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In a personal essay, developer Manuel Darcemont recalls that his great-great-grandfather moved from farriery to mechanics as cars changed rural life in France. Darcemont uses the family story to reflect on developers’ concerns about AI, while stressing that one family’s experience does not prove how workers will fare.
Developer Manuel Darcemont has published a personal essay describing how his great-great-grandfather, a farrier in rural France, became a mechanic as cars began to replace horses for transport. Darcemont connects that family history to current anxiety among software developers about AI, but cautions that his ancestor’s experience is one account, not proof that workers can always adapt successfully.
Darcemont writes that his great-great-grandfather worked in Mandres-en-Barrois, shoeing horses and repairing farmers’ carts. After encountering news of cars—he says he cannot tell whether the man saw one or read about it—his ancestor became a mechanic. The essay does not provide dates or describe the practical steps behind that change.
The author interprets the move as a shift in tools rather than purpose: his ancestor continued to help people get around, first with horses and then with engines. Darcemont says mechanics followed in later generations, and describes his father as deeply attached to the work. In his telling, the family’s role in transport came to feel like a longstanding tradition, even though it began with a change in occupation.
From that history, Darcemont turns to developers who worry about what AI may mean for their jobs. He argues that some people are motivated not only by writing code but by making things, solving problems and seeing others use what they build. His proposed lesson is to be open to changing how work is done while holding on to the reason for doing it.
Purpose Beyond Writing Code
The essay offers a personal frame for thinking about AI-related job anxiety: a technology may change a worker’s tools and tasks without necessarily eliminating the underlying aim of the work. For developers, Darcemont’s distinction between coding and creating could help describe which parts of a job they hope to preserve as software tools evolve.
That is a reflection, not an employment forecast. The essay supplies no data about AI’s effects on software jobs, and the ancestor’s move into mechanics cannot establish that people displaced by technology will find comparable work. Its value lies in posing a question about professional identity, while leaving the wider economic outcome unresolved.
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From Horses to Engines
Darcemont sets his family story against earlier technological changes in rural life, including cars replacing some uses of horses and tractors changing farm work. He says people facing those changes could have feared for their livelihoods, even without today’s social media feeds amplifying discussion. The essay does not document particular workers’ outcomes or offer a broader history of those industries.
He also names a limit to the story: not every farrier became a mechanic. Because his family’s history preserved the successful career change, he says he would not know the stories of those who did not make the same transition. That gap matters to how readers should interpret the comparison with AI: a family memory can prompt reflection, but it cannot represent all workers’ experiences.
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What One Family Story Cannot Show
The essay gives no publication date, detailed chronology or independent documentation for the family history. Darcemont says he does not know exactly how his ancestor learned of the car or what he thought at the time. It is also unclear how long the move into mechanics took or what economic pressures shaped it.
More broadly, the account does not show how many farriers changed trades, what happened to those who did not, or whether the comparison applies to developers facing AI. The essay reports no employment figures, company changes or measured effects of AI on software work. Those questions remain outside the evidence presented.
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The AI Employment Picture
The essay sets out a personal perspective rather than a proposed policy or a forecast, and it identifies no specific next event. The broader question it raises—how AI will change developers’ tasks, jobs and career paths—will require evidence beyond this family history. Readers looking for concrete conclusions would need current workforce research and reporting on how employers are using AI, neither of which the essay supplies.
For now, Darcemont’s point is a question for developers about what they value in their work: if coding methods change, which aims might endure? The essay offers no guarantee that preserving a sense of purpose will protect a job or make a career change easy.
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Key Questions
What is the news development?
Manuel Darcemont published a personal essay linking his great-great-grandfather’s move from farriery to mechanics with developers’ concerns about AI and work.
What did Darcemont’s great-great-grandfather do?
He was a farrier in Mandres-en-Barrois, France, where he shod horses and repaired farmers’ carts. Darcemont says he later became a mechanic as cars emerged.
Does the essay prove that workers displaced by technology will find new jobs?
No. Darcemont says not every farrier became a mechanic and acknowledges that his family’s experience cannot stand for everyone. The essay provides no employment data or broad study of technological change.
What does Darcemont think developers may value beyond coding?
He suggests that some developers are motivated by creating things, solving problems and seeing people use what they build, not only by writing code. This is his reflection, not a measured finding about developers as a group.
Source: hn
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