Embracing Constructive Breaking
When I was seventeen, I broke my first computer. Twice.
The first time, I sheepishly sent it for repair. The second time, shame drove me to figure it out myself. Creating a boot floppy disk that could access the CD-ROM to reinstall Windows. I think that moment changed everything for me.
I learned three truths that possibly shaped my career:
- Breaking things isn’t fatal
- The path forward often runs through mistakes
- Self-reliance builds deeper understanding than following instructions
In 1999, I entered the tech arena without formal education. There were no YouTube tutorials or Stack Overflow. Learning meant tinkering with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS until something worked.
This ‘constructive breaking’ mindset has carried me through multiple roles spanning development, management, and leadership. Without the identity anchor of formal credentials, I’ve never felt trapped in one specialty.
As generative AI increasingly writes code through simple natural language prompts, with tools like Lovable, Bolt, and Replit that can build entire websites and SaaS products, the most valuable skill won’t be expertise in syntax or current frameworks. It will be the courage to break things, the resilience to fix them, and the adaptability to understand what actually solves the problem at hand.
What we fear in the AI era isn’t just disappearing entry-level coding jobs, but the learning path they represent. If AI handles the ‘easy’ parts, how will developers grow?
The answer might be counterintuitive: we need more people willing to break AI’s output, question its solutions, and develop through deliberate experimentation. The junior role evolves from writing basic code to breaking sophisticated systems, creating a new and equally valuable learning path.
The future belongs to constructive breakers.