my last advice (and probably THE most important one): guys, if you have the money, please, treat your mental health, go to therapy. None of my advice will cure your anxiety, therapy+family+friends will be the best help you can have.

As you guys may have noticed, I'm pretty good right now haha. Again, thanks very much for everyone who was supportive to me on my previous post. And if you guys are going through the same thing as me, remember my first advice: you're not alone. If you want to talk, send me a message and we can talk.