61–70 of 101 posts
First, anhedonia is a real psychological crisis. You might want to speak to a professional. Second, the old saying "it's the journey not the destination" is apt here. If you didn't enjoy the process in the first place then even if AI never came around something would have knocked the wind out of your sails. If you love the process what do you care that AI can do it faster? You can still do the thing. Either learn to…
There are plenty of unsolved problems in this world. Rather than rant how seniors still live mostly analog lives because "tech is aimed at 20-somethings", the old saying goes, solving problems that don't make a quick buck and scale to insane (and as we see with Meta, unsustainable) sizes [0] but which meet needs is the definition of "value".
No trillion dollar IPO, just problems solved, and solved more easily (supposedly). Everyone's looking for the goose that lays golden eggs, (and spending trillions to do so) when there's a need for the edible variety. Metaphor; I'm not suggesting going into the egg business.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505036
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg-shockin...
You may have seen the regular stream of youtube videos in your feed with the hook that reads something like "humans will be obsolete in two years" or "software development as a career is over".
I disagree, and furthermore, that's a psyop! Don't believe the hype!
You may have seen the endless stream of technical articles here complaining about the craft going out of coding and devs being reduced to AI slop pull request reviewers.
I scoff at these devs, have they no agency? I also choose to believe they are part of the psyop even if they are real people with real experiences because their articles get boosted with a purpose.
And what do I believe the purpose is? What is the psyop? I think it is many-pronged.
We developers are quite powerful in society, and it is useful to humble us from time to time. It is useful to keep us compliant. Having us accept a dire fate makes it easier to tamp down wage inflation (which helps pay the AI tab in the short term, BTW!).
Also, regarding cycles and generations, having AI pump out an ocean of tech debt creates busy work for future generations to unravel. This make-work aimed at maintaining and fixing things is useful in that it keeps people steadily employed and controls the rate of new development and technological advancement.
Sometimes I muse when I hear stories about AI vendors' ability to "turn up/down" the intelligence factor on coding agents. Is this a fine tuning of the slop error factor getting it just where they need it to be?
I observe in my career that getting developer tools paid for by corporations has been a bit like getting blood from a stone. Yet suddenly, corporate america is in a rush to put this super costly _subscription-based_ tool in my hands. What gives?
Yes, latest fad/bubble/craze. A few sillycon valley tech bros are trying to make a computer god superintelligence to worship and control, maybe, ugh I guess probably some of them.
But, from a metaphysical standpoint, one can argue there is a "spirit" to every age. This age's spirit seems obsessed with management. And, there are high level leaders who are obsessed with managing the human population with ever-increasing fidelity. So of course AI will be the latest finance/technology/information system that is released along those lines.
It's your choice how to proceed, as with all things use your free will. I will observe you do everyone you know and all of your descendants the most good if you constantly strive to have the highest aims.
In my opinion, 'slop' creates an unacceptable crisis. Slop will continue the wheel of wasted energy and potential that we are in now. To break this cycle, developers need to be obsessed with controlled code, zero bugs, and human-led software design.
What does any of that mean in practice? How? The answers come from our community, from thought leaders and taste makers. We need to develop industry standards to judge one another by and then hold one another accountable.
As to you personally and your passion problem, I get it. I am feeling the same. I hope you have a small personal project, maybe never to be shared, that you can at least retreat to when your energy is low.
I recently stayed up late and upgraded the build system on mine, just some busy work I knew I needed to get done and which let me ply some new devops techniques I learned. It felt really good to be reminded that I could be productive and clever even in a low energy situation. And my week improved after that.
Motivational saliency requires both the ability to learn and increasing difficulty - witness video games. The model I think makes sense here is the Csikszentmihalyi Flow model, by another name the challenge-skill model of effort: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#Characterist... Roughly speaking, you might have taken a task that was in the control, flow, or relaxation zone, closer to the center there, a…
I didn’t know that theory but makes sense. When I was little, I was surprised to find that using a Game Genie made a lot of Nintendo games instantly become boring.
Almost everyone is now about to feel what Lee Sedol felt a decade ago. We are all Lee Sedol.
I don’t think it's the same at all. Nobody is interested in watching computers play against each other, so he still can do what he loves. He didn't suddenly have to work with/through machines now.
Isn't that the actual endgame, what we're doing? All tasks done, all software written, everything automated, housing and food for everyone, humanity free to enjoy whatever? So yeah, enjoy whatever makes you happy. Take a break, find a hobby, travel somewhere. Or do nothing, that also works.
Ocean view mansions and steak dinners for everyone!
Isn't that the actual endgame, what we're doing? All tasks done, all software written, everything automated, housing and food for everyone, humanity free to enjoy whatever? So yeah, enjoy whatever makes you happy. Take a break, find a hobby, travel somewhere. Or do nothing, that also works.
> housing and food for everyone This obviously won't happen, because we could do it now, could have done it already, long before AI. Let me know when AI solves greed and cruelty.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A big part of the journey is the exact thing AI took away though! The destination mostly has remained.
If you can't resist the temptation to pull the AI slot machine lever (which is not necessarily a personal failing!), you might want to seriously examine what your actual motivations are. If you have to use AI for your day job, then yeah it sucks the journey is being taken away from you.