Web development is fun again • Hacker News Board

Re: Web development is fun again

#161

Post by bitwize » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:29 PM UTC

duggan wrote: post #147

llmslave2 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely searching "centre a div" takes less time than prompting and waiting for a response...

Search “centre a div” in Google Wade through ads Skim a treatise on the history of centering content Skim over the “this question is off topic / duplicate” noise if Stack Overflow Find some code on the page Try to map how that code will work in the context of your other layout Realize it’s plain CSS and you’re looking for Tailwind Keep searching Try some stuff until it works Or… Ask LLM. Wait 20-30 seconds. Move on t…

Wait till the VC tap gets shut off.

You: Hey ChatGPT, help me center a div.

ChatGPT: Certainly, I'd be glad to help! But first you must drink a verification can to proceed.

Or:

ChatGPT: I'm sorry, you appear to be asking a development-related question, which your current plan does not support. Would you like me to enable "Dev Mode" for an additional $200/month? Drink a verification can to accept charges.

Re: Web development is fun again

#162

Post by mands » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:30 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #7

Something I like about our weird new LLM-assisted world is the number of people I know who are coding again, having mostly stopped as they moved into management roles or lost their personal side project time to becoming parents. AI assistance means you can get something useful done in half an hour, or even while you are doing other stuff. You don't need to carve out 2-4 hours to ramp up any more. If you have signific…

Yep, have seen this myself as previously a manager and now with a young family.

I can make incredible progress on side-projects that I never would have started with only 2-4 hours carved out over the course of a week.

There is a hopefully a Jevon's paradox here that we will have a bloom of side-projects, "what-if" / "if only I had the time" type projects come to fruition.

Re: Web development is fun again

#163

Post by teaearlgraycold » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:30 PM UTC

I have this suspicion that the people who say they have 10x productivity gains from AI might largely see improvements from a workflow change which fixes their executive dysfunction. Back in the day I never had any issue just sitting down and coding something out for 4 hours straight. So I don’t think LLMs feel quite as big for me. But I can see the feeling of offloading effort to a computer when you have trouble getting started on a sub-task being a good trick to keep your brain engaged.

I’ve personally seen LLMs be huge time savers on specific bugs, for writing tests, and writing boilerplate code. They’re huge for working in new frameworks that roughly map to one you already know. But for the nitty gritty that ends up being most of the work on a mature product where all of the easy stuff is already done they don’t provide as big of a multiplier.

Re: Web development is fun again

#164

Post by llmslave2 » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:30 PM UTC

marcellus23 wrote: post #151

llmslave2 wrote: post #117

> Even with refinement and back-and-forth prompting, I’m easily 10x more productive Developers notoriously overestimate the productivity gains of AI, especially because it's akin to gambling every time you make a prompt, hoping for the AI's output to work. I'd be shocked if the developer wasn't actually less productive.

> I'd be shocked if the developer wasn't actually less productive I agree 10x is a very large number and it's almost certainly smaller—maybe 1.5x would be reasonable. But really? You would be shocked if it was above 1.0x? This kind of comment always strikes me as so infantilizing and rude, to suggest that all these developers are actually slower with AI, but apparently completely oblivious to it and only you know bet…

I would never suggest that only I know better. Plenty of other people are observing the same thing, and there is also research backing it up.

Maybe shocked is the wrong term. Surprised, perhaps.

Re: Web development is fun again

#165

Post by bitwize » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:31 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #133

elliotbnvl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I’ve seen this myself, folks moving back into development after years or decades.

They're not moving back into development. They're adopting a new approach of producing software, which has nothing to do with the work that software developers do. It's likely that they "left" the field because they were more interested in other roles, which is fine. So now that we have tools that promise to offload the work a software developer does, there are more people interested in simply producing software, and…

It's called being a systems analyst or product manager. Upskill into these roles (while still accepting individual contributor pay) or get left behind.

Re: Web development is fun again

#166

Post by llmslave2 » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:31 PM UTC

kmoser wrote: post #150

llmslave2 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even 2.5x is absurd. If they said 1.5x I might believe them.

I recently used AI to help build the majority of a small project (database-driven website with search and admin capabilities) and I'd confidently say I was able to build it 3 to 5 times faster with AI. For context, I'm an experienced developer and know how to tweak the AI code when it's wonky and the AI can't be coerced into fixing its mistakes.

What's the link?

Re: Web development is fun again

#167

Post by duggan » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:31 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #161

duggan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search “centre a div” in Google Wade through ads Skim a treatise on the history of centering content Skim over the “this question is off topic / duplicate” noise if Stack Overflow Find some code on the page Try to map how that code will work in the context of your other layout Realize it’s plain CSS and you’re looking for Tailwind Keep searching Try some stuff until it works Or… Ask LLM. Wait 20-30 seconds. Move on t…

Wait till the VC tap gets shut off. You: Hey ChatGPT, help me center a div. ChatGPT: Certainly, I'd be glad to help! But first you must drink a verification can to proceed. Or: ChatGPT: I'm sorry, you appear to be asking a development-related question, which your current plan does not support. Would you like me to enable "Dev Mode" for an additional $200/month? Drink a verification can to accept charges.

I mean sure, that could happen. Either it's worth $200/month to you, or you get back to writing code by hand.

Re: Web development is fun again

#168

Post by llmslave2 » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:32 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #161

duggan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search “centre a div” in Google Wade through ads Skim a treatise on the history of centering content Skim over the “this question is off topic / duplicate” noise if Stack Overflow Find some code on the page Try to map how that code will work in the context of your other layout Realize it’s plain CSS and you’re looking for Tailwind Keep searching Try some stuff until it works Or… Ask LLM. Wait 20-30 seconds. Move on t…

Wait till the VC tap gets shut off. You: Hey ChatGPT, help me center a div. ChatGPT: Certainly, I'd be glad to help! But first you must drink a verification can to proceed. Or: ChatGPT: I'm sorry, you appear to be asking a development-related question, which your current plan does not support. Would you like me to enable "Dev Mode" for an additional $200/month? Drink a verification can to accept charges.

Calling it now: AI withdrawal will become a documented disorder.

Re: Web development is fun again

#169

Post by satvikpendem » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #23

webdevver wrote: post #2

honestly, with LLMs, everything is fun again. embedded dev with a billion toolchains, GPU development with each vendors bespoke API, ffmpeg with its billion parameters - if anything, you could say LLMs bailed us out of the impending ultra-specialization. without LLMs, we might be facing a world where 30% of the workforce is in software dev. i am keeping my eyes peeled on vibe-coding PCB layouts and schematics. a lot…

I don't get it. What part of the process do you enjoy? Do you also enjoy hiring a taskrabbit to go hiking for you, taking photos along the way?

Seeing the output I want when I describe it, and making changes to get to the vision in my mind. I don't have aphantasia so maybe it's different for those who do, but I can literally see the UI of the app I want to build and of course I can build it by writing code manually too, but I can make it exist much faster with an LLM than without.

Re: Web development is fun again

#170

Post by 13415 » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

I've tried vibe coding and hate it. I guess it's okay for people who are only interested in the result, but for me it takes all the fun out of programming. It doesn't feel like it has anything to do with programming at all. I will continue to "vibe code" out of necessity - saving time and achieving more than I can on my own. But I cannot possibly understand how someone could consider it fun.