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TL;DR: AI summaries and bullet points for everything will change human communication to that format. The problem with this post is that, despite mentioning pro

TL;DR: AI summaries and bullet points for everything will change human communication to that format. The problem with this post is that, despite mentioning programming languages in the title, the examples are about writing emails. The author forgets to address programming at all, which is very much a use case and will remain one as processors only run compiled machine code and not bullet points.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
Cory Doctorow just wrote about the bullet-point thing yesterday, in the context of referral letters: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/
- est31 2y ago
  Also this meme: https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html AI diplomats talking to each other, while humans stick to communicating via bullet points.
halper 2y ago
While there is more talk about emails, programming is addressed toward the end: "[…] this will affect computer programming languages as well. Right now I can open a codebase, […]"
Galanwe 2y ago
I'm not so sure that's a missing point or just an actual point. I'm not convinced myself AI will have much impact on the developers landscape, beyond better autocompletion and doc generation. All these fancy AI developers are cute, but we have had the cheaper vs lower quality trade-off available for quite some time now with outsourcing to emerging countries. When I was in my studies, we heard all the predictions of the destruction of software engineers because of outsourcing, the need to become an architect instead of a developer or you'll be replaced, etc. I've seen none of that happen over the years, except for very low skilled automation / CRUD jobs.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > When I was in my studies, we heard all the predictions of the destruction of software engineers because of outsourcing, the need to become an architect instead of a developer or you'll be replaced, etc. A lot of low level stuff has been outsourced to India over the last decades, and more if you count second or even third level support (won't even include first level support that's not required to be on-site). C-levels only see the expenses savings, but how their employees feel about internal support being utter dogshit can't be quantified in a language that beancounters speak...
- haswell 2y ago
  > I'm not convinced myself AI will have much impact on the developers landscape, beyond better autocompletion and doc generation. I’ve been a developer for 20 years. Using an LLM to generate context-specific prototypes has completely changed my productivity. It has allowed me to start and finish projects that were previously relegated to “maybe someday” (read: never). It’s not clear what the net result will be in the long run, but it’s already changing what and how I build things, and I’m not nearly as bearish as I was before a few successful projects. I don’t think AI is going to replace good engineers. It’s going to make good engineers better engineers. This alone will lead to some interesting outcomes I think.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    > It has allowed me to start and finish projects that were previously relegated to “maybe someday” (read: never). I.e. stuff that probably never needed to get done, otherwise it would have been a higher priority than what you were otherwise working on.
    - johnisgood 2y ago
      That is not true, see "mental health disorders" which I do suffer from. Me not doing something does not mean it never needed to be done. The opposite is true, too. Something I have done does not mean it had to be done, if that makes sense.
    - 2y ago
stronglikedan 2y ago
> bullet points for everything will change human communication to that format I'd be okay with that! Verbosity has become too pervasive as of late.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago

Cory Doctorow just wrote about the bullet-point thing yesterday, in the context of referral letters: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/

est31 2y ago
Also this meme: https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html AI diplomats talking to each other, while humans stick to communicating via bullet points.

halper 2y ago

While there is more talk about emails, programming is addressed toward the end: "[…] this will affect computer programming languages as well. Right now I can open a codebase, […]"

Galanwe 2y ago

I'm not so sure that's a missing point or just an actual point. I'm not convinced myself AI will have much impact on the developers landscape, beyond better autocompletion and doc generation. All these fancy AI developers are cute, but we have had the cheaper vs lower quality trade-off available for quite some time now with outsourcing to emerging countries. When I was in my studies, we heard all the predictions of the destruction of software engineers because of outsourcing, the need to become an architect instead of a developer or you'll be replaced, etc. I've seen none of that happen over the years, except for very low skilled automation / CRUD jobs.

mschuster91 2y ago
> When I was in my studies, we heard all the predictions of the destruction of software engineers because of outsourcing, the need to become an architect instead of a developer or you'll be replaced, etc. A lot of low level stuff has been outsourced to India over the last decades, and more if you count second or even third level support (won't even include first level support that's not required to be on-site). C-levels only see the expenses savings, but how their employees feel about internal support being utter dogshit can't be quantified in a language that beancounters speak...
haswell 2y ago
> I'm not convinced myself AI will have much impact on the developers landscape, beyond better autocompletion and doc generation. I’ve been a developer for 20 years. Using an LLM to generate context-specific prototypes has completely changed my productivity. It has allowed me to start and finish projects that were previously relegated to “maybe someday” (read: never). It’s not clear what the net result will be in the long run, but it’s already changing what and how I build things, and I’m not nearly as bearish as I was before a few successful projects. I don’t think AI is going to replace good engineers. It’s going to make good engineers better engineers. This alone will lead to some interesting outcomes I think.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  > It has allowed me to start and finish projects that were previously relegated to “maybe someday” (read: never). I.e. stuff that probably never needed to get done, otherwise it would have been a higher priority than what you were otherwise working on.
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    That is not true, see "mental health disorders" which I do suffer from. Me not doing something does not mean it never needed to be done. The opposite is true, too. Something I have done does not mean it had to be done, if that makes sense.
  - 2y ago

stronglikedan 2y ago

> bullet points for everything will change human communication to that format I'd be okay with that! Verbosity has become too pervasive as of late.