Month: March 2026

John Henry was a steel-driving man, Lord Lord.

John Henry was a natural, a steel-driving man from the day he first picked up a hammer. Swinging that hammer felt good. He died with that hammer in his hand.

And then he said: Oh Lord, this is right for me!
I can see what I am in your heavenly plan

I remember this film, The Legend of John Henry, from when I was in grade school. It made a big impression on me. Do you know the story? John Henry was a mythical 19th century railroad laborer. He was good at what he did: driving steel spikes. One day his gang was given the task of cutting a tunnel through a West Virginia mountain. To make the job go faster, the boss brought in a steam drill. John Henry saw the machine as his rival. He vowed he’d be the first to smash through that mountain. He did not survive the battle.

John could have wept, ’cause while he slept,
the steam drill kept chewing rock…

John Henry’s identity was devoured by the steam drill, and so the machine became the instrument of his death.

Like all folk tales, this story feels harmless and remote. Until it catches you in its teeth. Like all folk tales, it’s about others, far away and long ago. Until you see yourself.

I see John Henry every day. I work with him. My profession is also being transformed by a machine. We can lecture John Henry that he should welcome that machine in the name of progress. But among the software professionals I work with, many are profoundly shaken by that modern steam drill, Claude.

I’m watching this story. And it’s painful. Skills that took a lifetime to hone are crashing in value. What happens when you lose your sense of self? When the edifice of your professional self-worth goes up in bright column of fire? To get to the other side of it, something has to die. Something has to be lost, has to be buried and mourned. Something has to give way to make room for something new.

It’s not a story about economics or progress. It’s a story about what it is to be human. And it’s not a hopeless story, but it is a story of loss.

If you suffer with John, then John suffers with you. The story works on you and tickles the great ache. And it helps. The bright new world is coming. I believe it is. But it will be a journey.

John Henry was a code-writing man, Lord Lord.
John Henry was a code-writing man.