I don't write code anymore – I sculpt it • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by CuriouslyC » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #59

CuriouslyC wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the times I told someone I could do something I didn't know how to do but believed was possible then had to figure it out filled me with existential dread. There was a good feeling after I succeeded, but I get a good feeling from just building something big and functional with AI, as long as I feel like I was the driving force behind the ideas in the thing, so maybe I don't need the stress?

That kind of stress is how you grow. It's good for you. None of that stress means no growth.

There's an inverted U curve with stress benefit, and I think you can still find the optimum by reaching higher on the shoulders of giants.

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

#62

Post by jerpint » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

throwaway150 wrote: post #45

Is this post "sculpted" too? It certainly looks suspiciously so. It feels disrespectful to expect people to read something you could not be bothered to write yourself.

Author here - wrote this myself but I’ll take that as a complement :)

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

#63

Post by furyofantares » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:31 PM UTC

CuriouslyC wrote: post #61

bitwize wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of stress is how you grow. It's good for you. None of that stress means no growth.

There's an inverted U curve with stress benefit, and I think you can still find the optimum by reaching higher on the shoulders of giants.

Yeah, but LLMs are not giants in terms of capabilities (depth). They are medium sized at best, despite being superhuman in other ways (breadth, speed).

You can use these to help you learn but, at least if you're a developer, letting it stunt your growth seems like a mistake.

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

#64

Post by jerpint » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 11:10 PM UTC

anonymous908213 wrote: post #2

> 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…

Author here - I agree that to learn the best thing is to implement and fail along the way. My point was I would never professionally opt to write a sorting algorithm instead of using the builtin sort() most languages come equipped with

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

#65

Post by bitwize » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 12:14 AM UTC

CuriouslyC wrote: post #61

bitwize wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of stress is how you grow. It's good for you. None of that stress means no growth.

There's an inverted U curve with stress benefit, and I think you can still find the optimum by reaching higher on the shoulders of giants.

Newton studied his forebears and understood their findings before contributing his own. He was stressed with the knowledge of his own ignorance, but then he learned and set himself up to make more profound discoveries. That's what it means to "stand on the shoulders of giants". Not to be a perpetual idea guy, outsource the hard part to someone else's computer with little to no effort or learning on your part, and roll on HN like "bitches mad 'cause I found the royal road to geometry".

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

#66

Post by xigoi » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 12:09 PM UTC

lombasihir wrote: post #42

alexwennerberg wrote: post #34

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?

On Linux, it’s [Compose]--- (or [Compose]--. for an en dash)

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

#67

Post by alexwennerberg » Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 4:00 AM UTC

furyofantares wrote: post #39

alexwennerberg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It does look like it passed through an LLM, but you're wrong about em-dashes. There are no em-dashes in it, just hyphens.

Odd. Hyphens used as though they were em-dashes, which I guess looks the same in a fixed-width font