This article could have been written 10, 20 or 30 years ago with only the slightest of adjustments. We work in an industry with the constant need to learn new things and adapt to new ways of working, this will never change.
Hermit Programmers Are Dead
31–40 of 133 posts
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#32> Don't call yourself just a programmer anymore
This subtitle is almost the same as the title Patrick McKenzie's popular article on salary negotiation and career progression which is almost 10 years old now. So not really anything new and it's a bit disingenuous to present this as a big new change as of 2021.
The article does this switcharoo where it states something in the title, never addresses in the text and then it lists conclusions which aren't related to the main text or to the title. The conclusions make sense on their own - it's a list of useful skills for software developers. But they don't belong to the rest of the article or to its title.
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#33Yet another article on HN where "programming" = webdev
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#34This article reads like it was generated by GPT-3. High on buzzwords, low on coherence. Not sure how "AI" is going to do anything other than create more demand for programmers.
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#35> Thus, writing a bunch of code is not going to be a cool thing to do anymore: thinking about how to assembly existing software pieces to solve problems with computers will. The vast majority of sw projects are exactly that: connecting pipes.
Where do the pipes come from, though? And it's not just "a" pipe and "b" pipe you are connecting. It's not a "pipe" at all. It's complicated components that can have complicated interactions.
One guy in Nebraska.
There's about 4 people that really understand how ffmpeg works, and thousands of people that write stuff that runs on the top.
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#36I feel bad saying it but I’m just not willing to read something this long until eventually it comes to the point.
Just look at the conclusion at the bottom
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#37Again another story “copilot” will do the work for you - it doesn’t, it can make things easier but that is all.
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#38This is just wrong.
Imaginary computing (based on language models) and blockchain or other source of truth is the future.
As hermit programmers we can rely on AI to make a prediction as to when a task will be done, generate documentation for us, generate tests https://mullikine.github.io/posts/imaginary-reflection/, generate, etc. Any deployment system that doesn't use language models will be fragile as the time to onramp new developers will become exponentially more difficult over time. Hermit programmers are OK if they lean heavily on AI and blockchain. This article is a case for sell-outs, and pessimists
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a part of the article at the bottom that defines a Hermit programmer more precisely: * they don’t plan how they're going to finish a task * they don’t document * they don’t test * they don’t refactor * they don’t know anything about production infrastructure * they don’t have good communication skills * they don’t try to diversify their skills I'd agree with the article that this kind of programmer is "dead".…
Maybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt instead of "Hermit programmer" and yeah it is a no brainer that they are "dead"
Maybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt
Some of the very best programmers I've ever met tick all those boxes. They could deliver in a week something other teams would struggle with for months. The problem of course came when other people would try to understand and build on what they had done.
If you believe the quote that "Real Developers ship" then they where absolutely Real Developers.
Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead
#40was this written by GPT-3?
Yeah, GPT-3 trying to inflate its significance on the job market.