Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

human-in-the-loop.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 272 posts

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#31

Post by pc86 »

vrganj wrote: post #16
omblivion wrote: post #2

I strongly agree with the author replies. I cannot grasp the reasonment of those who underestimate the power of these tools and their growing potential. We should remember that the outside world care about things that work, not about how good they are inside sadly.

The outside world itself will stop working if we replace labor with LLMs. Mass unemployment equals riots equals an end to the status quo.

This doesn't seem at all related to the above comment - or anything, for that matter. Nobody is suggesting we "replace labor" with LLMs.

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#32

Post by RugnirViking »

genezeta wrote: post #3

I've had quite a few conversations and read many thoughts on the subject of job security in the software industry through the years. New technologies, various crisis and crashes, just age , incoming "hordes" of less prepared developers, or whatever. If I had to highlight the one thing all those conversations had in common it would be precisely this: I thought that having this knowledge would set me apart And it never…

does it never? seems to me that people pay me precisely for my knowledge, learned over many years. The knowledge translates into action, sure. But thats like the old parable about a plumber being paid €150 for a 5 minute consult that involves turning a single screw. "i could have turned that screw!" the customer cries, ignoring that yes, they could have. But they didn't know to.

I think perhaps the problem is instead "I thought that having this knowledge would set me apart, forever, without me having to learn anything else"

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#33

Post by vrganj »

pc86 wrote: post #31
vrganj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The outside world itself will stop working if we replace labor with LLMs. Mass unemployment equals riots equals an end to the status quo.

This doesn't seem at all related to the above comment - or anything, for that matter. Nobody is suggesting we "replace labor" with LLMs.

> Nobody is suggesting we "replace labor" with LLMs.

I take it you haven't been listening to what the guys at the AI labs have been saying?

Plus that's what the whole article is about. I'm not sure how you could've missed that?

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#35

Post by canadiantim »

pixel_popping wrote: post #11

I agree with all of it, and I think author did a really good job at actually saying what's true, it's almost like developers don't want to hear it. I feel that OP has reach that point because he went out of the basic tooling like Claude Code (at least in its default state) and embrace multi-model, automatic reviewing, fuse, loops and so-on, when it's done right, well, failure rate to solve issues is Many people will…

May I ask what are some of methods you’re using for this level of productivity?

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#37

Post by foobarbecue »

jazz9k wrote: post #9
omblivion wrote: post #2

I strongly agree with the author replies. I cannot grasp the reasonment of those who underestimate the power of these tools and their growing potential. We should remember that the outside world care about things that work, not about how good they are inside sadly.

This is true. I have artist friends that are boycotting any company using AI art for their flyers/ads. I looked at some examples and couldn't tell the difference.

I think you can't tell the difference until the "art" shows details of something you know well -- a place you've been, out a hobby or sport you do.

I'm thinking of this awful slop "art" I saw on Wayfair yesterday. As a surfer, it's hilarious. That's not how you stand on a board. It's not even a board. And the wave is terrible-- nobody wants to surf shorebreak like that! https://www.wayfair.com/decor-pillows/pdp/design-art-4-hawai...

I guess it could be a useful signal-- if you meet someone and they have it up in their home, you know they don't surf.

More generally, I think anything AI produces that's dense with factual details is inherently trash.

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#38

Post by pc86 »

jazz9k wrote: post #9
omblivion wrote: post #2

I strongly agree with the author replies. I cannot grasp the reasonment of those who underestimate the power of these tools and their growing potential. We should remember that the outside world care about things that work, not about how good they are inside sadly.

This is true. I have artist friends that are boycotting any company using AI art for their flyers/ads. I looked at some examples and couldn't tell the difference.

I was just reading comments the other day where people who dragging a company because they apparently used AI for some low level copywriting stuff. No art assets, no code (so far as anyone knows), not actually writing copy but more like "is everything spelled right, does the copy structure flow, have all these points been addressed, etc." Not only that but the only reason anyone even knew is because the company was completely up front and transparent about what they used AI for and what they didn't.

There is a visceral hate in the artistic community toward AI that doesn't really make sense to me tbh.

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#39

Post by esikich »

RugnirViking wrote: post #32
genezeta wrote: post #3

I've had quite a few conversations and read many thoughts on the subject of job security in the software industry through the years. New technologies, various crisis and crashes, just age , incoming "hordes" of less prepared developers, or whatever. If I had to highlight the one thing all those conversations had in common it would be precisely this: I thought that having this knowledge would set me apart And it never…

does it never? seems to me that people pay me precisely for my knowledge, learned over many years. The knowledge translates into action, sure. But thats like the old parable about a plumber being paid €150 for a 5 minute consult that involves turning a single screw. "i could have turned that screw!" the customer cries, ignoring that yes, they could have. But they didn't know to. I think perhaps the problem is instead…

There's a good chance the apprentice plumber could've fixed it just as quickly. That's where we are now.

Re: Replies to comments on my "LLMs are eroding my career" post

#40

Post by hyperpape »

ryanackley wrote: post #28

AI maximalism is making a lot of assumptions that I think are not a given * The curve of AI improvement will continue at the current pace * AI companies will have the capital continue to expand infrastructure * there will be some kind of functioning economy if all knowledge workers are replaced There are strong headwinds to all three of these. Hey it may come to pass but it’s very speculative at this point. I see a l…

> The curve of AI improvement will continue at the current pace

I guess this is trivially true if you say "maximalism" (hell, the maximalists think it will speed up as the AI becomes a super-AI-researcher), but as long as the rate of change is positive and not miniscule, it's hard to predict what 2035 looks like in software development.

These things are very hard to quantify, but making the progress that happened from Jan 2025-December 2025 repeat twice in 10 years would be enough for me to say I couldn't predict the day-to-day of a software engineer in 2035.

Post reply on HN