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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

#701

Post by 999900000999 »

tqwhite wrote: post #596
999900000999 wrote: post #43

From what I've seen, and of course the models get better everyday, if you have very simple grunt work that needs to be done. Coding agents are basically magic. The moment something gets either difficult or subjective, coding agents love to add completely incorrect solutions. Try to tell Claude Code to refactor some code and see if it doesn't just delete the entire file and rewrite it. Sure that's cute, but it's absol…

I am a professional for forty five years. Your description of the experience tells me that you have not figured out how to do it correctly. I NEVER have bad experiences like that. I absolutely DO create production grade software reliably every day. Treat it as collaborator instead of as a servant. You will get much better results.

Try to get Claude to use an uncommon toolset, like Haxe/HaxeFixel.

I guarantee you it will make up apis , apologize and then make up more.

A simple "I don't know" would be much productive

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

#702

Post by bartread »

burnstek wrote: post #614

50 here. Years ago I completely stopped coding, becoming tired of the never ending rat race of keeping up with the latest bizarre web stacks, frameworks for everything, node for this, npm for that, Angular, React, Vue, whatever - as if solving business problems just became too boring for software developers, so we decided to spend our cycles on the new hotness at every turn. Tools like Claude Code are the ultimate ch…

Same age, same situation.

I got completely fed up of continually having to learn new incantations to do the same shit I’ve been doing for decades without enough of a value add on top. I know what I want to build, and I know how to architect and structure it, but it’s simply not a good investment of my increasingly limited time to learn the umpteenth way to type code in simply to display text, data, and images on the web - especially when I know that knowledge will be useful for maybe, if I’m lucky, a handful of years before I have to relearn it again for some other opinionated framework.

It’s just not interesting and I’ve become increasingly resentful of and uninterested in wasting time on it.

Claude, on the other hand, is a massive force multiplier that enables me to focus on the parts of software development I do enjoy: solving the problems without the bother of having to type it all in (like, in days of old, I’d already solved the problem before my fingers touched the keyboard but the time-consuming bit was always typing it all in, testing and debugging - all of that is now faster but especially the typing part), focussing on use cases and user experience.

And I don’t ever have to deal directly with CSS or Tailwind: I simply describe the way I want things to look and that’s how the end up looking.

It’s - so far at any rate - the ultimate in declarative programming. It’s awesome, and it means I can really focus on the quality of the solution, which I’m a big fan of.

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

#703

Post by post-it »

ipaddr wrote: post #206
post-it wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AI completely erases the profession of software developer, I'll find something else to do. Like I can't in good faith ever oppose a technology just because it's going to make my job redundant, that would be insane.

There may not be a job for you in an office setting. What would you do?

I'd buy some good gloves and steel-toed boots.

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

#704

Post by post-it »

rapnie wrote: post #219
post-it wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AI completely erases the profession of software developer, I'll find something else to do. Like I can't in good faith ever oppose a technology just because it's going to make my job redundant, that would be insane.

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?

A world where there is no need for work? Oh no, my steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery.

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

#705

Post by sidrag22 »

tarr11 wrote: post #692
amelius wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coding since 11. Using AI makes me completely lethargic. I really don't know how to fill the minutes that AI takes to write code. Maybe if AI gets faster I will be able to enjoy it. That said, like many people here I have invested quite some time in becoming a skilled and experienced coder, so there is no denying that this whole AI craze makes me feel like something is taken away from me.

52 here, been a full time people manager for about a decade now. Coding manually makes me tired just thinking about it. When I think about embark on a new project my mind goes back to all the times I worked 12 hour days trying to get some basic system to function. I’m too old for that now, my back hurts if I sit too long and occasionally get migraines if I look at a screen too much. Using AI has been really perfect f…

> Using AI has been really perfect for me. I can build stuff while I do other things, walk the dog, make lunch, sit on the porch.

this resonates with me strongly, while i like coding, and understanding it, I understand my human limitations. I couldn't possibly write by hand the stuff I've been making, in the time I am making it, without a team these past few months. I would be coding literally all day, which while I sometimes enjoy the zoning out process of wiring stuff up, what i really enjoy is exactly what you described.

I enjoy being outside and walking my dog, taking a long shower, and cooking. All of these things are simple tasks with a good bit of repetition, and unlike wiring up some code or whatever, they allow my thoughts to flow, and I can think about where my projects are likely heading and what needs to be done next.

Those moments, even before heavy AI assisted coding, have always been the moments i cherish about software development.

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

#707

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

anon84873628 wrote: post #693
dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are reading HN, the survivorship bias and groupthink is just as high as any other self-calibrating online community Agreed. To expand IMHO and somewhat tangentially: recognizing the importance of software/technology and using it as tool is the hallmark of a person with balanced mental makeup. Someone who has ever had 'passion' for software (or in general technology) extended beyond a few weeks can be considered…

There is a profession called "tool maker" and their 'passion' for making tools has been quite important. Even just for chisels.

I figured that something like that would exist, hence the example.

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

#708

Post by Lahst100 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #671
kazinator wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A free license, like the BSD, if followed, ensures that the unpaid creator of a free work is at least credited. Everyone using that work at the source code level sees the copyright notice with that author's name. The author has already given everyone the freedom to do anything with the code, except for plagiarism. AI is taking away the last thing from peoiple who have shared everything else.

Why is plagiarism an issue? In school it's an issue due to the effect that students won't learn well if they just copy everything, but outside of school and especially for personal use, why should I care if I "plagiarize" or not (and arguably AI doesn't even plagiarize as it's not a 1 to 1 copy paste of the code when making a new project)? The concept of plagiarism is as much a fiction as "intellectual" property. The…

[flagged]

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

#709

Post by kitd »

burnstek wrote: post #614

50 here. Years ago I completely stopped coding, becoming tired of the never ending rat race of keeping up with the latest bizarre web stacks, frameworks for everything, node for this, npm for that, Angular, React, Vue, whatever - as if solving business problems just became too boring for software developers, so we decided to spend our cycles on the new hotness at every turn. Tools like Claude Code are the ultimate ch…

Tools like Claude Code are the ultimate cheat code for me and have breathed new life into my desire to create

I'm in my 60s and retiring this summer. I feel the opposite. Agents have removed most of the satisfaction and fulfilment from designing, building, testing and completing a feature or component. And if frameworks are a problem, learning to create simply and efficiently without them has its own sense of satisfaction.

Maybe it's a question of expectations. I suspect weavers felt the same with the arrival of mechanised looms in the industrial revolution. And it may be that future coders learn to get their fulfilment otherwise using agents.

I can absolutely see the attraction to business of agents and they may well make projects viable that weren't previously. But for this Luddite, they have removed the joy.

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