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The Programmer Identity Crisis

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Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#11

Post by skydhash »

Legend2440 wrote: post #9
pteetor wrote: post #7

When COBOL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" When SQL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" Now we have AI prompting, and some people are saying, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" Really?

The problem I have with this argument is that it actually is English this time. COBOL and SQL aren't English, they're formal languages with keywords that look like English. LLMs work with informal language in a way that computers have never been able to before.

Say that to the prompt guys and their AGENT.md rules.

Formalism is way easier than whatever this guys are concocting. And true programmer bliss is live programming. Common programming is like writing a sheet music and having someone else play it. Live programming is you at the instrument tweaking each part.

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#12

Post by johnisgood »

happytoexplain wrote: post #8
psunavy03 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That says more about your lack of writing skills and understanding of grammar than AI.

That's simply not true, and pointlessly derogatory. This article does not appear to be AI-written, but use of the emdash is undeniably correlated with AI writing. Your reasoning would only make sense if the emdash existed on keyboards. It's reasonable for even good writers to not know how or not care to do the extra keystrokes to type an emdash when they're just writing a blog post - that doesn't mean they have bad w…

Pressing "-" and a space gets replaced by an emdash to me in LibreOffice. No extra keystrokes required.

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#14

Post by Terr_ »

happytoexplain wrote: post #8
psunavy03 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That says more about your lack of writing skills and understanding of grammar than AI.

That's simply not true, and pointlessly derogatory. This article does not appear to be AI-written, but use of the emdash is undeniably correlated with AI writing. Your reasoning would only make sense if the emdash existed on keyboards. It's reasonable for even good writers to not know how or not care to do the extra keystrokes to type an emdash when they're just writing a blog post - that doesn't mean they have bad w…

> That's simply not true, and pointlessly derogatory.

That same critique should first be aimed at the topmost comment, which has the same problem plus the added guilt of originating (A) a false dichotomy and (B) the derogatory tone that naturally colors later replies.

> It's reasonable for even good writers to not know how or not care

The text is true, but in context there's an implied fallacy: If X is "reasonable", it does not follow that Not-X is unreasonable.

More than enough (reasonable) real humans do add em-dashes when they write. When it comes to a long-form blog post—like this one submitted to HN—it's even more likely than usual!

> the extra keystrokes

Such as alt + numpad 0150 on Windows, which has served me well when on that platform for... gosh, decades now.

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#15

Post by almosthere »

defgeneric wrote: post #13
protontypes wrote: post #3

Whenever I see an em dash (—), I suspect the entire text was written by an AI.

I'm seeing this reaction a lot from younger people (say, roughly under 25). And it's a shame this new suspicion has now translated into a prohibition on the use of dashes.

It's comical too because the only reason AI uses emdashes is because it was so common before AI.

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#16

Post by acuozzo »

happytoexplain wrote: post #8
psunavy03 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That says more about your lack of writing skills and understanding of grammar than AI.

That's simply not true, and pointlessly derogatory. This article does not appear to be AI-written, but use of the emdash is undeniably correlated with AI writing. Your reasoning would only make sense if the emdash existed on keyboards. It's reasonable for even good writers to not know how or not care to do the extra keystrokes to type an emdash when they're just writing a blog post - that doesn't mean they have bad w…

> use of the emdash is undeniably correlated with AI writing

Where do you think the training data came from?

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#17

Post by [deleted] »

pteetor wrote: post #7

When COBOL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" When SQL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" Now we have AI prompting, and some people are saying, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!" Really?

[deleted]

Re: The Programmer Identity Crisis

#20

Post by AnyTimeTraveler »

mentalgear wrote: post #2

[flagged]

What?

This website

1. reacts well to my system preference of a dark theme in my news-reader

2. has a toggle at the top for dark theme

3. works flawlessly with DarkReader in my browser

Until I saw your comment, I didn't even know the website had a light version.

Again: What?

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