I wrote this in May and in some ways it already feels out of date. Another "dev in 2026 is hard" example I'd add now: getting over the hump and embracing being fully efficient with AI only to have your org yank your tokens.
medium.com/@d.mcburney/...
medium.com
Developers Have it Hard in 2026
AI has changed everyone’s expectations for developers — what are these new challenges, and what can be done about them?