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Programming Still Sucks

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Re: Programming Still Sucks

#251

Post by esseph »

munksbeer wrote: post #248
coldtea wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, raw "actually good balance of stuff I like and stuff I don't like in those decades" pragmatism. I could not give less fucks for having AI and smartphones and most other stuff, including all the fancy new medical procedures which are barely incremental. Fridges, basic 90s-style internet and mini-skirts and welfare, and cheap housing, and jobs-a-plenty, more affordable healthcare, and the lifestyle, I can use jus…

The thing is, the option you want is available today. There are communities all around the world that live much simpler lives. Some just because that is how they are, others because they've formed communities to escape all the things you don't like. Genuine question, have you ever investigated these options? If so, why did you dismiss them?

> The thing is, the option you want is available today.

Disagree

Removing yourself from the computing environment does not remove the impact it has on the world and around you. That is the equivalent of sticking one's head in the sand.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#252

Post by Ygg2 »

munksbeer wrote: post #171
maweki wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Society doesn't owe me over $500k/year No it doesn't. But as a human being, you and everybody still deserves a decent living. And our current system clearly does not provide that for a lot of people.

World GDP and standard of living has never been higher.

If two trillionaires bounce a 4 trillion dollar IOU, the GDP could be the greatest in the universe, even though nothing would substantially change.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#253

Post by kiba »

nickpp wrote: post #144
kiba wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is ignoring the people who capture the rent. If technological innovation is to liberate us from poverty then it should be a celebration that everytime that a job is automated. Since that is not happening, it implies something deeply wrong about how we structure our society.

> This is ignoring the people who capture the rent. So my grandma shouldn't have been be deliriously happy with the new washing machine that saved her hands from bleeding weekly because the evil capitalist laundromat owners charged a few quarters per load?!

It's not really the laundromat capitalist, but the landowner the capitalist paying rent to.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#254

Post by dwd »

msie wrote: post #175
stevenlangbroek wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming gives me great joy. I wrote my first batch scripts when I was 6 years old. I got my first job in the industry when I was 20. I'm 41 now. The problem isn't the act of programming. As to juniors, first time I heard someone brag about AI removing the need to hire juniors was in 2022. every junior I know is struggling to find work. It's not hard to find reddit threads with people sharing their experience to t…

"I wrote my first batch scripts when I was 6 years old." - Wow, that's pretty amazing. What did you write when you were 10? Really curious.

I'm guessing an AUTOEXEC.BAT file to configure DOS settings for different games.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#255

Post by hsuduebc2 »

nchagnet wrote: post #87
bluegatty wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't like to go against everyone but this not particularly well written. It's a long winding absurdist metaphorical tale, that is really more or less a rant. It's not particularly well grounded. It's a nice piece of personalized fiction, but it's not particularly good writing and nothing approaching what we'd think of as 'journalism'.

Maybe 'journalism' wasn't the best suggestion by the OP but I have to disagree with the rest of your message. It may be a rant, or less pejoratively it may be a cry for help of someone seeing their industry's future, but I can't accept that it's not well written. When is the last time you opened an HN comment section and the main comment was that people enjoyed the writing quality? Maybe it says more about what we us…

Indeed I should use "writer" instead.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#256

Post by jamauro »

keybored wrote: post #128
fooqux wrote: post #27

> AI didn't take our jobs. Greed did. Same greed that moved factories to Bangladesh and keeps slaves in cobalt mines in the Congo, wearing a new mask. Tell the nephew to do something else. Anything. It won't save him either, but at least he won't have to pretend the thing destroying his life is a robot. This hit me hard. This article is art. I think I need to sleep on this and read it again in the morning.

Imagine you start on a trek to find the sage with the answer to why idiot sociopaths rule everything, why wars that don’t even benefit the aggressor are started, why there is enough food for everyone twice over but people are still starving... and much more. You’ve been pondering this question for years. You’ve read comments. Wikipedia. You already have a good idea. But you seek the wisdom of the sage. You cross moun…

Is this Gen AI or did you write it?

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#257

Post by 01100011 »

lelanthran wrote: post #178
01100011 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are way too many people in tech who did it solely for the money. People worry about AI slop but these poseurs have been cranking out garbage for decades. A lot of my career has been cleaning up the mess they've made.

> There are way too many people in tech who did it solely for the money. Well perhaps now, when AI halves your salary, and then halves it again, and the only people left are those who do it for some reason other than a salary, you'll be happier?

If AI did that to my salary it would be a nice wage for a job where I sit in a chair all day so yeah.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#258

Post by keybored »

jamauro wrote: post #256
keybored wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you start on a trek to find the sage with the answer to why idiot sociopaths rule everything, why wars that don’t even benefit the aggressor are started, why there is enough food for everyone twice over but people are still starving... and much more. You’ve been pondering this question for years. You’ve read comments. Wikipedia. You already have a good idea. But you seek the wisdom of the sage. You cross moun…

Is this Gen AI or did you write it?

Don’t insult me.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#259

Post by SpaceNoodled »

monkeyballs wrote: post #60

> The truth is, working in tech always sucked, and never really was what they thought it was. This is just not true. Working in tech (starting 1989) was awesome for me for at least 20 years, and tolerable for quite some time after. The main reason it began to suck was due to business -- corporate acquisitions and mergers and tech-ignorant MBA decisions, for example -- not tech. Working for a good company, solving fun…

Same old story: it was fun and awesome when you started working in the industry, and twenty years later you're jaded and it sucks.

Re: Programming Still Sucks

#260

Post by loose-cannon »

larodi wrote: post #199
maweki wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Society doesn't owe me over $500k/year No it doesn't. But as a human being, you and everybody still deserves a decent living. And our current system clearly does not provide that for a lot of people.

How come is anyone "entitled" to a decent living? I don't think this holds evolutionary, nor from historical perspective. It is commendable for a person to want to think that everyone deserves it, but I don't see it follow from anything or manifest in general in a fair way. There are plenty of examples that people are very likely going to be deprived of even whatever they deserved by means of struggling to get it.

There will always be scarcity and inequality. The point is to minimize/mitigate their effects. Can't you make the same argument for justice? Why does everyone deserve justice? Isn't that just entitlement? What is the historical or evolutionary basis for justice?
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