A personal reflection traces a family arc from a great-great-grandfather who worked as a farrier in Mandres-en-Barrois to later becoming a mechanic after seeing cars arrive. The writer recounts how shoing horses and repairing carts gave way to engine grease and garages, yet the underlying purpose - helping people get around - remained. The narrative places that shift alongside other historical displacements, like farmers facing tractors, to remind readers that technological revolutions have long hit households and livelihoods in concrete, local ways rather than only as abstract historical moments.
That continuity informs a present-day argument for developers worried about AI: skills and tools change, but the motivating why often persists. Many people entered software to make things, solve problems, and watch users benefit, not solely to write lines of code. The piece recommends focusing on purpose over method - being willing to let go of the how while holding on to the why - so careers can adapt when technologies change rather than being defined by any particular instrument of work.
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