Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've really seen a web software product die because of performance issues?
Yes, it is hardly ever the web-side of it though.
By "web-side" you mean the client side I assume?
“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
541–550 of 584 posts
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#542Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why not have the customer talk to an llm and iterate on the plan? They already do that, hence the SaaSpocalypse. The hope for these AI companies is that the models get better than engineers such that the answer to all your questions is that the AI will handle it.
> They already do that, hence the SaaSpocalypse The market believes they will do that, hence the SaaSpocalypse. very important difference
No they already do do that. I know many companies building internal tools with LLMs.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#543Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#544Earlier quoted context omitted.
Each unit of work in any given feature of a Web app has been implemented 500 times yesterday alone, and nearly each time exactly the same way. I mean that’s what programming basically is right? I’m surprised these patterns that are repeated so often by developers could have been/still be automated away even without AI/LLMs.
One thing I wonder about is how applicable your statement about web apps is to something like lamps or lighting generally. How many electrical engineers have re-designed a circuit that turns on/off a light? Are EEs who wind up doing mundane engineering like this still engineers?
"electrical engineers" aren't usually the ones making a lamp though. If you're paying EE wages to add a light switch to an Edison socket you're massively overpaying.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#545Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better to have a job you don't like that pays well than to have a job you don't like that pays poorly. But at the same time - if you're smart enough to program well enough to get paid while hating it it's such a shame to not find something you enjoy that will still pay you enough.
I personally find that I hate any activity in a context where I'm paid for it.
Damn. I've definitely had jobs before where I'm legitimately excited when I go to sleep to do it in the morning.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#546This post misses a couple of points 1.”Writing software was never the hard part” - isn’t saying coding was easy. The comparison was against building a viable product. Doing business involves a whole lot more ambiguity than sitting in your room writing code. You could build anything and yet the hard part was building something that matters 2. >> Nobody knows how the AI revolution will play out in the end I disagree wi…
> Everyone uses an agent harness to code this days No we don't. I don't care what's at stake; I will never use spicy auto-complete.
Nearly everyone I suppose. There are always outliers I suppose. I’m going for 90%+ using llm in some capacity even if just a single ChatGPT prompt.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#547Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#548Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing I wonder about is how applicable your statement about web apps is to something like lamps or lighting generally. How many electrical engineers have re-designed a circuit that turns on/off a light? Are EEs who wind up doing mundane engineering like this still engineers?
"electrical engineers" aren't usually the ones making a lamp though. If you're paying EE wages to add a light switch to an Edison socket you're massively overpaying.
Lots of things have lights on them though. I'm thinking every status light on every piece of hardware.
Edit: also, I'm not exactly filled with knowledge on new lamp design/construction, but I have seen startups/kickstarters that make new lamps that seem like redesigns from the ground up.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#549First of all, I've only heard this from software engineers.
Second of all, most of us haven't worked on the software that send people to space or similar. We unfortunately only move data from one place to another.
People wrote production code after 6-months of boot camp. Writing code is easy. (Quality, scalability etc. are the harder parts).
Part of this is captured with this famous quote:
"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads." - Jeff Hammerbacher
So the insult is probably to a negligible fraction of programmers.
Re: “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers
#550Huh? I am a passionate programmer and I always say that code is not the hard part. And what that means is simple. Beginners in the field of programming will say things like: "Do you really understand what all this gibberish looking text means?". It is a bit like asking a sound engineer whether they really understand what all the knobs on their mixing console do.
That is not the hard part, even it may look like that to the layperson. Understanding the knobs of an audio mixer or the syntax of one or many programming languages is not the hard part. The hard part is to know when to turn which knob, by how much and why.