I stopped at
"The hard part of software engineering was never writing the code."
Better read https://blog.senko.net/code-was-never-the-hard-part-is-an-in...
Is it all just vapourware?
131–140 of 206 posts
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
The tests and notebooks maybe: not the unrolling and re-architecting to use masking SIMD-ification. I used to do SIMD stuff a lot over the last 17 years, and it would have taken me probably a day to do that (convert 7 algorithms, all with support for various wrapping/mirroring/clamping extent-handling, so around 800 raw source file lines of templated C++) to use SIMD - and well. Then it probably would have taken me a…
Sorry, but this is just not a complex or hard task in image processing. Image resizing is a staple algorithm as common as bread and butter.
You could convert ~800 lines of scalar float processing templated C++ code that used mixins for wrapping logic and float/double to well-optimised SIMD code for two different ISAs (without using wrapper class helpers, it wrote the full intrinsics) in under 5 minutes and write tests for them at the same time?
It's the time compression I'm impressed with.
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#133It's August 9, 2026 and if you're a software engineer who hasn't had multiple "holy shit, I can't believe it just did that" moments, it's time to consider a new trade.
Okay. Please generate using an AI model code for a safety-critical system which is able to be incorporated into an aircraft and that passes the coding standards and requirements in that domain and come back and tell us all about it. Surely, if AI was so good across the entire domain of software engineering, this would be trivial to do. Edit: although you might be subject to an NDA... But this is pretty much my test f…
Okay. Please write such a system yourself.
Most programmers are not experienced enough to write such code themselves off-hand, but more importantly, the safety-critical systems are made safe by following a strict process, not by skills of individuals, which makes it orthogonal to involvement of LLMs.
Also, weird choice of example. 99.9% of coding is not safety-critical, so whatever reservations this would imply (even if it actually doesn't imply any), don't apply anyway.
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah this take is wrong. I used Claude code with my custom skill and I wrote a more performant scheduler than the default Linux one in Rust. It's not just productivity, it's life changing.
Sure, it just seems a little odd that no LLMgineer ever contributes their incredible more performant scheduler back though right? After all if you can do it with claude, anyone can, all it'd take is to ask claude to rewrite it. Linux accepts LLM generated PRs, all the code has to do is meet the review bar and one of the most critical pieces of software engineering on the planet gets better for everyone
Why does it seem odd when people who do attempt to contribute back are attacked?
AI lowers the bar to making submissions which permits flawed subissions to be thoughtlessly submitted by people who don't really understand what they are doing, technically or culturally.
It does, however, enable people who put in the effort to work on something significant. Those people are fewer in number, but exist. They do get to see the animosity that unwitting novices receive.
I don't think it would be surprising for those people to opt out of engaging with a toxic environment.
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do only the poor quality LLM code generation users make PRs to open source projects, and never the engineers that know how to really use it correctly? It could be that the engineers who are extremely productive with LLMs are landing PRs that look indistinguishable from good, hand-written PRs.
LLM code is obvious to spot. If an LLM designed a screwdriver set it would make a screwdriver for each head instead of making a replaceable head. LLMs are superhuman at short term coding such as debugging and writing tests though and you're missing out by not using them there.
> LLM code is obvious to spot. If an LLM designed a screwdriver set it would make a screwdriver for each head instead of making a replaceable head.
Commercial and industrial electricians are LLMs now?
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay. Please generate using an AI model code for a safety-critical system which is able to be incorporated into an aircraft and that passes the coding standards and requirements in that domain and come back and tell us all about it. Surely, if AI was so good across the entire domain of software engineering, this would be trivial to do. Edit: although you might be subject to an NDA... But this is pretty much my test f…
Long bet: the NTSB will require all transportation software to be submitted for independent review, and that review process will be heavily automated by AI, within 5 years. Take it?
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Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
If so, where are all the new features in the open-source projects I use? Why hasn't GIMP replicated Photoshop? Why hasn't CUDA been fully reverse-engineered as an open source toolchain? These are unreasonable expectations, but only in response to unreasonable claims of productivity. What before took ten years should now only take one, right? It seems likely that the gains from generating tons of code are being offset…
Yeah, why hasn't AMD added every single CUDA feature lol
Why are Amazon and Walmarts mobile apps still janky crap that costs them money? Why does Meta still have four redundant, broken sign-up flows before you can give them money to advertise?
Wherever these “10000x” engineering gains are… I’m wondering why they’re only for shit nobody sees or touches.
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did but it was followed by "holy shit now I gotta review this +3000 -500 LOC PR full of subtly wrong abstractions, needless diversions and incorrect assumptions". People keep repeating your sentiment here but I simply can't follow, are we even on the same planet? Or did everyone switch to just not caring about maintainability and code quality anymore? Or are your work tasks simply so mindnumbingly, stupidly simple…
You have to have a team of agents with different roles reviewing that for you. An Advocate, a Skeptic, an Architect, a Security Engineer, a Disgruntled User, a Single Mom, a Clueless CTO, etc. each provides their unique prospective on the change. Then you have a Remediator and a Consolidator to address the feedback. Finally a Liquidator in case of a catastrophic failure.
I prefer to have a Clippy agent that identifies code that should be copied and pasted into random locations for no good reason. You may think it's not necessary given how LLMs operate, but I have found it's critical for 10x gains.
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do only the poor quality LLM code generation users make PRs to open source projects, and never the engineers that know how to really use it correctly? It could be that the engineers who are extremely productive with LLMs are landing PRs that look indistinguishable from good, hand-written PRs.
LLM code is obvious to spot. If an LLM designed a screwdriver set it would make a screwdriver for each head instead of making a replaceable head. LLMs are superhuman at short term coding such as debugging and writing tests though and you're missing out by not using them there.
So... basically an autocomplete to help you type faster and spot check if you did something unusual in the parts you wrote by hand?
Re: Is it all just vapourware?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Might I recommend HVAC or plumbing, it's honorable work and pays well. Trim trees if you've got the body for it. I don't recommend web work, the last ten years or the next ten. Wouldn't touch the stuff. I skipped the phone app era, too.
Why is there honor in HVAC? Family honor?
You're definitely doing something with a net good impact on people instead of making the next ad tracking software or camera image recognition loop.