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Ask HN: Am I old?

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Ask HN: Am I old?

#1

Post by zwilderrr »

I don't think I'm old, but I get great joy in writing a simple utility function by hand, without ai. Just yesterday I wrote a function that removes the ending punctuation from a string, if present, and adds a period instead. I also wrote onDone, onSubmit, and onCancel handlers using more than my tab key.

Yet it seems to me that this is quickly becoming the stuff of an older generation, of people who move slowly, of a dying breed who care about silly things like craft and form.

Don't get me wrong--I'm all over AI, especially at work where speed also counts. But there's something so satisfying in writing code without AI that it makes me wonder if, in fact, I'm quickly becoming irrelevant.

Re: Ask HN: Am I old?

#4

Post by rxliuli »

I want to be able to understand your point. For those who enjoy programming, writing code is indeed a pleasure. I spent the whole day today writing a JavaScript serialization package, and even though I know someone has already done it, I am still willing to write a new one for my specific scenario. On the other hand, I think that although AI seems friendly to newcomers (inexperienced developers), it is actually more friendly to experienced developers because you can have AI help you complete some tasks and then review them yourself. Inexperienced developers have difficulty accurately pinpointing problems when they encounter issues, causing AI to keep going in circles and hitting walls.

Re: Ask HN: Am I old?

#5

Post by unsupp0rted »

Do you want to do work or do you want to do your hobby?

If you get joy out of digging with your bare hands then you should do that. When you're doing work, use a shovel or heavy machinery if you want to get to the valuable output sooner.

Re: Ask HN: Am I old?

#6

Post by ferguess_k »

I use AI extensively in work, but I try to restrict its usage in my side projects because of the same reason as yours -- I enjoy writing programs and figuring out things, so I will definitely leave the hard part to myself, and the boilerplate part to AI. Even in work I still try to figure out the algos/proper design by myself first.

Re: Ask HN: Am I old?

#7

Post by zwilderrr »

rxliuli wrote: post #4

I want to be able to understand your point. For those who enjoy programming, writing code is indeed a pleasure. I spent the whole day today writing a JavaScript serialization package, and even though I know someone has already done it, I am still willing to write a new one for my specific scenario. On the other hand, I think that although AI seems friendly to newcomers (inexperienced developers), it is actually more…

What's my point? That's a phenomenal question. I think my point was to see if anyone else out there shared my existential state. Now, of course I knew someone did, but there's really nothing like a good ol' confirmation from the other.

Re: Ask HN: Am I old?

#9

Post by scarface_74 »

I get joy from money appearing into my account to exchange for goods and services. I have plenty of things I enjoy doing outside of work that don’t involve computers - spending time with friends and families, exercise, travel, concerts, etc.

And yes I’m old - 50. I started programming in assembly on the Apple //e in 1986 and haven’t written a line of code since 1996 that I haven’t gotten paid for.

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