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I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

jerpint.io

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#41
I feel most like I'm sculpting code when I'm working in Lisp. I can sort of feel the shape and contour of the procedure I'm creating as I work. Even when writing in something like C, I feel the feeling of "filling out a tax form". Making sure all the things in Section 1 boxes A through E are correct, because Section 6 box D depends on them being so.

Coding with AI assistance feels like what it is: outsourcing. Letting an accountant take care of the tax forms, except the accountant is Wheatley from Portal 2: a chatty, subtly below-the-threshold-of-competence robot.

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#42

Why is it that AI glazing blog posts like this inevitably use a shitty AI generated image? I am absolutely sick to bits of seeing them

The text reads suspiciously like AI too. I don't X -- I Y. Short paragraphs, lots of em-dashes.

i was always curious how these em dashes were written? like in my keyboard i dont see the symbol, is there any shortcut?

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#43

Why is it that AI glazing blog posts like this inevitably use a shitty AI generated image? I am absolutely sick to bits of seeing them

The text reads suspiciously like AI too. I don't X -- I Y. Short paragraphs, lots of em-dashes.

The title alone was enough for me to suspect exactly what I'd see. A post praising AI, written by AI.

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#46
This piece starts off making it sound like the computer is pretty much doing all the work, while the human maybe weighs in on a matter of taste once in a while, if they like, but by the end, the list of what the LLM can actually do is really short. Implementing a sorting algorithm for you, perhaps, but not necessarily one without “egregious flaws,” and really you should still use a library for that. Replacing high-quality libraries of mature software, that have tests, etc, is obviously one of the poorer uses of vibe-slop coding.

It comes down to “adding code” that attempts to, or seems to, achieve something.

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The text reads suspiciously like AI too. I don't X -- I Y. Short paragraphs, lots of em-dashes.

i was always curious how these em dashes were written? like in my keyboard i dont see the symbol, is there any shortcut?

Some markdown-like static blog generators just replace -- with emdash.

I used one such in the past, written in PHP by someone who was keen on proper typography.

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#48
post #21

Why is it that AI glazing blog posts like this inevitably use a shitty AI generated image? I am absolutely sick to bits of seeing them

Why are you sick of AI images, but you're not about stock images ? They've equally filled the web and articles for the last years. At least, AI images feel more on point.

I don't like AI images or stock images. If a picture is not needed (or helpful; sometimes it is not needed but can be helpful) to describe it which is specific to that article, add it, but stock images and AI images are not helpful, and can sometimes be deceptive in some contexts (although so can pictures specific for the article, if the pictures are badly made).

Often, the text will be good enough, or better (since then you do not need to download the picture, it does not take up space on the screen (or on a paper if printed out),e tc.)

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#49
> I think about what we are trying to implement, and if this iteration brings us closer to it.

> Where things go, how pieces fit, reusable patterns - this is more question of subjective taste and big-picture thinking.

I do that, too, only I call it coding, and it doesn’t require me to rewrite a bunch of badly written slop first.

Re: I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it

#50

> I would never have written my own sorting algorithm to sort a list in the past. I would instead rely on abstractions left for me by those with more experience. And by doing so, never gain experience of your own. It is a truly alien mindset to me to take pride in never understanding what code does , to be comfortable relying entirely on magic words provided to you by others. For me, the simple existence of a bug in…

Why do you sound so petty? Do you understand every single layer of the stack below you? Do you understand how your code gets translated down to C, assembly, machine code? How all that becomes electrical signals on a PCB? How the material properties work at the physical level and how its manufactured? Because if you don't, aren't you, myself and basically everyone relying on the 'magic' words of others? If you're tryi…

  > Do you understand how your code gets translated down to C, assembly, machine code?
yes, actually, and thats why i can debug and fix shit most people cant (and why i get paid what i get paid)

  > How all that becomes electrical signals on a PCB? How the material properties work at the physical level and how its manufactured? 
this is a non-sequitur imo, but you should def be aware of material properties and limitations (for example cpu throttling and bottlenecks caused by manufacturing process/cpu bandwidth or battery limitations help inform what is going on at a high level many times)

  > "If I have seen further than others, it is only because I was standing on the shoulders of giants," Isaac Newton
by standing, he means understanding and building upon what others discovered
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