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I have friends who are building products from scratch using tools like Cursor. It’s impressive what someone who is already an expert developer can do. What I do

I have friends who are building products from scratch using tools like Cursor. It’s impressive what someone who is already an expert developer can do. What I don’t see (yet) are these tools delivering for non developers. But this as just a matter of time. I see a lot of devs who appear to be in a complete state of denial about what is happening. Understandable, but worrying.

shadowmanif 2y ago
I am not a professional software engineer but LLMs have showed me how hard software engineering is at the overall level of a system. For me, it feels like being a magic skilled carpenter with the ability to build a giant building, but with no idea what architects do to make blue prints. Just end up building a useless mess of wood and nails that eventually gets burned down. I am actually not impressed by the new o1 at all. I think we might be in denial of how progress is slowing down.
WesleyJohnson 2y ago
I've been a dev for 20 years. I recently watched a YT video of a non-developer putting together an iOS app, from scratch, using Cursor Composer. I can't vouch for the legitimacy of his claim at not being a dev, but some of the language used to describe things definitely suggested they were not. Anyway, it was pretty impressive. I decided, having never used Swift and having never built a 2D iOS game, to give it a go myself. In just a couple of evenings, I have a playable prototype that I confidently say would've taken me weeks to get to on my own. And I'm learning Swift. Reading open-source projects or Swift tutorials is one thing , but seeing code written to satisfy a prompt request - that provides an entirely different level of early comprehension.
tatersolid 2y ago
> But this as just a matter of time. Confidently stated without any evidence. All AI proponents use this phrase repeatedly. Yet I still can’t get these tools to stop making up APIs that don’t exist, and they hey constantly produce face-palm security issues like hard-coded credentials and SQL injection.
9rx 2y ago
> What I don’t see (yet) are these tools delivering for non developers Technically, you never will. Anyone who uses these tools in that way becomes a developer.
- iamflimflam1 2y ago
  That’s a very good point. I can’t wait until we reach a point where “getting the computer to do what you want” is available to everyone.

shadowmanif 2y ago

I am not a professional software engineer but LLMs have showed me how hard software engineering is at the overall level of a system. For me, it feels like being a magic skilled carpenter with the ability to build a giant building, but with no idea what architects do to make blue prints. Just end up building a useless mess of wood and nails that eventually gets burned down. I am actually not impressed by the new o1 at all. I think we might be in denial of how progress is slowing down.

WesleyJohnson 2y ago

I've been a dev for 20 years. I recently watched a YT video of a non-developer putting together an iOS app, from scratch, using Cursor Composer. I can't vouch for the legitimacy of his claim at not being a dev, but some of the language used to describe things definitely suggested they were not. Anyway, it was pretty impressive. I decided, having never used Swift and having never built a 2D iOS game, to give it a go myself. In just a couple of evenings, I have a playable prototype that I confidently say would've taken me weeks to get to on my own. And I'm learning Swift. Reading open-source projects or Swift tutorials is one thing , but seeing code written to satisfy a prompt request - that provides an entirely different level of early comprehension.

tatersolid 2y ago

> But this as just a matter of time. Confidently stated without any evidence. All AI proponents use this phrase repeatedly. Yet I still can’t get these tools to stop making up APIs that don’t exist, and they hey constantly produce face-palm security issues like hard-coded credentials and SQL injection.

9rx 2y ago

> What I don’t see (yet) are these tools delivering for non developers Technically, you never will. Anyone who uses these tools in that way becomes a developer.

iamflimflam1 2y ago
That’s a very good point. I can’t wait until we reach a point where “getting the computer to do what you want” is available to everyone.