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I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

jamesdrandall.com

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Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#411

Post by HoldOnAMinute »

lelanthran wrote: post #350
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI. I don't think that's what people are upset about, or at least it's not for me. For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth.

> For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth. It's very sad, for me. Like I told someone recently - letting the LLM write my code for me is like letting the LLM play my video games for me. If all I wanted was the achievement on my steam profile, then sure, it makes sense, but that achievement is not why I play video games. I'm looking at all these people proudly showin…

I cannot figure out what you mean by "BA" in this context

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#412

Post by recursive »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #228
shafoshaf wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[55yo] My sense is that those problems we worked on in the 80s and 90s were like the perfectly balanced MMORPG. The challenges were tough, but with grit, could be overcome and you felt like you could build something amazing and unique. My voxel moment was passing parameters in my compilers class in college. I sat down to do it and about 12 hours later I got it working, not knowing if I could even do it. With AI, it i…

but so can anyone else and it just doesn't feel like an accomplishment. So it's not enough that you get to do cool stuff, the important part is that nobody else gets to. Is that it? If so, other sites beckon.

No, anyone can do it.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#413

Post by small_model »

munificent wrote: post #382
small_model wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proper analogy would be you can now remove all weeds with the swipe of your hand and cut all your hedges with another swipe, you still are gardening you can do it quicker and therefore explore different possibilities.

For some, the feeling of pulling those weeds out is inseparable from the holistic experience they think of as "gardening".

So using weedkiller isn't gardening to these people?

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#414

Post by whtrbt »

HoldOnAMinute wrote: post #411
lelanthran wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth. It's very sad, for me. Like I told someone recently - letting the LLM write my code for me is like letting the LLM play my video games for me. If all I wanted was the achievement on my steam profile, then sure, it makes sense, but that achievement is not why I play video games. I'm looking at all these people proudly showin…

I cannot figure out what you mean by "BA" in this context

Business Analyst

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#415

Post by lelanthran »

HoldOnAMinute wrote: post #411
lelanthran wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me it's that writing code is really enjoyable, and delegating it to AI is hell on earth. It's very sad, for me. Like I told someone recently - letting the LLM write my code for me is like letting the LLM play my video games for me. If all I wanted was the achievement on my steam profile, then sure, it makes sense, but that achievement is not why I play video games. I'm looking at all these people proudly showin…

I cannot figure out what you mean by "BA" in this context

> I cannot figure out what you mean by "BA" in this context

Business Analyst - those people who learn everything about what the customers requirements, specs, etc are. What they need, what they currently have, how to best advise them, etc.

They know everything, except how to program.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#416

Post by davebranton »

The deep, profound, cruel irony of this post is that it was written by AI.

Maybe if you work in the world of web and apps, AI will come for you. If you don't , and you work in industrial automation and safety, the I believe it will not.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#417

Post by flatline »

sho_hn wrote: post #14

My advice to everyone feeling existential vertigo over these tools is to remain confident and trust in yourself. If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI. My experience so far is that to a first approximation, the quality of the code/software generated with AI corresponds to the quality of the developer using the AI tool surprisingly well. An inexperienced, bad dev will still…

I think it represents a bigger threat than you realize. I can't use an AI for my day job to implement these multi-agent workflows I see. They are all controlled by another company with little or no privacy guarantees. I can run quantized (even more braindead) models locally but my work will be 3-5 years behind the SOTA, and when the SOTA is evolving faster than that timeline there's a problem. At some point there's going to be turnover - like a lake in winter - where AI companies effectively control the development lifecycle end-to-end.

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#418

Post by neom »

munificent wrote: post #382
small_model wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proper analogy would be you can now remove all weeds with the swipe of your hand and cut all your hedges with another swipe, you still are gardening you can do it quicker and therefore explore different possibilities.

For some, the feeling of pulling those weeds out is inseparable from the holistic experience they think of as "gardening".

Maybe this isn't directly related to what you're saying and I'm not attacking it, I'm just thinking out loud: What would it mean to master gardening then? I've never gardened in my life but I grew up in Scotland around estate houses and castles, my friends dads were gardeners and each of them seems to be specialists in their own area, many working on the same estate, so what exactly is this "holistic experience of gardening"?

Re: I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed

#420

Post by recursive »

whattheheckheck wrote: post #235
samiv wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just told my gardener to cut the grass and work on some flower installations. I'm so excited about gardening again. Can't wait to do some. Employing a gardener to do my gardening for me is really making me enjoy gardening again!

Imagine though instead of 1 garden you can make 10 or 30 gardens in the same time that are more extravagant than your 1 garden was. At any point in time you can dive back in 1 of them and start plucking away

It's the making, not the having. If I'm selling these gardens, surely it's better to have more. If I enjoy the act of making the garden, then there's no reason I ever need to finish the first one.

This analogy has probably outstayed its usefulness.

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