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Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

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Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#151

Post by andyjohnson0 »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #71
rdevilla wrote: post #67

Ten years ago, I would have kowtowed to someone elite enough to build something like this. Today, I just think, "how long would LLMs have taken to write this?" I mourn the death of a human artform.

It's far more exciting than sad. Got an idea that you'd need assembly language for - now you can do it instead of..... never doing it because it would have been impossible for you in any practical way. Look to the positive instead of lamenting something that never would have happened. It's unbelievably exciting that you can now program a computer virtually without the limitation of your ability to hand code it.

> Got an idea that you'd need assembly language for - now you can do it instead of..... never doing

But you're not doing it. The ai is doing it.

If the op can write a web server in assembly language then I'm pretty sure they could have done it in a higher-level language. But they did what they did for the journey and the learning along the way. Vibe coding it omits all that, and misses the point of the exercise.

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#152

Post by wkjagt »

rdevilla wrote: post #67

Ten years ago, I would have kowtowed to someone elite enough to build something like this. Today, I just think, "how long would LLMs have taken to write this?" I mourn the death of a human artform.

It doesn't diminish the art form though. If anything, I value these kinds of hand written projects even more now that so many people are pulled in by AI doing their projects for them in a fraction of the time and effort. I love doing these kinds of projects, and I love writing assembly, but I must admit that the temptation of just copy pasting generated code is big sometimes, because it's _right there_. In this context, seeing someone handwriting something awesome by hand is even more valuable to me.

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#153

Post by pocksuppet »

locknitpicker wrote: post #131
fuzzy2 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an odd take. It is often titled "software craftsmanship". Is the craftsman not allowed to practice? Not everything needs an immediate real-world application. Not everything needs to be enterprise-grade, bulletproof, web-scale or whatever. It needs to work for the creator, and sometimes not even that. In the same way we appreciate Japanese wood joinery, why not not just appreciate this? Someone might even learn a…

> What an odd take. It is often titled "software craftsmanship". No, not really. This is exactly the opposite example of software craftsmanship. Software craftsmanship involves things like technical excellence in delivering maintainable software that is adaptable to change. Picking assembly, of all things, for a web server represents a complete failure in the analysis of both the problem and solution domain. https://…

Would a craftsman not become a craftsman by honing his or her skills on seemingly pointless projects?

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#154

Post by tkiolp4 »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #71
rdevilla wrote: post #67

Ten years ago, I would have kowtowed to someone elite enough to build something like this. Today, I just think, "how long would LLMs have taken to write this?" I mourn the death of a human artform.

It's far more exciting than sad. Got an idea that you'd need assembly language for - now you can do it instead of..... never doing it because it would have been impossible for you in any practical way. Look to the positive instead of lamenting something that never would have happened. It's unbelievably exciting that you can now program a computer virtually without the limitation of your ability to hand code it.

You won’t be able to enjoy your free time playing with computers if anthropic et al make you jobless.

The “you” doesn’t necessarily refer to you. Im addressing 90% of the developers out there. We love playing around technology… but I doubt we will be thinking the same once we become unemployable. But here we are, having fun with the tools of companies that want to finish us. How ironic

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#156

Post by tkiolp4 »

noduerme wrote: post #62
Thanemate wrote: post #56

I'm oddly enthusiastic about seeing someone who beings the HACKER in HackerNews. But at the same time, this made me remember the days when display of skill and craftsmanship were rewarded in the industry. Maybe it's finally time to move on from being a career programmer.

What a dismissive comment. Now that anyone can have an LLM write code for them, the only people who have value to bring to a project are the ones who can improve upon the LLM's output. That is, the ones who have a deep enough understanding of the logic and language. And the only people who will ever be in that position are the ones who take the time and effort, out of sheer curiosity, to learn how things work. Whatev…

Don’t be naive. Anthropics (et al) mission is to make us unemployable. They need to sell their tools to companies so that they can finally discard 90% of their workforce. It’s a win win for companies and for anthropic (et al). Obviously we are the losers in the middle. And people around here on HN may think they cannot be affected, that they are the elite class of developers… they are gonna get hurt

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#158

Post by toshikatsu-oga »

Love the honesty in the title. I'm 49, learned to code two years ago after 30 years as a carpenter, and "to give my life meaning" hits closer than most career ladders ever did.

Bookmarking this — going to read the source on my Sunday off.

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#159

Post by lpcvoid »

ninalanyon wrote: post #145
rdevilla wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is the death of the celebration of excellence and technical mastery. Once insurmountable challenges are now trivial to implement with, as you say, "low effort." For those who were attracted to computing by the grind and the grand narrative that you, too, with sufficient effort, discipline, and merit, could become a revered craftsman, LLMs trivialize an entire lifetime of practice. I can't think of anything…

Would you apply the same reasoning to the building of horse drawn carriages and mass produced motor vehicles? A hand built PDP-11 to a Thinkpad?

[dead]

Re: Show HN: Building a web server in assembly to give my life (a lack of) meaning

#160

Post by i_love_retros »

rdevilla wrote: post #67

Ten years ago, I would have kowtowed to someone elite enough to build something like this. Today, I just think, "how long would LLMs have taken to write this?" I mourn the death of a human artform.

It's not just art though. It's human thinking and problem solving and learning that is dying.
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