I reckon powertools is the wrong comparison, my grandfather was a cabinetmaker(born in the 1930's) and he never shied away from using a powertool & any contractors/tradesman largely raves about their favourite brand of powertools.

I think the more apt comparison would be a carpenter to a mass produced factory. If you've read any of Yegge's recent ramblings than factories of factories seem to be what the AI focused peeps like to produce.

Carpenters and powertools sounds more like handwriting or typewriting vs using a computer to write.

AI feels like something else entirely. You're not even doing the writing or the thinking, you're telling someone else to do it and they "do" it.

It's more like a carpenter walking into a factory and saying to someone I want to build xyz and it builds it immediately.

I think there’s still value in hand made furniture with little to no power tool involvement. There’s certainly value in creating furniture yourself in this way. It doesn’t give answer the question about the people who loved that job , the many old school carpenters who had to adapt or give up.

I wonder if hand coding will become mostly a hobby and maybe a niche market. I’m not saying I like it, that’s tbd, but I wonder about it.