Prologue
How to thrive and not to be replaced by AI as a Flutter app developer in 2025 and beyond.
On the surface it seems like software development will be taken over by AI and developers will become obsolete.
This newsletter is about finding what "still matters" in the age of AI - how to evolve our skills and ride the wave, without letting go of control.
To figure out how to best steer our careers and our skills in these exciting times - I will focus on the following five core principles:
The core principles of craftsmanship
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Master the Foundation
Know the language inside and out - if our primary task in the future is code review, we should not need to look up whats going on in the language.
Have a deep understanding of the framework - know how it works, not just how to use it. If we code with AI, it will create features and we will need to fight the bugs. Know where to look.
Understand the software (architecture) patterns - AI will generate code, but it is up to us to steer it into the right direction. Patterns are the vocabulary of architecture, they help us to communicate our intentions and to understand the code we are working with.
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Understand the Boundaries and whats happening around us
We should know the boundaries of the framework (why it runs the same on all plattforms), but also how it works differently on each OS, where the limits are, and not be afraid to write native code.
From network protocols to OS APIs, understanding where to look, if something does not behave as expected, is crucial. Know a bit about the "neighboring" tech - from web, to DevOps, to cyber security.
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Develop Our Craft
We should find our own "voice", our own "style" of doing things - not just copy what others do, but figure out what works for us.
We should keep an open mind and engage in discussions to continue growing and learning.
We should be able to pull out functionality and create packages and plugins.
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Sharpen your tools and shape your world
We can shape the digital world to be whatever we want it to be.
At a personal level that is making use of our skills to shape our very personal world.
We should be able to build our own tooling - from command line tools, to dev tool plugins, to IDE plugins and pipelines.
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Own the Full Stack
We should be able to go "full-stack" - the future AI developments will likely enable individual developers to replace complete teams.
Since AI is great at writing features full stack - we should have a good understanding of both the frontend platforms we are supporting and of the backend technologies we supervise.
My motivation
After thousands of hours in professional Flutter consulting, it is time to pass on some of the lessons I have learned and bring you along as I future proof my skill-set, I hope to see you become part of the Flutter Craftsmanship movement.
－Damian