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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

#711

Post by techpression »

sph wrote: post #640
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…

> 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 Have you tried Claude? No, Opus? No, not that version, it's two weeks old, positively ancient lol. Oh wait, now OpenClaw is the cool thing around the block. My dude, the rat race just became a rat sp…

Only running one agent? You should have a distributed network of them at least, if you don’t you will get left behind! Running on the cloud? Stupid, buy hardware for tens of thousands of dollars to run it locally, own your tools. Etc etc, I haven’t seen a crazier rat race in tech ever, the JavaScript framework era is looking like the most stable of software times compared to where we are right now.

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

#713

Post by techpression »

ay wrote: post #697
pmarreck wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 am 50, coding since ~12. Started with Apple II, during the uni times wrote my own editor in assembly for BK-0010 (a soviet computer), then 30 years in computer networking with some high performance dataplane stuff more recently; The last years somehow it felt like there’s nothing new anymore, the same 10 ideas being regurgitated with slight modifications. I tinkered with AI for the past 2 years but it was mostly a…

So you’ve tried at least a hundred ideas by now, care to share fifty of them? I’m very curious as to what they are. Opus is too slow to even complete one idea per day for me, and that’s fine, I don’t have hundreds of them :)

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

#714

Post by stevepotter »

samiv wrote: post #51

As a principal engineer I feel completely let down. I've spent decades building up and accumulating expert knowledge and now that has been massively devalued. Any idiot can now prompt their way to the same software. I feel depressed and very unmotivated and expect to retire soon. Talk about a rug pull! My experience is that people who weren't very good at writing software are the ones now "most excited" to "create" w…

I might be wrong but this sounds like an ego issue more than anything. Twice you berated less skilled programmers. I’m skilled as well and it did sting when I realized that a relatively new technology could beat me. But there’s so much more to it, especially PMs. PMs find big high value problems and solve them. The coding should be the easy part. If your coding skills are such a big part of your identity and you enjoy the feeling of superiority, a good therapist (chatgpt maybe lol) could be useful.

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

#715

Post by Geste »

croes wrote: post #304
alexpotato wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator of OpenClaw had a great line about this: "If your identity is tied to you being an iOS developer, you are going to have a rough time. But if your identity is 'I'm a builder!' it is a very exciting time to be alive." Plus, there is no rule that says you can't keep coding if it's faster for you and/or it's quicker in general. e.g I can write a Perl one liner much faster than Claude can. Heck, even if it's n…

> I’m a builder! I‘m a builder too. I built a house. Ok, I said an architect what I want and he showed me the plans and I gave him feedback for adjustments and then the plans were given to the construction crew and they built the actual house. But is was my prompt, so I‘m a builder.

Curious about that reasoning : where do you draw the line ?

Are you a builder if there is an middleman ? If not, what if the middleman is a tool ? If you use autocad to build the plans, are you still a builder ? What if autocad has a prompt feature, are you still a builder ?

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

#716

Post by newsoftheday »

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…

> yet I don't have to know or care about implementation details

Where do I even begin...yes, you should care about implementation details unless you're only going to write stuff you run locally for your own amusement.

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

#717

Post by jmalicki »

jthrilly wrote: post #295
jmalicki wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One thing is for sure LLMs will bring down down the cost of software per some unit and increase the volume. But..cost = revenue." That is Karl Marx's Labor theory of value that has been completely disproven. You don't charge what it costs to build something, you charge the maximum the customer is willing to pay.

Congrats - you caused me to create an account to reply, due to the sheer density of your incorrectness. - First, the LTV was not Marx's idea. Adam Smith held the same view, as did many many others during this era. Marx refined this idea, but there's nothing about your point that is unique to his version of it. - Second, while LTV is not widely used today, this is not because it was "completely disproven" (can you cit…

Efficient markets barely exist anywhere, especially in tech, it's all monopolistic competition that's bad for the consumer and increases inequality.

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

#718

Post by bluefirebrand »

shadowgovt wrote: post #646
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…

I'm optimistic about people being able to build the things they always wanted to build but either didn't have the skills or resources to hire somebody who did. If we truly value human creativity, then things that decrease the rote mechanical aspects of the job are enablers, not impediments.

If we truly value human creativity we should stop building technology that decreases human value in the eyes of the rich and powerful

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

#719

Post by boringg »

kitd wrote: post #709
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 satisfa…

Id agree it splits both ways. I think in the short run it can be super fun but once you expand your thoughts to the long run it takes the steam out of rediscovered joy of discovery and creation.

Its almost like it reignites novelty at things that were to administratively heavy to figure out. Im not sure if its fleeting or lasting.

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

#720

Post by nazgob »

tartoran wrote: post #584
sghiassy wrote: post #565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been coding since 13, now 44 working in FAANG. Love AI explaining code Dislike AI for writing code (that was my fun part)

You dont like the quality of the generated code or the process of not typing it out yourself?

Process of coming up what to type was interesting to me, not the act of typing itself.
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