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For each programmer who actually spends their time on complex design work or fixing difficult bugs, there are many more doing what amounts to clerical work. Add

For each programmer who actually spends their time on complex design work or fixing difficult bugs, there are many more doing what amounts to clerical work. Adding a new form here, fiddling with a layout there. It is the latter class who are in real danger.

soco 2y ago
But the question is, are we there yet? I have yet to hear of an AI bot who can eat up a requirement and add said new form in the right place, or fiddle with a layout. Do you know any? So all those big promises you read right now are outright lies. When will we reach that point? I don't do gambling. But we are not there, regardless what the salespeople or fancy journalists might be claiming all day long.
- fakedang 2y ago
  Cursor already does the latter task pretty well, as I'm sure other AI agents already do. AI struggles only when it's something complex, like dealing with a geometric object, or plugging together infra, or programme logic. Last year, I built a reasonably complicated e-commerce project wholly with AI, using the zod library and some pretty convoluted e-commerce logic. While it was a struggle, I was able to build it out in a couple of weeks. And I had zero prior experience even building forms in react, forget using zod. Now shipping it to production? That's something AI will struggle at, but humans also struggle at that :(
  - franktankbank 2y ago
    > Now shipping it to production? That's something AI will struggle at, but humans also struggle at that :( Why? Just because that's where the rubber hits the road? It's a different skillset but AI can do systems design too and probably direct a knowledgable but unpracticed implementer.
- greentxt 2y ago
  Pizza maker will not be the first job automated away. Nor will janitor. Form fiddlers are cheap and can be blamed. AI fiddlers can be blamed too but are not cheap, yet.
- bigfatkitten 2y ago
  We're at a point where companies have figured out that they can hire someone on a clerical wage to prompt an AI to do this grunt work, rather than a CS grad on $100k a year.
pentel-0_5 2y ago
[flagged]
awkward 2y ago
The new form and layout are what the business wants and can easily articulate. What they need is people who understand whether the new form needs to both be stored in the local postgres system or if it should trigger a Kafka event to notify other parts of the business. The AI only world is still one where the form and layout get done, but what happens to that data afterward?
- smeeger 2y ago
  the AI will happily do all that for you…
saalweachter 2y ago
Layout fiddlers make changes people can see and understand. If your job is massaging data for nebulous purposes using nebulous means and getting nebulous results, that you need to basically be another person doing the exact same thing to understand the value of, there's going to be a whole lot of management saying "Do we really need all those guys over there doing that? Can't we just have like one guy and a bunch of new AI magic?"
elric 2y ago
That kind of boring busywork can be eliminated by using better abstractions. At the same time, it's a useful training ground for junior developers.

soco 2y ago

But the question is, are we there yet? I have yet to hear of an AI bot who can eat up a requirement and add said new form in the right place, or fiddle with a layout. Do you know any? So all those big promises you read right now are outright lies. When will we reach that point? I don't do gambling. But we are not there, regardless what the salespeople or fancy journalists might be claiming all day long.

fakedang 2y ago
Cursor already does the latter task pretty well, as I'm sure other AI agents already do. AI struggles only when it's something complex, like dealing with a geometric object, or plugging together infra, or programme logic. Last year, I built a reasonably complicated e-commerce project wholly with AI, using the zod library and some pretty convoluted e-commerce logic. While it was a struggle, I was able to build it out in a couple of weeks. And I had zero prior experience even building forms in react, forget using zod. Now shipping it to production? That's something AI will struggle at, but humans also struggle at that :(
- franktankbank 2y ago
  > Now shipping it to production? That's something AI will struggle at, but humans also struggle at that :( Why? Just because that's where the rubber hits the road? It's a different skillset but AI can do systems design too and probably direct a knowledgable but unpracticed implementer.
greentxt 2y ago
Pizza maker will not be the first job automated away. Nor will janitor. Form fiddlers are cheap and can be blamed. AI fiddlers can be blamed too but are not cheap, yet.
bigfatkitten 2y ago
We're at a point where companies have figured out that they can hire someone on a clerical wage to prompt an AI to do this grunt work, rather than a CS grad on $100k a year.

pentel-0_5 2y ago

[flagged]

awkward 2y ago

The new form and layout are what the business wants and can easily articulate. What they need is people who understand whether the new form needs to both be stored in the local postgres system or if it should trigger a Kafka event to notify other parts of the business. The AI only world is still one where the form and layout get done, but what happens to that data afterward?

smeeger 2y ago
the AI will happily do all that for you…

saalweachter 2y ago

Layout fiddlers make changes people can see and understand. If your job is massaging data for nebulous purposes using nebulous means and getting nebulous results, that you need to basically be another person doing the exact same thing to understand the value of, there's going to be a whole lot of management saying "Do we really need all those guys over there doing that? Can't we just have like one guy and a bunch of new AI magic?"

elric 2y ago

That kind of boring busywork can be eliminated by using better abstractions. At the same time, it's a useful training ground for junior developers.