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I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

jamesdrandall.com

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Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#611

Post by nextaccountic »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #92
sho_hn wrote: post #14

My advice to everyone feeling existential vertigo over these tools is to remain confident and trust in yourself. If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI. My experience so far is that to a first approximation, the quality of the code/software generated with AI corresponds to the quality of the developer using the AI tool surprisingly well. An inexperienced, bad dev will still…

> If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI. I don't think that's what people are upset about, or at least it's not for me. For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth.

In your own open source projects you can ban AI. A number of projects did just that. Programming doesn't need to be an activity people do just to earn money.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#612

Post by raincole »

WoodenChair wrote: post #504

Ironically this post comes across to me as written by an LLM. The em-dashes, the prepositions, the "not this, that" lines. As a college instructor, I can usually tell. I put it through GPTZero and it said it's 96% LLM written. GPTZero is not full-proof but I think it's likely right on this one and I find it very ironic.

It uses even more em dashes than typical ChatGPT generated articles. At this point I think it's parody.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#613

Post by duskdozer »

sho_hn wrote: post #99
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI. I don't think that's what people are upset about, or at least it's not for me. For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth.

I resonate with that. I also find writing code super pleasurable. It's immediate stress relief for me, I love the focus and the flow. I end long hands-on coding sessions with a giddy high. What I'm finding is that it's possible to integrate AI tools into your workflow in a big way without giving up on doing that, and I think there's a lot to say for a hybrid approach. The result of a fully-engaged brain (which still…

I'll use some small code completion but that's it. And only when I can do it locally with non-proprietary software.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#614

Post by duskdozer »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #186
samiv wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just told my gardener to cut the grass and work on some flower installations. I'm so excited about gardening again. Can't wait to do some. Employing a gardener to do my gardening for me is really making me enjoy gardening again!

As mosburger says, this is a great analogy. Do you think that the great artists paint, sculpt, and draw everything by hand, by themselves? Of course not... they never did, and they don't today. You're being offered the ability to join their ranks. It's your studio now. You have a staff of apprentices standing by, eager for instructions and commands. And you act like it's the worst thing that ever happened to you.

I don't want to be a manager, though. If I did, I would have gone into management.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#616

Post by duskdozer »

dzonga wrote: post #509
phendrenad2 wrote: post #91

As someone who has always enjoyed designing things, but was never really into PUZZLES, I always felt like an outsider in the programming domain. People around me really enjoyed the "fun" of programming, whereas I was more interested in the Engineering of the thing - balancing tradeoffs until within acceptable margins and then actually calling it "DONE". People around me rarely called things "done", they rewrote it an…

well said. also coz of llms no more puzzle questions in interviews for those that have to go through them. for some of us - we drink, eat, sleep - something called shipping - v1 might be shitty but it has to get out - no puzzles

I haven't interviewed since LLMs - what are they like now?

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#618

Post by port11 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #394

I'm 61 (retired when I was 57). I too began with BASIC (but closer to 1980). Although I wrote and published games for the Macintosh for a number of years as I finished up college, my professional career (in the traditional sense) began when I was hired by Apple in 1995 and relocated to the Bay Area. Yeah, what started out as a great just got worse and worse as time went on. I suspect though that to a large degree thi…

I’ve never been asked for coverage as a metric or target, at least not by managers. Most of the… drudge that you describe seems to come from fellow developers. These are self-inflicted wounds by the “journeyman idealists”, making us all perpetual beginners.

(That said, I do like unit tests and I think code reviews can be useful for sparing if you have a good vibe and trust in the team.)

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#619

Post by pkphilip »

I am the same age as the author and I started programming on the ZX Spectrum around 12 years old. My sentiments are exactly the same as the author's.

Programming just doesn't feel enjoyable anymore. It has become less a craft and more just a way of putting bread on the table.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#620

Post by duskdozer »

yalue wrote: post #518

Pathetically hypocritical to use AI to write this blog post when generic copy editors have been hit way harder by AI than programmers.

The whole blog is really bizarre, and LLM-generated

>The real AI risk isn't job loss — it's epistemic

>This morning I had a ChatGPT conversation that started about engagement metrics and ended up with a systematic destruction of my identity.

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/posts/real-ai-risk-isnt-job-lo...

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