31–40 of 317 posts
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
I really enjoy programming and like the author said, it's my hobby.
On some level I kind of resent the fact that I don't really get to do my hobby for work any more. It's something fundamentally different now.
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
I very much enjoy the end product and I also enjoy designing (not necessarily programming) a program that fits my needs, but rarely implementing, as I have issues focusing on things.
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
I consider myself an engineer — a problem solver. Like you said, code is just the means to solve the problems put before me.
I’m just as content if solving the problem turns out to be a process change or user education instead of a code commit.
I have no fetish for my terminal window or IDE.
For me, at least, this has not been the case. If I leave the creative puzzle-solving to the machine, it's gonna get creative alright, and create me a mess to clean up. Whether this will be true in the future, hard to say. But, for now, I am happy to let the machines write all the React code I don't feel like writing while I think about other things.
Additionally, as an aside, I already don't think coding is always a craft. I think we want it to be one because it gives us the aura of craftspeople. We want to imagine ourselves as bent over a hunk of marble, carving a masterpiece in our own way, in our time. And for some of us, that is true. For most programmers in human history though, they were already slinging slop before anybody had coined the term. Where is the inherent dignity and human spirit on display in the internal admin tool at a second tier insurance company? Certainly, there is business value there, but it doesn't require a Michalengo to make something that takes in a pdf and spits out a slightly changed pdf.
Most code is already industrial code, which is precisely the opposite of code as craft. We are dissociated from the code we write, the company owns it, not us, which is by definition the opposite of a craftsmen and craft mode of production. I think AI is putting a finer, sharper point on this, but it was already there and has been since the beginning of the field.
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
...
> doesn't add value
What about intrinsic value? So many programmers on HN seem to just want to be MBAs in their heart of hearts
> One could only wonder why they became a programmer in the first place, given their seeming disinterest in coding. To solve problems. Coding is the means to an end, not the end itself. > careful configuration of our editor, tinkering with dot files, and dev environments That may be fun for you, but it doesn’t add value. It’s accidental complexity that I am happy to delegate.
A contractor who prefers a specific brand of tool is wrong because the tool is a means to an end
This is what you sound like. Just because you don't understand the value of a craftsman picking and maintaining their tools doesn't mean the value isn't real.
So funny to read how people attack author using non-related to the essay’s message criticism.
You could say that about programming languages in general. "Why are we leaving all the direct binary programming for the compilers?"