People who never really had these feelings about coding will turn up to tell you that you are wrong to care or that it is childish or silly to care.
You are not wrong to have your feelings or to strongly identify your sense of self with your work; that is what we used to call “finding your vocation”.
I share your feelings and have been focusing my energy on learning local and open weights AI to work through it because it seems to be impossible to avoid it all entirely as a freelancer who needs to remain competitive, and a bit of righteous/ethics/sustainable process fire in my belly doesn’t hurt.
But focusing on how you feel first, and then hopefully thinking about other ways you can feel valuable, is not wrong.
You are not wrong to have your feelings or to strongly identify your sense of self with your work; that is what we used to call “finding your vocation”.
I share your feelings and have been focusing my energy on learning local and open weights AI to work through it because it seems to be impossible to avoid it all entirely as a freelancer who needs to remain competitive, and a bit of righteous/ethics/sustainable process fire in my belly doesn’t hurt.
But focusing on how you feel first, and then hopefully thinking about other ways you can feel valuable, is not wrong.
You are not alone and I wish you the best.