Terry Tao using coding agents to build apps means we're one step away from a Fields Medalist asking an LLM why his Docker container won't start, just like the rest of us.
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Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
91–100 of 156 posts
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#92Terry Tao using coding agents feels like watching a Michelin-starred chef discover microwave dinners and get genuinely excited about them.
Ferran Adrià published a recipe for an omelette using potato chips.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very humbling thought, thank you.
The humbling thought should be all the blue collar workers on r/vibecoding demoing their apps and games. And then realizing they put together something that would have taken you a few days to do. The supply of software is about to go way up, and that's going to massively impact demand unless every firm on earth is clamoring for more. We're going to see if Jevons paradox holds true, or if wages get impacted drasticall…
Most of the stuff demoed on r/vibecoding are trivial programs, and they’re often buggy and full of holes. If that’s the type of software you produce then yes, you’ll probably be impacted. Thankfully that isn’t the majority of software.
It’s kind of like saying wedding photographers will be impacted because of the people posting on r/iPhoneography. Seems kind of silly doesn’t it.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
The humbling thought should be all the blue collar workers on r/vibecoding demoing their apps and games. And then realizing they put together something that would have taken you a few days to do. The supply of software is about to go way up, and that's going to massively impact demand unless every firm on earth is clamoring for more. We're going to see if Jevons paradox holds true, or if wages get impacted drasticall…
Most of the stuff demoed on r/vibecoding are trivial programs, and they’re often buggy and full of holes. If that’s the type of software you produce then yes, you’ll probably be impacted. Thankfully that isn’t the majority of software. It’s kind of like saying wedding photographers will be impacted because of the people posting on r/iPhoneography. Seems kind of silly doesn’t it.
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Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very humbling thought, thank you.
The humbling thought should be all the blue collar workers on r/vibecoding demoing their apps and games. And then realizing they put together something that would have taken you a few days to do. The supply of software is about to go way up, and that's going to massively impact demand unless every firm on earth is clamoring for more. We're going to see if Jevons paradox holds true, or if wages get impacted drasticall…
Personal software is the future and a person building software for themselves tends to withstand enshittifcation. That's why I love when people open-source projects they love and are passionate about and I will always choose them over proprietary ones.
People always argue "well, Slack and Notion have distribution and the product isn't everything." Ok and? The person making it for themselves doesn't necessarily need distribution for it to be valuable. In fact, it's even more attractive that way.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#96Terry Tao using coding agents feels like watching a Michelin-starred chef discover microwave dinners and get genuinely excited about them.
here you go, Michelin-starred chef: > Marco Pierre White passionately defends chefs using microwaves. White dubbed microwaves “sensational things” and revealed he thinks they’re far better at preparing kippers than any other technique, like boiling or grilling https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/marco-pierre-white-... And another one: > José Andrés, a renowned Michelin-starred chef, New York Times bestselling au…
The comment specifically said "microwave dinners." That's frozen meals you just heat up in the microwave.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#97I always enjoy these "domain expert has fun using AI to do something in their domain" articles. But it's always a hobby project, never something serious.
Having started using Claude Code at work, I think coding as we now know it will probably no longer be a career path in 5 years at the outside. I’m old. If I had to, I could retire tomorrow, albeit on a restricted budget. But I worry about the younger folks (like my 25-year-old nephew) who haven’t built up the resources to survive without working who are in the field right now. There’s going to be a mega disruption an…
It's a race to retool. If he can retool to an agentic coding environment quickly he will be OK. Might have to build up the skills outside of work if the current job doesn't allow for it, but I'm less worried about younger people realigning quickly. They're used to it, and younger people are so much more resilient/used to disappointment than we are (economic prospects have been so fucked for Zoomers for so long by so many "once in a lifetime" events and they still soldier on which is a huge testament to them).
Whether reviewing agentic code rather than writing it is a job he wants to do... Different question.
Its older people who can't or won't retool that are going to find that in the game of musical layoff chairs they won't have a chair left when the music stops (and some I've met haven't really internalized that they're even part of the game...)
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#98I always enjoy these "domain expert has fun using AI to do something in their domain" articles. But it's always a hobby project, never something serious.
Serious things tend to be long and tedious and potentially full of proprietary information.
Open science has plenty of long and tedious articles.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#99Using LLMs to generate dashboards is probably their most productive use case
And then to write installers so your coworkers who aren’t liking instructions like “then make a gpg key and install pinentry-mac” can use the extremely useful vibe coded dashboards to make the prod site transparent and viewable, digestible to eyes.
Re: Old and new apps, via modern coding agents
#100It's probably a matter of short time until it's possible to disassemble any sophisticated software, rewrite it entirely with better features and usability, generate all needed artifacts, port to any platform. The only moat left is probably remote massive data storage. So if you want to replicate YouTube or TikTok, it's not impossible, but requires a lot more hardware assets than say anything that runs entirely locall…
How exactly do you envision this ? you will ask the ai to make youtube but better, people seperate the "what" from the "how" but they have a very complex relationship