This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sushma Kukkadapu, a 28-year-old software engineer in Bentonville, Arkansas. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I grew up in ...

Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how some software coders are hitting labor market turbulence in the wake of a post-pandemic retrenchment and the sudden shift to generative artificial intelligence ...