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Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

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Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#541

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tqwhite wrote: post #516
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #369

I’m 63 (almost 64), and I’m rewriting an app (server and native client), that took a couple of years to originally write. Been working for about a month, and I’m halfway through. The server’s done (but I’m sure that I’ll still need to tweak and fix bugs), and I’m developing the communication layer and client model, now. It took seven months to write the first version of the server, and about six months to write a les…

The isolation of being a retired programmer is a real bitch. I think back to the days of a few young programmers with me at the whiteboard, the fast back and forth, the satisfaction of seeing ideas come together. I really missed that. I'm not allowed to feel like AI is an adequate replacement for fear that the critics will tell me I'm not healthy but, between you and me, as much as I miss the camaraderie of real huma…

> It's a great time to be alive.

I feel the same.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#542

Post by zozbot234 »

ollybrinkman wrote: post #525

The "experience as the real asset" point resonates deeply. I've been building agent orchestration systems and the difference between junior and senior use of AI tools is stark. Juniors prompt "build me X" and get frustrated when it goes sideways. Seniors architect the constraints first - acceptance criteria, test harness, API boundaries - then let the AI fill in mechanical work. The real shift: AI makes the cost of p…

The middle-of-the-road approach is to write: "Figure out a good high-level plan for building X". If you're a junior, the plan is going to have things you don't understand all that well. Ask the AI about them.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#543

Post by pmarreck »

echelon wrote: post #506
KillerRAK wrote: post #489

Without experience, programming with AI (vibe coding, I guess) can be compared to being a rat in maze... You work your way through a project, but the dead-ends exact a high cost in terms time, attention, and ultimately cost. With experience, you see these dead ends before they have a chance to take hold and you know when and how to adjust course. It's literally like one poster said: coding with some buddies without e…

Claude Code has killed my ADHD and turned me into an always-on hyper-focused machine. I am getting 20x done. This is a literal superpower. I am not using it in agentic mode yet. I am telling it everything I want it to do. I will tell it where I want the files, what I want structs to be named, how I want the SQL queries to join, etc. I then review every line and make edits (typically with Claude first). I haven't trie…

100% feel the same way, and had the same starting point lol

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#544

Post by tqwhite »

slopinthebag wrote: post #257
scottLobster wrote: post #42

Maybe the internet has made me too cynical, and I'm glad people seem to be having a good time, but at time of posting I can't help but notice that almost every comment here is suspiciously vague as to what, exactly, is being coded. Still better than the breathless announcements of the death of software engineering, but quite similar in tone.

In my experience, I have "vibe coded" various tools and stuff that, while nice to have, isn't really something I need or brings a ton of value to me. Just nice-to-haves. I think people enjoy writing code for various reasons. Some people really enjoy the craft of programming and thus dislike AI-centric coding. Some people don't really enjoy programming but enjoy making money or affecting some change on the world with…

I will say that I grieve the passing of 'coding', per se. I used to love getting the flow, envisioning the data flows and object structures and cool mechanisms, refactoring to perfection. I truly miss it.

But the payoff for letting that go is huge.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#545

Post by gzread »

echelon wrote: post #506
KillerRAK wrote: post #489

Without experience, programming with AI (vibe coding, I guess) can be compared to being a rat in maze... You work your way through a project, but the dead-ends exact a high cost in terms time, attention, and ultimately cost. With experience, you see these dead ends before they have a chance to take hold and you know when and how to adjust course. It's literally like one poster said: coding with some buddies without e…

Claude Code has killed my ADHD and turned me into an always-on hyper-focused machine. I am getting 20x done. This is a literal superpower. I am not using it in agentic mode yet. I am telling it everything I want it to do. I will tell it where I want the files, what I want structs to be named, how I want the SQL queries to join, etc. I then review every line and make edits (typically with Claude first). I haven't trie…

Careful though: a lot of people are getting the feeling of getting 20x done. Do you have objective measurements?

