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Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

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Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#231

Post by satvikpendem »

rapnie wrote: post #219
post-it wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AI completely erases the profession of software developer, I'll find something else to do. Like I can't in good faith ever oppose a technology just because it's going to make my job redundant, that would be insane.

Take that to its extreme. Suppose there was a technology that you do not own that would make everyone's job redundant. Everyone out of a job. There is no need for education, for skills to be mastered, for expertise. Would it still be insane to complain?

There are bigger issues if everyone is out of a job.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#233

Post by satvikpendem »

kazinator wrote: post #170
jv22222 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any idiot can now prompt their way to the same software. It may look the same, but it isn't the same. In fact if you took the time to truly learn how to do pure agentic coding (not vibe coding) you would realize as a principal engineer you have an advantage over engineers with less experience. The more war stories, the more generalist experience, the more you can help shape the llm to make really good code and whil…

> while retaining control of every line What I want when I'm coding, especially on open source side projects, is to retain copyright licensing over every line (cleanly, without lying about anything). Whoops!

I wonder why people still believe in intellectual property, it's a concept that has long since lived past its usefulness, especially technologically.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#234

Post by kristiandupont »

bri3d wrote: post #119
samiv wrote: post #51

As a principal engineer I feel completely let down. I've spent decades building up and accumulating expert knowledge and now that has been massively devalued. Any idiot can now prompt their way to the same software. I feel depressed and very unmotivated and expect to retire soon. Talk about a rug pull! My experience is that people who weren't very good at writing software are the ones now "most excited" to "create" w…

This is really interesting to me; I have the opposite belief. My worry is that any idiot can prompt themselves to _bad_ software, and the differentiator is in having the right experience to prompt to _good_ software (which I believe is also possible!). As a very seasoned engineer, I don't feel personally rugpulled by LLM generated code in any way; I feel that it's a huge force multiplier for me. Where my concern abou…

>For short-sighted management, this is all desirable since the sloppy output looks nice in the short term

It was a sobering moment for me when I sat down to look at the places I have worked for over my career of 20-odd years. The correlation between high quality code and economic performance was not just non-existing, it was almost negative. As in: whenever I have worked at a place where engineering felt like a true priority, tech debt was well managed, principles followed, that place was not making any money.

I am not saying that this is a general rule, of course there are many places that perform well and have solid engineering. But what I am saying is that this short-sighted management might not be acting as irrationally as we prefer to think.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#235

Post by satvikpendem »

zhoujianfu wrote: post #68

This comment about the OpenClaw guy hits a little too close to home: “Peter Steinberger is a great example of how AI is catnip very specifically for middle-aged tech guys. they spend their 20s and 30s writing code, burn out or do management stuff for a decade, then come back in their late 40s/50s and want to try to throw that fastball again. Claude Code makes them feel like they still got it.”

And what's the problem with that?

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#236

Post by tkel »

larodi wrote: post #103
zhoujianfu wrote: post #68

This comment about the OpenClaw guy hits a little too close to home: “Peter Steinberger is a great example of how AI is catnip very specifically for middle-aged tech guys. they spend their 20s and 30s writing code, burn out or do management stuff for a decade, then come back in their late 40s/50s and want to try to throw that fastball again. Claude Code makes them feel like they still got it.”

And why would they not? do they have to feel they ain’t got it anymore because age?

Because they don't "got it". Asking the bot to program is the same as asking a junior engineer to write some code, and then claiming it as your own. It's not actually them programming. Just a misplaced sense of pride.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#237

Post by gkrimer »

II2II wrote: post #134
dbdoug wrote: post #83

Hey, I'm nearly 80 years old. I haven't written a line of code in over 10 years. But I'm coding now, with the help of Claude & Gemini, and having a great time. Each block of Python or Applescript that they generate for me is a much better learning tool than a book - I'm going through the code line by line and researching everything. And I'm also learning how to deal with LLMs and their strengths & weaknesses. Correct…

> Each block of Python or Applescript that they generate for me is a much better learning tool than a book - I'm going through the code line by line and researching everything. I have been doing something similar. In my case, I prefer reading reference documentation (more to the point, more accurate), but I can never figure out where to start. These LLMs allow me to dive in and direct my own learning, by guiding my r…

Couldn't agree more. On a large and open ended feature I sometimes struggle with where to start and end up researching something tangential. Cool learning, but not efficient.

Claude Code gives me a directory, usually something that works, and then I research the heck out of it. In that way I am more of an editor, which seems to be my stronger skill.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#238

Post by wvenable »

zhoujianfu wrote: post #68

This comment about the OpenClaw guy hits a little too close to home: “Peter Steinberger is a great example of how AI is catnip very specifically for middle-aged tech guys. they spend their 20s and 30s writing code, burn out or do management stuff for a decade, then come back in their late 40s/50s and want to try to throw that fastball again. Claude Code makes them feel like they still got it.”

I get it. Knowing good code and how to correctly build software that people actually want is experience that is consistently hampered by constantly having to learn yet another tech stack.

Using an LLM lets you quickly learn (or quickly avoid having to learn) yet another tech stack while you leverage your inherent software development knowledge.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#239

Post by bitfilped »

samiv wrote: post #51

As a principal engineer I feel completely let down. I've spent decades building up and accumulating expert knowledge and now that has been massively devalued. Any idiot can now prompt their way to the same software. I feel depressed and very unmotivated and expect to retire soon. Talk about a rug pull! My experience is that people who weren't very good at writing software are the ones now "most excited" to "create" w…

I'm not sure why you feel devalued or let down, LLM code is a joke and will be a thing of the past after everyone has had their production environment trashed for the nth time by "AI."

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#240

Post by bitwize »

satvikpendem wrote: post #233
kazinator wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while retaining control of every line What I want when I'm coding, especially on open source side projects, is to retain copyright licensing over every line (cleanly, without lying about anything). Whoops!

I wonder why people still believe in intellectual property, it's a concept that has long since lived past its usefulness, especially technologically.

Because IP democratizes returns on the creative process.
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