all words and ideas by me, because there’s still a time to d i y

I am now a Technology Artist.

As of January 2026, the Big AI Models we all know (OpenAI/ChatGPT, Anthropic/Claude, Google/Gemini), the self-hosted open source LLMs via Ollama, the AI video generators like Google Veo3 and ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, and an incredibly powerful framework like OpenClaw, has opened up a portal into a new world:

_.~”~._.~”~._.~”~._.~”~._  Tech as Art  _.~”~._.~”~._.~”~._.~”~._

How did I get here?

Will all software/web engineers make the leap?

But isn’t software dead?

What’s the future look like and how to stay with it?

MY BRIEF STORY

I was blessed with ignorance. When I became a web developer in 2005 I had no idea that people had specific jobs like back-end developer, front-end, graphic designer, sysadmin… (did user experience design even exist then?)

I just thought my job was to make the website.

Because that’s what Roger hired me to do.

So on my first day at work, I googled how to make a website, and then proceeded from one exciting experiment client project to the next.

Throughout my 20 years of experimenting, I have been fortunate to have worked alongside some of the brightest and most passionate talent in the industry:

• software engineers of varying skillsets and life experiences
• visual experience designers who could turn the most complicated processes into intuitive, elegant experiences
• devops engineers that would weigh architecture designs along with security requirements and then explain the pros and cons succinctly enough for a product owner to relay the decisions with a client stakeholder
• creative strategists that could take a prospective client’s brief and instantly paint a beautiful story of how we might not just solve the identified problem but offer even more ideas to exceed expectations
• managing partners and senior producers that cared so deeply about communication that their emails could be on display at The Met alongside a Vincent van Gogh and it would feel right
• and so many other uniquely skilled professionals like my bookkeeper Shelby who taught me how to create journal entries in Quickbooks to balance end of year finances

Throughout my career, I’ve absorbed as much of these skills as I possibly could, because I’ve always loved it all.

My collective skill absorption level is certainly not the expert level of each individually skilled professional.

My collective skill absorption level is indeed at the appropriate level of a composer who can craftfully orchestrate a 100-person symphony and achieve the main goal: BUILD BEAUTIFUL.

ALL PRODUCT PEOPLE WILL NOT BECOME TECHNOLOGY ARTISTS

I can sum this up in four simple words: they don’t want to.

Questions:

1. Did the front-end developers that I worked with throughout my career want to learn back-end? (and vice versa)
2. Did the project managers want to learn user interface design, PHP, Java, .NET, NodeJS or Apple Push Notification Service dev and prod certificates?
3. Did the UX designers want to learn about SOC2 certification, HIPAA compliance and PCI compliance on a self-hosted EC2 server, low-cost DigitalOcean droplet or even on a managed VPS?

Answer: No, of course not! (Well, maybe a couple, but rare!)

Most have always wanted to hone the skill that they enjoyed doing.

And there was absolutely nothing wrong with that…

Except that evolution has a funny way of pushing us to… EVOLVE.

The Technology Artist is well positioned to absolutely thrive in this new AI ecosystem simply because they’ve always been passionate about it all.

Every aspect of the product.

Every aspect of the business.

It’s all super interesting and if you know how every part works, you can hit the ground running with max efficiency.

BUT THE MEDIA SAYS AI WILL REPLACE SOFTWARE NEEDS

Do you really know anyone IRL who has cancelled all their software subscriptions because they’ve vibe coded themselves into freedom?

Yes, we can all access the latest and greatest models from Big Model (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google).

Yes, we can all turn the lights down low and vibe code our way through an MVP via loveable, bolt, or replit… all of which are just custom UI’s built on top of Big Model.

So why do we even need to hire Software Engineers now, let alone a does-it-all Technology Artist?

I find this best explained with an analogy:

Can anyone throw a baseball? Sure.

Can anyone throw a fastball? Well, yea, with a bit of practice.

Can anyone throw a fastball with accuracy at 100 mph? Yes, the professionals who play for the MLB.

WHAT’S THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE AND HOW TO STAY WITH IT?

The future is Technology Art.

Every company will be seeking us out, just as soon as they realize this skillset actually exists.

And yes, I believe that one Technology Artist can indeed replace an entire project team, but to an extent.

Some caveats to keep in mind:

1. There is a limit to the number of willpower hours a human has in one day regardless of the job.
2. There is a limit to the number of concurrent projects that a Technology Artist can work on. You still need X amount of humans for Y amount of projects.
3. As of today’s available technology, if Big Model were to abruptly shut down and all we had left was the inferior open source LLMs, there is absolutely no way that I personally would still be able to produce the 2026 quality art that I have been.

So if you’re in the software industry…

Or you’re a business owner trying to understand what you need to know…

Here’s some ways a Technology Artist operates today:

Education

• Listens to Hard Fork, Latent Space, or Lex Fridman podcasts; not as background noise, but taking notes.
• Follows the researchers and builders on X who are way ahead of the headlines.

New to all this? Start with the Google AI Essentials course on Coursera.

Experimentation

• Spins up their own products to push the limits of what they can create. (I’ve got 2 in the works right now)
• Pushes commits to open source Github projects that they find interesting.

Execution

• Pumps out full-service agency projects in under 7 days.
• Can’t stop talking about AI even though this is an 8 year old’s rolling skating birthday party.

The Technology Artist isn’t a generalist who knows a little of everything.

They’re someone who cares so much about BUILDING BEAUTIFUL that they refuse to stop learning.

That’s always been rare.

Now it’s more valuable than ever.