We mourn our craft • Hacker News Board

Re: We mourn our craft

#201

Post by TJTorola » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

nubg wrote: post #151

To the people who are against AI programming, honest question: why do you not program in assembly? Can you really say "you" "programmed" anything at all if a compiler wrote your binaries? This is a 100% honest question. Because whatever your justification to this is, it can probably be used for AI programmers using temperature 0.0 as well, just one abstraction level higher. I'm 100% honestly looking forward to findin…

I'm not particularly against AI programming but I don't think these two things are equivilent. A compiler translates code to specifications in a deterministic way, the same compiler produces the same output from the same code, it is all completely controlled. AI is not at all deterministic, temperature is built into LLMs and furthermore the lack of specificity in prompts and our spoken languages. The difference in control is significant enough to me not to put compilers and AI coding agents into the same catagory even though they are both taking some text and producing some other text/machine code.

Re: We mourn our craft

#202

Post by haolez » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #184

nubg wrote: post #151

To the people who are against AI programming, honest question: why do you not program in assembly? Can you really say "you" "programmed" anything at all if a compiler wrote your binaries? This is a 100% honest question. Because whatever your justification to this is, it can probably be used for AI programmers using temperature 0.0 as well, just one abstraction level higher. I'm 100% honestly looking forward to findin…

I'm all for AI programming. But I've seen this conversation on HN already 100 times. The answer they always give is that compilers are deterministic and therefore trustworthy in ways that LLMs are not. I personally don't agree at all, in the sense I don't think that matters. I've run into compiler bugs, and more library bugs than I can count. The real world is just as messy as LLMs are, and you still need the same te…

I just answered exactly that. I think that AI agents code better than humans and are the future.

But the parent argument is pretty bad, in my opinion.

Re: We mourn our craft

#203

Post by dragonelite » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

tigerlily wrote: post #41

There's a commercial building under construction next to my office. I look down on the construction site, and those strapping young men are digging with their big excavators they've been using for years and taking away the dirt with truck and trailer. Why use a spade? Even those construction workers use the right sized tools. They ain't stupid.

Them using excavator and trucks etc to move dirt. Is the same as us using a compiler to compile code into an executable.

LLM would be if the digging and hauling of the dirt happened without any people involved except the planning of logistics.

Re: We mourn our craft

#204

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #169

Nextgrid wrote: post #137

LLMs are only a threat if you see your job as a code monkey. In that case you're likely already obsoleted by outsourced staff who can do your job much cheaper. If you see your job as a "thinking about what code to write (or not)" monkey, then you're safe. I expect most seniors and above to be in this position, and LLMs are absolutely not replacing you here - they can augment you in certain situations. The perks of a…

I see my job as having many aspects. One of those aspects is coding. It is the aspect that gives me the most joy even if it's not the one I spend the most time on. And if you take that away then the remaining part of the job is just not very appealing anymore. It used to be I didn't mind going through all the meetings, design discussions, debates with PMs, and such because I got to actually code something cool in the…

You won't be prompting AI for the fun stuff (unless laying out boring boilerplate is what you consider "fun"). You'll still be writing the fun part - but you will be able to prompt beforehand to get all the boilerplate in place.

Re: We mourn our craft

#205

Post by zeroonetwothree » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

bloppe wrote: post #116

The acceleration of AI has thrown into sharp relief that we have long lumped all sorts of highly distinct practices under this giant umbrella called "coding". I use CC extensively, and yet I still find myself constantly editing by hand. Turns out CC is really bad at writing kubernetes operators. I'd bet it's equally bad at things like database engines or most cutting edge systems design problems. Maybe it will get be…

I think there's clearly a difference in opinion based on what you work on. Some people were working on things that pre-CC models also couldn't handle and then CC could, and it changed their opinions quickly. I expect (but cannot prove of course) that the same will happen with the area you are describing. And then your opinion may change.

Re: We mourn our craft

#206

Post by croes » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

dham wrote: post #163

croes wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait 5 years and your skills are down

What infrastructure has gone through the last 15 years would like a word. Half the people I work with can't do imperative jQuery interfaces. So what I guess. I can't code assembly.

A programming language is still an additional language with all the benefits of being multilingual.

AI will kill that.

Re: We mourn our craft

#207

Post by GeorgeTirebiter » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

One other helpful frame: I consider LLMs simply to be very flexible high-level 'language' Compilers. We've moved up the Abstraction Chain ever since we invented FORTRAN and COBOL (and LISP) instead of using assembly language.

We're 'simply' moving up the abstraction hierarchy again. Good!

Re: We mourn our craft

#208

Post by RivieraKid » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

eranation wrote: post #143

iambateman wrote: post #9

I do not mourn. For my whole life I’ve been trying to make things—beautiful elegant things. When I was a child, I found a cracked version of Photoshop and made images which seemed like magic. When I was in college, I learned to make websites through careful, painstaking effort. When I was a young professional, I used those skills and others to make websites for hospitals and summer camps and conferences. Then I learn…

I like coding, I really do. But like you, I like building things more than I like the way I build them. I do not find myself miss writing code by hand as much. I do find it that the developers that focused on "build the right things" mourn less than those who focused on "build things right". But I do worry. The main question is this - will there be a day that AI will know what are "the right things to build" and have…

> I do find it that the developers that focused on "build the right things" mourn less than those who focused on "build things right".

I've always been strongly in the first category, but... the issue is that 10x more people will be able to build the right things. And if I build the right thing, it will be easy to copy. The market will get crowded, so distribution will become even harder than it is today. Success will be determined by personal brand, social media presence, social connections.

Re: We mourn our craft

#209

Post by zeroonetwothree » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

localghost3000 wrote: post #49

This perspective was mine 6 months ago. And god damn, I do miss the feeling of crafting something truly beautiful in code sometimes. But then, as I've been pushed into this new world we're living in, I've come to realize a couple things: Nothing I've ever built has lasted more than a few years. Either the company went under, or I left and someone else showed up and rewrote it to suit their ideals. Most of us are doin…

Interesting, I still have code I wrote 20 years ago being used in production.

Re: We mourn our craft

#210

Post by throwaway0123_5 » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

webdevver wrote: post #79

it definitely sucks to be honest, and theres a lot of cope out there. fact of the matter is, being able to churn out bash oneliners was objectively worth $100k/year, and now it just isnt anymore. knowing the C++ STL inside-out was also worth $200k/year, now it has very questionable utility. a lot of livelihoods are getting shaken up as programmers get retroactively turned into the equivalent of librarians, whose job…

Yeah, I notice a lot of the optimism is from people who have been in the field for decades. I'm newish to the field, half a decade out of undergrad. It definitely feels like almost all of what I learned has been (or will soon be) completely devalued. I'm sure this stuff feels a lot less threatening if you've had decades to earn a great salary and save a bunch of money. If money wasn't a concern I'd be thrilled about it too.