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Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

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61–70 of 94 posts

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#61
post #44

I get that many people are tired of too many AI posts and there's an influx of negative comments but I think this is genuinely amazing. Think about watching Star Trek in the 60s and seeing people talk to computers and them understanding and being able to communicate back. We're literally living in the future!

"Understanding"

"quotation marks"

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#62

I see this sentiment constantly. AI tooling is better than ever and its making building things easier than ever. I have respected coworkers who say that are maxing out multiple $200/month subscriptions. But I have yet to see any results? Where is the useful stuff?

I keep seeing this question asked, and I don't understand. Have you tried it? It's so easy to build useful things for myself now.

I've been able to build things that I otherwise would not have been able to build, in the free time that I have: - a VST audio plugin

- a wedding website with RSVP functionality

- a relaxing game for my wife

At work, I've been able to build much more than I would have been capable of in the past. I'm a backend eng, and it allows me to build much much nicer frontends than I've ever been able to do in the past.

And before you tell me that the code is crap - it doesn't matter! It may or may not be good code, but it works and serves it's purpose very well. Anyways, I'm I'm not launching a rocket, or putting software into cars.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#63
post #41
post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

My main use case is that I'm driving and think of something I want to remember, and want to record it hands-free without taking my eyes off of the road

How important is it really if you can't remember it when you get home?

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#65
post #23
post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

I was a workaholic from 18-26. 12+ hour days for months/years on end. It absolutely was not healthy. Toxic is not an inaccurate label. But I don't regret it. Those years are the foundation of the career I have in my 30's. Back in those days, when I wasn't at a computer, I was listening to non-fiction audiobooks on business and software. I don't know how I had such motivation bvack then, but I'm glad I capitalized on…

> In other words, to people reading questioning if they're working too much: it's okay to work hard as long as you're doing it for the right reasons.

I personally feel that working reasonable hours even when junior is just as productive for learning, etc. The only thing I learned from being a workaholic is, to not be a workaholic.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#66
post #49
post #39

The good times are yet to come though: when all the slop held together by spaghetti, duct tape, chewing gum and hairballs starts falling apart and someone needs to fix it. If the slop bubble doesn't start popping soon, in 10 years a handful of people will end up being better paid than COBOL developers are now cause they'd be the only one that know what a compiler is. Personally I'm not too enthusiastic about the pros…

Have you used AI lately? Yes, this was the case a year ago but I've been using Claude daily for the past month and the quality is on par with what a senior engineer would be producing - often times better as it's more thorough and can think through all logical edge cases much more reliably. I do review all the code it writes. There are some suggestions I have but I'd say overall, 99% of it is solid.

If that were the case I'd be getting a lot less "Hey, can you check this, something isn't working, here's what the AI did: ..." in complex systems but, alas, I hear those exact words 10+ times a day if I'm lucky (up from 3-4 a year ago).

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#67

I see this sentiment constantly. AI tooling is better than ever and its making building things easier than ever. I have respected coworkers who say that are maxing out multiple $200/month subscriptions. But I have yet to see any results? Where is the useful stuff?

Oh, we're building it. It's already out there.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#68
post #59
post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

Aw jeez. Just take it in the spirit it was intended and stop trying to score "more spiritual than thou" points. We are all deep one day and shallow the next. We are all workaholics and also smelling the roses. You know nothing about the author - you're hijacking a thread to grandstand.

I agree with this sentiment. So much of human discourse sort of assumes that people are consistent day to day, even hour to hour. It just ain't so!

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#69
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find driving to be one of the most useless ways of spending my time, and if it's for more than half an hour, I do try to figure out some way to increase the value of that time. I have a weekly commitment that leaves me driving home (~40min) at 9pm, and I usually eat dinner (just a sandwich) while I drive. That also has the advantage of making it so that I'm not eating an hour before bed. If I know that I need to ca…

> take meetings while driving as well, though I stopped because it was perceived poorly by others. The lack of self awareness here is astounding. You’re in control of a two ton bullet, please concentrate on the road. Killing somebody because you’re not paying full attention is not a good look.

I agree with you in regard to paying attention while driving, but the perception issue was actually around "you can't be bothered to be at your desk for meetings, so we perceive you as lazy", not "you're a risk to those around you, so we perceive you as irresponsible".

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#70
post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

It’s a mix of virtue signaling and the inability to have own thoughts for few minutes without having existential crisis, no wonder mental illness is off the charts. There’s actually nothing more therapeutic than a night drive on a long road with your own thoughts to process certain events that happened throughout the day/week.
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