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#546

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

pmarreck wrote: post #538
Thanemate wrote: post #511

To those of you reading the comment section thinking something like the following: >"Wait a moment! Being forced to use AI gave me depression, and I'm really aware of the fact that it's only going to become better and better the more developers are using it, to the point where the 10 job openings of yesterday are 1 job opening tomorrow. Why are people so excited", remember this: You are reading HN, the survivorship b…

> LLM watch-six-agents-writing-and-you-proofreading gave me so much existential crisis and depression this is extremely bizarre because I’m 53, been coding since 12, and it has had literally the exact opposite effect on me, I find it tremendously exciting, like riding a snowmobile instead of manually cross-country skiing but I do think that if you’re not ready to work like this, you may need to consider a career pivo…

I’m retired, so a career pivot isn’t in the cards for me.

I’m also not really in the HN gestalt, so to speak. I have some views that are common, hereabouts, and some, not so much.

I’m enjoying having an LLM “pair partner.”

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#547

Post by mal10c »

I totally agree with this! I've spent a career learning and making software of all types. I started with DOS 4, worked through VB6, and so on. Now I think more broadly and my mind is always thinking of new ideas, but with a family, it's tough to find time to create some of these. I know what the software needs to do and even what it should look like. I know the acceptance criteria and what will and won't work, so Claude has been great just being an extra set of fingers. I use it to create all sorts of projects that I would never have time to make with my busy schedule, and it's so much fun!

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#548

Post by gzread »

mitchitized wrote: post #472
Dumblydorr wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glass half empty view? Their whole skill set built up over decades, digitized, and now they have to shift everything they do, and who knows humans will even be in the loop, if they’re not c-suite or brown nosers. Their whole magic and skill is now capable of being done by a PM in 5 minutes with some tokens. How is that supposed to make skillful coders feel? Massive job cuts, bad job market, AI tools everywhere, proba…

The world changes. Time marches on, and the very skills you spend your time developing will inevitably expire in their usefulness. Things that were once marvelous talents are now campfire stories or punchlines. LLMs may be accelerating the process, but definitely not the cause. If you want a career in technology, a durable one, you learn to adapt. Your primary skill is NOT to master a given technology, it is the abil…

Is it though? If it was that universal, we'd employ the best programmers as plumbers, since they have the best ability to master plumbing technology. There are limits, and I think the skill being to master programming technologies is a reasonable limit.

If you're a great programmer, can you can stop using Angular and master React? Yes. Can you stop telling the computer what to do, and master formal proof assistants? Maybe. Can you stop using the computer except as a tool and go master agricultural technology? Probably not. (Which is not to say you can't be a good programmer at an agritech company)

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#549

Post by jhgb »

rkuodys wrote: post #286
rapnie wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take that to its extreme. Suppose there was a technology that you do not own that would make everyone's job redundant. Everyone out of a job. There is no need for education, for skills to be mastered, for expertise. Would it still be insane to complain?

Isnt' that what old-school software did for many years? It used to take jobs, just not from developers. If you implement software that takes accounting from 10 people to 2, 8 just got fired. If you have Support solution helping one support rep answer 100 requests instead of 20, you just optimised support force by the rate of 1 to 5. I'm in the boat of SaaS myself, but feel a bit dishonesty from Senior devs complainin…

Jevons' paradox still exists. Making X cheaper (usually by needing fewer people to do one unit of X) can and often does lead to more people being needed for X.

Re: Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion

#550

Post by satvikpendem »

xigoi wrote: post #378
carlosjobim wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right! And cars when they were invented didn't give increased mobility to millions of people, because they came from just a few manufacturers. Cell phones made communication easier for exactly zero people even though billions have been sold. Why? Because they come from just a few different companies.

Cars are a great analogy because they made mobility significantly worse for people who can’t afford them or refuse to use them for ethical reasons.

Those people are the exception that proves the rule.
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