{"id":572,"date":"2025-10-26T21:19:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T21:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2025-10-26T21:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T21:19:03","slug":"outcoded-by-our-kids-it-took-us-20-years-they-used-20-prompts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/?p=572","title":{"rendered":"Outcoded by Our Kids: It Took Us 20 Years, They Used 20 Prompts!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>What took us two decades \u2014 learning frameworks, debugging builds, arguing about folder structure \u2014 took our kids\u2026 20 prompts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That line pretty much says it all.<br>At Devoxx Belgium 2025, Bart and I shared a story that\u2019s equal parts humbling, hilarious, and thought-provoking: how our 11- and 12-year-old sons built fully-playable games with <strong>no coding experience<\/strong> \u2014 just by <strong>talking to agentic platforms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No IDEs.<br>No syntax errors.<br>Just <em>intent<\/em>, translated by a growing ecosystem of AI agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Experiment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We gave our kids a challenge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>Make a game. Any game. But no coding \u2014 just describe what you want.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>They ended up creating levels, enemies, sounds, score systems\u2026 even Easter eggs. All through natural language.<br>Meanwhile, we \u2014 two seasoned architects\u2014 watched decades of expertise get casually leapfrogged by curiosity and prompts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Contrast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While we were still structuring our <code>src\/<\/code> folder, they were already play-testing their boss fight.<br>The gap wasn\u2019t about <strong>skill<\/strong> \u2014 it was about <strong>friction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI-assisted creation tools have removed almost every barrier between <strong>imagination<\/strong> and <strong>implementation<\/strong>.<br>That\u2019s exhilarating\u2026 and mildly terrifying for anyone who grew up debugging by candlelight in Eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Big Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the talk, we explored a few uncomfortable \u2014 yet exciting \u2014 questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Are we witnessing the <em>end<\/em> of traditional programming?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are we still relevant as architects, developers, and engineers?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What roles and skills matter when <strong>intent becomes the new code<\/strong>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do we evolve \u2014 from <strong>builders<\/strong> to <strong>orchestrators<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What It Means<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t a farewell to programming \u2014 it\u2019s a call to <strong>redefine our craft<\/strong>.<br>The next generation doesn\u2019t see \u201ccode\u201d \u2014 they see <strong>outcomes<\/strong>.<br>Our job now? To shape the ecosystems, ethics, and patterns that guide these agents.<br>To design with <strong>intent<\/strong>, <strong>trust<\/strong>, and <strong>creativity<\/strong> at the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the Talk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full session is now live on YouTube:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZO-619lqjK0?si=asVj66GOpE8SvB_0\">Outcoded by Our Kids \u2013 Devoxx Belgium 2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Outcoded by Our Kids: It Took Us 20 Years, They Used 20 Prompts!  by  Jan Van Wassenhove, Bart Wulle\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZO-619lqjK0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re a parent, developer, or architect wondering what the next decade of software creation looks like \u2014 this one\u2019s for you.<br>It\u2019ll make you laugh, question your IDE, and maybe\u2026 hand the keyboard to your kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cThey didn\u2019t outsmart us. They just skipped the parts we assumed were necessary.\u201d<\/em><br>\u2014 Jan &amp; Bart<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What took us two decades \u2014 learning frameworks, debugging builds, arguing about folder structure \u2014 took our kids\u2026 20 prompts. That line pretty much says it all.At Devoxx Belgium 2025, Bart and I shared a story that\u2019s equal parts humbling, hilarious, and thought-provoking: how our 11- and 12-year-old sons built fully-playable games with no coding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mityjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}