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I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

blog.miguelgrinberg.com

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Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#21

Post by janalsncm »

kvark wrote: post #4

We had a process at one company where you had to create an issue before filing a PR. I found it most non-sensical and introducing friction for no good reason. Very surprised to see the author suggesting it in the article. Review is indeed the main bottleneck now for open source, and we need to solve it. Introducing more friction is hardly helping.

The author is describing a method for turning a low trust/no trust environment into a slightly higher trust environment.

A company is usually already a high-trust environment, where people use real names and have real reputations. So creating an issue cannot serve the purpose of increasing trust.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#22

Post by satisfice »

awhitty wrote: post #14
dude250711 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they shoot a little artistic clip with their nice modern iPhone camera, it does not mean they get to insert it into a Hollywood movie.

This analogy makes no sense to me and honestly skews pretty elitist in vibe. iPhone is regularly used in professional videography now. Like, 28 Years Later was shot on iPhone. Indie filmmakers have been using iPhone to break into the industry for years.

Films aren’t open open to random contributions by casual volunteers. It’s not about iPhones.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#23

Post by d1l »

The question that resonated with me was whether open source even matters anymore.

I think it does but there are weird dynamics I don’t fully understand. I’m curious about HNs thoughts.

My theories: Centralization around key projects due to AI pointing new users towards them. (At the same time this drives up the PR deluge onto these projects. Especially from newer users already heavily using llms.)

So many low effort AI-generated open source libraries that it becomes harder to tell signal from slop. More movement to the bigger projects because they are perceived as safer bets.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#24

Post by mostlysimilar »

ctoth wrote: post #3

The thing is I totally, 100% get this. The other thing I can't help but see though is how excited my non-programmer friends are to finally be able to make software. The sense of pride and accomplishment from non-coders who are finally able to make something work the way they wanted to. We almost need like ... noncanonical software? Not so much forks, but like ... Maybe software as like a cluster? an ecosystem? On-dem…

> sense of pride and accomplishment

What? Pride of what? What accomplishment?

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#25

Post by Trasmatta »

ctoth wrote: post #3

The thing is I totally, 100% get this. The other thing I can't help but see though is how excited my non-programmer friends are to finally be able to make software. The sense of pride and accomplishment from non-coders who are finally able to make something work the way they wanted to. We almost need like ... noncanonical software? Not so much forks, but like ... Maybe software as like a cluster? an ecosystem? On-dem…

> The other thing I can't help but see though is how excited my non-programmer friends are to finally be able to make software. The sense of pride and accomplishment from non-coders who are finally able to make something work the way they wanted to.

There was nothing stopping them from making software before... Over the past ~15 years, the amount of resources to learn programming, and to make the whole process approachable, is staggering. It just took some time and effort. People are just excited that they can skip past the effort part now. But we've lost something in the process.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#26

Post by weinzierl »

The article closes with the question: "Does open source matter anymore?"

I wouldn’t pretend to have an answer. of course. Opens Source means, always meant, different things to different people.

I know what always counted for me:

1. Copyleft License

2. No CLA or Copyright assignment

3. Diverse group of contributors

I sympathize with Miguels point but it bothers me it clashes with point 3 in my list. If you hand select your contributors[1] you will never reach the diversity necessary to effectively make relicensing impossible. Without that Open Source matters less to me.

[1] I admit that controlled set of known contributors has other advantages too.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#27

Post by Trasmatta »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #24
ctoth wrote: post #3

The thing is I totally, 100% get this. The other thing I can't help but see though is how excited my non-programmer friends are to finally be able to make software. The sense of pride and accomplishment from non-coders who are finally able to make something work the way they wanted to. We almost need like ... noncanonical software? Not so much forks, but like ... Maybe software as like a cluster? an ecosystem? On-dem…

> sense of pride and accomplishment What? Pride of what? What accomplishment?

People are very proud of their prompts I guess

It's like people being proud of the AI slop art they produce

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#28

Post by unacorner »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #24
ctoth wrote: post #3

The thing is I totally, 100% get this. The other thing I can't help but see though is how excited my non-programmer friends are to finally be able to make software. The sense of pride and accomplishment from non-coders who are finally able to make something work the way they wanted to. We almost need like ... noncanonical software? Not so much forks, but like ... Maybe software as like a cluster? an ecosystem? On-dem…

> sense of pride and accomplishment What? Pride of what? What accomplishment?

Maybe building something? It doesn't matter much that the programming language was English and built by an LLM and a harness. They created something they wanted that wasn't there before.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#29

Post by mostlysimilar »

unacorner wrote: post #28
mostlysimilar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sense of pride and accomplishment What? Pride of what? What accomplishment?

Maybe building something? It doesn't matter much that the programming language was English and built by an LLM and a harness. They created something they wanted that wasn't there before.

It does matter. Drawing a stick figure and having a machine print over it with a realistic image doesn't make you an artist, and no, you shouldn't be proud of it.

Re: I Am Not a Reverse Centaur

#30

Post by the_af »

unacorner wrote: post #28
mostlysimilar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sense of pride and accomplishment What? Pride of what? What accomplishment?

Maybe building something? It doesn't matter much that the programming language was English and built by an LLM and a harness. They created something they wanted that wasn't there before.

I get where you're coming from, but for completely non-technical people, it seems to me the more precise analogy is not "building" but "ordering online". Or hiring someone to do something for you.

If you order a pizza from an app, and assume you can pick ingredients from a checklist, would you consider it "making" a pizza? Would people get the feeling of accomplishment?

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