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AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

ivanturkovic.com

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Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#291

Post by lelanthran »

amelius wrote: post #72
randomtoast wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N=2 form the same author: https://www.ivanturkovic.com/2026/02/24/first-1000-lines-det... > AI is an in-context learner, not a standards enforcer. > The AI is not judging your code. It is learning from it. > Speed without structure is not speed. It is borrowed time. > This is not about premature optimization or over-engineering. It is about giving the AI the patterns it needs to work effectively on your behalf. > Thi…

AI learned this figure of speech from humans. Even the frequency in which it is used is copied from humans. So you can't really use it to determine if something is written by an AI or not.

> AI learned this figure of speech from humans. Even the frequency in which it is used is copied from humans.

Can you point to examples of these patterns with the same frequency in any written content dated any time prior to 2024?

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#292

Post by lelanthran »

kevinsync wrote: post #182
RivieraKid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that before AI, 1% of the population was capable of creating 1 side project per year. After AI, 10% of the population is capable of creating 10 side projects per year. The competition grew by 100x. The pessimist in me thinks that the window of opportunity to create something successful is shrinking.

> The pessimist in me thinks that the window of opportunity to create something successful is shrinking. Dunno man. Ideas alone aren't worth anything [0] and execution is everything [1], but good ideas and great execution will never go out of style regardless of how much competition is out there. I'm of the opinion that even if 10% of the population is now capable of creating a side project, there's still the same re…

> I'm of the opinion that even if 10% of the population is now capable of creating a side project, there's still the same relatively-fixed amount of people capable of making a good side project, and even fewer who will see it through to a real product. Nothing has really changed in the aggregate.

What do you mean "nothing has changed"? Using your numbers, the SNR went off a cliff.

Use HN as an example - I used read the new stories all the time before they hit the frontpage, and upvote as needed.

But with 100s of slop submitted for every 1 actual good article, I can't do that anymore.

IOW, I have finite time. If 10% of the population is now able to vomit out side-projects, I am never going to find the one good one because it will be lost in a sea of rubbish.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#293

Post by danans »

necovek wrote: post #266
danans wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The _actual_ open source system consisted of hackers scratching their own itch and sharing the artifacts, because (it was assumed that) sharing is free. So if the work is already done and solved their problem, why not also share it as gift. If you have the time tona scratch your own itch and gift the results, it implies you have a source of income that gives you the time/lifestyle to do such a thing. You might be a…

You think there won't be students or academics anymore? Arguably, most non-corporate-supported (when that became a thing) FOSS was created by students and academics. So what is really changing?

> So what is really changing?

Higher education is less affordable and accessible to more families, and the value proposition is eroding. CS academics survive by joint ventures with corporations, not by their University salaries.

Escalating cost of living and reduction in institutional support systems push more people toward allocating their scarce spare time toward fundamental needs rather than contributing to the software commons.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#294

Post by ramoz »

herodoturtle wrote: post #278

Lots of comments here critiquing the article for allegedly being written by AI. I see the post is even flagged now. Irrespective of who wrote it or how it was written, the essay is packed with wisdom. I’ve been programming for 30+ years and leading teams for the last 20 - and I found the essay deeply insightful. I realise I’m a sample size of 1, but just figured I’d comment here to advocate against this post being fl…

why was it flagged?

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#295

Post by fauigerzigerk »

herodoturtle wrote: post #278

Lots of comments here critiquing the article for allegedly being written by AI. I see the post is even flagged now. Irrespective of who wrote it or how it was written, the essay is packed with wisdom. I’ve been programming for 30+ years and leading teams for the last 20 - and I found the essay deeply insightful. I realise I’m a sample size of 1, but just figured I’d comment here to advocate against this post being fl…

I'm not opposed to AI generated text in principle. But not knowing how it was written is problematic, because it can change the meaning of the text. Take this paragraph for instance:

"From my experience building and scaling teams in fintech and high-traffic platforms, I can tell you that role expansion without clear boundaries always leads to the same outcome: people try to do everything, nothing gets done with the depth it requires, and burnout follows."

This reads like a first person account of someone's experience. Is it though? If it's nobody's experience then it robs this text of its meaning. If it is somebody's experience and that person used AI to improve their style then that's absolutely fine with me.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#296

Post by necovek »

RivieraKid wrote: post #229
kevinsync wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pessimist in me thinks that the window of opportunity to create something successful is shrinking. Dunno man. Ideas alone aren't worth anything [0] and execution is everything [1], but good ideas and great execution will never go out of style regardless of how much competition is out there. I'm of the opinion that even if 10% of the population is now capable of creating a side project, there's still the same re…

Disagree. Ideas were a necessary component of the one project I had success with. BTW, the line between ideas and execution is blurred. Is coming up with innovative UI and features ideas or execution?

Ideas are obviously a prerequisite, but they aren't "worth anything" because there is so many of them and without them being executed well (or sometimes, executed at all), they don't really bring any value.

So really, they are comparatively cheap. I, for one, have hundreds of ideas, but always lacked the time to execute on 5% of them.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#297

Post by seanmcdirmid »

nunez wrote: post #265
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe people who liked writing code also like writing prompts to write code? And yes, there are also traditionalists who think the old ways are the best ways.

