Off-topic but is there any independent study that has documented impact of AI on contractual work for software devs?
Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?
11–14 of 14 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?
#12Legacy tech work. I get almost no calls for modern dev stacks, but I'm kept as busy fixing and modernizing legacy apps on legacy stacks, and helping to get their data moved to a modern environment. I'm not drowning in calls or anything - but they come in often enough to keep me working.
You could say not-well-disciplined vibe-coded projects are in the same bucket as legacy apps from day 1, right?
Honestly, no - vibe coded projects that aren't done well never launch. So if you ever reach a "Day 1", you did well enough that you can probably roll with it for a couple years before you need a rescue. And if your business survives those couple years, it means you've hit the market correctly, which should then be able to fund a project to re-architect for sustainability.
Also, vibe coded apps are almost by definition something that an AI can iterate on because it came from an LLM in the first place. Legacy apps tend to exclude LLM-based assistance because the models' training is insufficient on obscure ancient tech stacks.
Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?
#13> It seems with AI people are just not willing to hire devs for their pet projects anymore? Not willing? Genuinely why would I? A dev is going to cost more, work slower and be less likely to give me exactly what I ask for. I don't mean to be blunt, but you need to look for something else to do imo. This isn't 2016.
Why would a dev be less likely to give you exactly what you ask for lmao that's completely wrong
Maybe like 50% can do a decent job...
Either way, not sure why you would pay a dev over getting a Claude subscription.
Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would a dev be less likely to give you exactly what you ask for lmao that's completely wrong
Maybe like 50% can do a decent job... Either way, not sure why you would pay a dev over getting a Claude subscription.
Because it's more reliable? They can use Claude better than you can for that matter