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It is an amazing time for programmers

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Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#51

Post by clbrmbr »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #47
jdw64 wrote: post #7

I also want to communicate with someone and have programming conversations. There's no one around me to talk about programming with. I'm the only programmer around. Aside from AI and books, I sometimes want to talk with a real person.

I live in an area dominated by finance and commerce people (New York Suburbs). I’ve learned not to talk about what I do, as I see eyes glaze over, quickly, when I do. If I were to talk about the commodities exchanges, though, we’d be chatting up a storm. I miss having people to talk to, about this stuff. The few techhies around, tend to freeze me out. They all like going into Brooklyn, to hang out. I guess that’s one…

Which suburb, haha. I’m in Englewood and have similar experience of very few tech folks around.

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#52

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

clbrmbr wrote: post #51
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an area dominated by finance and commerce people (New York Suburbs). I’ve learned not to talk about what I do, as I see eyes glaze over, quickly, when I do. If I were to talk about the commodities exchanges, though, we’d be chatting up a storm. I miss having people to talk to, about this stuff. The few techhies around, tend to freeze me out. They all like going into Brooklyn, to hang out. I guess that’s one…

Which suburb, haha. I’m in Englewood and have similar experience of very few tech folks around.

Long Island (Huntington area).

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#53

Post by jdw64 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #49
wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most places there are software meetups, in my area there are many at meetup.com. I once started one myself, that later got taken over and is still quite big. Actually a lot of fun, and at the time we would even get sponsoring offers quite quickly.

We have them around here. I stopped going, because the “circle of avoidance” around me makes me self-conscious. The ageism in New York, is even worse than in Silicon Valley.

[dead]

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#54

Post by senda »

chrishill89 wrote: post #5

I wrote an essay and sent it to Chomsky once. He wrote back that he probably won't have time to read it. Some years ago I realized that I can just start sending emails to an OSS mailing list. Without introduction just starting to post as if I belonged there. I had already made some grammar fixes more than five years before that but I started to comment and critique submissions. And submitting my own patches. Now chec…

Chomsky was always amazing for this.

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#55

Post by krapp »

This seems to be a submarine advertisement for a telephony API startup.

It seems like it's been around for a few years so it probably isn't vibe-coded, but I do wonder if even small services like this will inevitably be gobbled up by AI. Like I know it probably isn't the case but I've become so jaded now that I'm looking at their teams page and wonder if these are even real people.

Yes it's an amazing time for programmers but only in a "twilight of the gods" sense. The time for community passed about a decade ago, before Twitter turned into a Nazi bar and everything went entirely to shit. There's a little bit left but it's dying fast. Why would any of these people want to waste their time talking to the community that wants to assimilate their work and replace it with the mediocre shit dribbled from a Claude prompt? These people don't need your emails, they're probably already deluged with bots as it is.

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#56

Post by jdw64 »

8-prime wrote: post #37
jdw64 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thanks!

If you do end up joining feel free to dm me. same user as here.

I'm not sure about the DM feature, but I like this more than I thought. I don't have any memories of the TUI environment (most of my memories are from IRC), but it has an IRC feel to it, so I like it

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#57

Post by UpAndOut »

jdw64 wrote: post #7

I also want to communicate with someone and have programming conversations. There's no one around me to talk about programming with. I'm the only programmer around. Aside from AI and books, I sometimes want to talk with a real person.

I recently moved to London. Would be really really happy to meet up with others who enjoy computers/hobbyists. If you have a blog, I'm interested in meeting you! There are too many corporate events here and almost no hobbyist groups.

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#58

Post by austin-cheney »

Quite the gap.

The legends the article talks about are legends because they either started a project that blew up in popularity and/or solved a demanded problem with original code.

For most people writing software for a living that is gone. Its been gone since I started writing software 20 years ago. The goal post has moved. Its no longer about solving any problem. Its about hiring.

The distinction is massive. Most of the people doing this work will never encounter an important problem to solve or write original code. Instead they will use tools and modify templates. There is still some troubleshooting there, but no originality. Its like being a plumber. Plumbers still make good money, but they aren't engineers. Now, with AI being pushed on everybody even becoming something like a plumber is becoming a distant gap for the next generation.

The most clear exception are hobbyists, which has always been there as an exception through my years writing software. The only real distinction between most of these hobbyists and the legends is obscurity. The very real distinction between the hobbyists and less original professional is time spent practicing.

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#59

Post by francisofascii »

ZaoLahma wrote: post #15
jdw64 wrote: post #7

I also want to communicate with someone and have programming conversations. There's no one around me to talk about programming with. I'm the only programmer around. Aside from AI and books, I sometimes want to talk with a real person.

I (software engineer) have lived with a software engineer for 14 years. We (half jokingly, somewhat seriously) refer to non-software engineers as "real persons", or human-humans.

AKA "Normies" (heard on Scott Hanselman's podcast)

Re: It is an amazing time for programmers

#60

Post by laughing_man »

austin-cheney wrote: post #58

Quite the gap. The legends the article talks about are legends because they either started a project that blew up in popularity and/or solved a demanded problem with original code. For most people writing software for a living that is gone. Its been gone since I started writing software 20 years ago. The goal post has moved. Its no longer about solving any problem. Its about hiring. The distinction is massive. Most o…

As my brother said once with exasperation: "I got into this business to write code, and now I'm just an integrator."
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