It's not about "best" or "traditional," though your bias is clearly set. "Write me a feature that does _x_" isn't satisfying for me, and, like the author said in the post, it sucks that people that think otherwise are telling me that my way is the "old way", as you put it. (It's doubly-ironic for me, as I actually like writing documentation!)

> "Write me a feature that does _x_" isn't satisfying for me, and, like the author said in the post, it sucks that people that think otherwise are telling me that my way is the "old way", as you put it.

Ya, no. It’s not that easy. Programming with prompts is much more intellectually challenging, maybe it will be like that in 5-10 years? Right now we are in a productivity increase that is more similar to interactive terminals over using punch cards.

I wonder if the traditionalists simply don’t understand the tech, they seem to have made some whacky unfounded assumptions about it.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#298

Post by kevinsync »

lelanthran wrote: post #292
kevinsync wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pessimist in me thinks that the window of opportunity to create something successful is shrinking. Dunno man. Ideas alone aren't worth anything [0] and execution is everything [1], but good ideas and great execution will never go out of style regardless of how much competition is out there. I'm of the opinion that even if 10% of the population is now capable of creating a side project, there's still the same re…

> I'm of the opinion that even if 10% of the population is now capable of creating a side project, there's still the same relatively-fixed amount of people capable of making a good side project, and even fewer who will see it through to a real product. Nothing has really changed in the aggregate. What do you mean "nothing has changed"? Using your numbers, the SNR went off a cliff. Use HN as an example - I used read t…

Correct, but I was replying to the assertion that more slop == decreasing ability to create something good and successful. That's a common trope that people deploy with regards to everything: music, movies, books, social media accounts, brands, blogs, pizza shops, whatever, and it's consistently shown to be false. Plus, we don't live in a monoculture anymore, the SNR you're thinking of is proportional to the mainstream. Successful things nowadays are far more siloed, specific, and serve distinct niches.

And you're right that people still have limited, fixed bandwidth with regards to attention available to give to things.. and the same amount of things that break through doesn't change from what could break through and stick before (in the monoculture). But the amount of niches/verticals where you have the opportunity to break through inside of is significantly higher than ever. That gives you a better chance for success, because your audience is more targeted, more receptive, hungrier for authenticity, hungrier for quality, and desperate for connection to something they like.

TL;DR if you have a good, valuable idea that people want (or don't yet know that they want), execute it well, deliver something that is undeniable, promote it effectively, and stick it out for the long haul, you'll find success. There's no magic formula beyond that, and it doesn't matter if there are 10 or 10 million amateurs clogging the toilet bowl next to you.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#299

Post by wolletd »

lelanthran wrote: post #281
wolletd wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know... The part you'd like to remove ("Not managing code...") may be not required to convey the objective meaning of the sentence, but humans have emotions, too. I could have written stuff like that. To build up a bigger emotional picture. > The act of thinking through a problem, designing a solution, and expressing it precisely in a language that makes a machine do exactly what you intended. This sentence m…

> Because humans write like this. Not when they do professional writing maybe, but when they just ramble. I keep seeing this assertion and I keep responding "Please, point to the volume of writing with this specific cadence that has a date prior to 2024" and I keep getting... crickets! You're asserting that this is a common way for humans to write, correct? Should be pretty easy, then, to find a large volume of examp…

Like I said: I think I write like this on some occasions.

I wouldn't know how I would search for examples. I guess you'd have to search old reddit comment threads or something. But yeah, I have no motivation to do that, tbh. It could be that it's hard to find examples because they are scattered about in countless comment threads and single posts on countless platforms. Things I rarely keep links to, things nobody indexed on a large scale before LLMs.

It may be that it wasn't a very popular style of writing, because most people don't like writing a lot and keep their texts on the internet short. LLMs exaggerate this style because they generate exaggerative amounts of text in general. The style wasn't particularly annoying in the past because it wasn't that popular. It's annoying now because LLMs flood the internet with it.

The quoted example in particular didn't appear uncanny to me. And it still doesn't. I can see myself writing like that. I'm sorry I have no example for you. But I'm genuinely unsure whether I'm oblivious to the patterns others see, or whether others see patterns because they want to see them.

Re: AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder

#300

Post by SecretDreams »

lelanthran wrote: post #282
SecretDreams wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it's such a lack of self respect and respect for others when people write using AI on personal blogs. Reading AI code is very pleasant. It's well annotated and consistent - how I like to read code (although not how I write code LOL). Reading language/opinions is not meant to be this way. It becomes repetitive, boring, and feels super derivative. Why would you turn the main way we communicate with each oth…

> I feel like it's such a lack of self respect and respect for others when people write using AI on personal blogs. Not so sure about the respect aspect: I have lots of self-respect, but I don't generally broadcast respect for random other people when I write my blogs - the most recent one even called readers stupid, IIRC! I feel it's more a matter of expression of contempt: if you can't be bothered to write it, WTF…

If you're writing an online blog with the intention that people are to read it, there should be some semblance of respect for their time and respect for your craft. IMO.
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