Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

arxiv.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 259 posts

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#51

Post by banbangtuth »

agentifysh wrote: post #32
banbangtuth wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It is a matter of values. Fun can be a driving force just like money and stability is. It is simply a matter of your values (and your sacrifices). Like I said, I am just a generic replaceable dime a dozen programmer dude.

you dont get paid to have fun but to produce as a laborer a job isn't supposed to be fun its nice when it is but it shouldn't be what drives decisions

You mean it shouldn't be the driving force of your employer to make decision. Yes I agree 10000%

I meant it can be your (not necessarily your employer) driving decision in life.

Of course, you need to suffer. That's about having tradeoffs.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#52

Post by llmslave2 »

aspenmartin wrote: post #26
zwnow wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it really baffles me how many are actually in on the hype train. Its a lot more than the crypto bros back in the day. Good thing AI still cant reason and innovate stuff. Also leaking credentials is a felony in my country so I also wont ever attach it to my codebases.

I think the issue is folks talk past each other. People who find coding agents useful or enjoyable are labeled “on the hype train” and folks for which coding agents don’t work for them or their workflow are considered luddites. There are an incredible number of contradicting claims and predictions out there as well, and I believe what we see is folks projecting their reaction to some amalgamation of them onto others.…

I think the reason for the varying claims and predictions is because developers have wildly different standards for what constitutes working code. For the developers with a lower threshold, AI is like crack to them because gen ai's output is similar to what they would produce, and it really is a 10x speedup. For others, especially those who have to fix and maintain that code, it's more like a 10x slowdown.

Hence why you have in the same thread, some developer who claims that Claude writes 99% of their code and another developer who finds it totally useless. And of course others who are somewhere in the middle.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#53

Post by banbangtuth »

yacthing wrote: post #38
banbangtuth wrote: post #9

You know what. After seeing all these articles about AI/LLM for these past 4 years, about how they are going to replace me as software developers and about how I am not productive enough without using 5 agents and being a project manager. I. Don't. Care. I don't even care about those debates outside. Debates about do LLM work and replace programmers? Say they do, ok so what? I simply have too much fun programming. I…

Easy to say if you either: (1) already have enough money to survive without working, or (2) don't realize how hard of a life it would be to "flip burgers" to make a living in 2026. We live very good lives as software developers. Don't be a fool and think you could just "flip burgers" and be fine.

Ah, I actually did flip burgers. So I know.

I also did dry cleaning, cleaning service, deli, delivery guy, etc.

Yup I now have enough money to survive without working.

But I also am very low maintenance, thanks to my early life being raised in harsh conditions.

I am not scared to go back flipping burgers again.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#54

Post by lifetimerubyist »

banbangtuth wrote: post #9

You know what. After seeing all these articles about AI/LLM for these past 4 years, about how they are going to replace me as software developers and about how I am not productive enough without using 5 agents and being a project manager. I. Don't. Care. I don't even care about those debates outside. Debates about do LLM work and replace programmers? Say they do, ok so what? I simply have too much fun programming. I…

Hear hear. I didn't spend half my life getting an education, competing in the corporate crab bucket, retraining and upskilling just to turn into a robot babysitter.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#55

Post by lifetimerubyist »

ryanobjc wrote: post #50
llmslave2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I simply will not spend my life begging and coaxing a machine to output working code. If that is what becomes of this profession, I will just do something else :)

If I wanted to do that, I'd just move into engineering management and work with something less temperamental and predictable - humans. I'd at least be more likely to get a boost in impact and ability to affect decision making, maybe.

Until you realize you're just begging and coaxing a human to better beg and coax a machine to output working code - when you could just beg and coax the machine yourself.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#56

Post by lifetimerubyist »

agentifysh wrote: post #11
banbangtuth wrote: post #9

You know what. After seeing all these articles about AI/LLM for these past 4 years, about how they are going to replace me as software developers and about how I am not productive enough without using 5 agents and being a project manager. I. Don't. Care. I don't even care about those debates outside. Debates about do LLM work and replace programmers? Say they do, ok so what? I simply have too much fun programming. I…

having fun isn't tied to employment unless you are self-employed even then what's fun should not be the driving force

"get a job doing something you enjoy and you'll never work a day in your life"

or something like that

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#57

Post by llmslave2 »

lifetimerubyist wrote: post #55
ryanobjc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I wanted to do that, I'd just move into engineering management and work with something less temperamental and predictable - humans. I'd at least be more likely to get a boost in impact and ability to affect decision making, maybe.

Until you realize you're just begging and coaxing a human to better beg and coax a machine to output working code - when you could just beg and coax the machine yourself.

At least I'd be the one interfacing with a human instead of a machine :P

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#58

Post by [deleted] »

llmslave2 wrote: post #57
lifetimerubyist wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you realize you're just begging and coaxing a human to better beg and coax a machine to output working code - when you could just beg and coax the machine yourself.

At least I'd be the one interfacing with a human instead of a machine :P

[deleted]

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#59

Post by whynotminot »

tikimcfee wrote: post #42
_cenw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.

Ya know, I have to admit feeling something like this. Normally, the amount of stuff I put together in a work day offers a sense of completion or even a bit of a dopamine bump because of a "job well done". With this recent work I've been doing, it's instead felt like I've been spending a multiplier more energy communicating intent instead of doing the work myself; that communication seems to be making me more tired th…

It feels like we all signed up to be ICs, but now we’re middle managers and our reports are bots.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#60

Post by websiteapi »

simonw wrote: post #43
websiteapi wrote: post #15

we've never seen a profession drive themselves so aggressively to irrelevance. software engineering will always exist, but it's amazing the pace to which pressure against the profession is rising. 2026 will be a very happy new year indeed for those paying the salaries. :)

We've been giving our work away to each other for free as open source to help improve each other's productivity for 30+ years now and that's only made our profession more valuable.

I see little proof open source has resulted in higher wages and not the fact that everything is being digitized and the subsequent demand for such people to assist in such.
Post reply on HN