5 ms·

I think a lot of us just discovered that the actual programming isn't the fun part for us. It turns out I don't like writing code as much as I thought. I like s

by arjie 10mo ago

I think a lot of us just discovered that the actual programming isn't the fun part for us. It turns out I don't like writing code as much as I thought. I like solving my problems. The activation energy for a lot of things was much higher than it is now. Now it's pretty low. That's great for me. Baby's sleeping, 3d printer is rolling, and I get to make a little bit of progress on something super quick. It's fantastic.

jtbayly 10mo ago
Exactly. And I was never particularly good at coding, either. Pairings with Gemini to finally figure out how to decompile an old Java app so I can make little changes to my user profile and some action files? That was fun! And I was never going to be able to figure out how to do it on my own. I had tried!
- jimbokun 10mo ago
  Fewer things sound less interesting to me than that.
  - cmwelsh 10mo ago
    > Fewer things sound less interesting to me than that. To each their own! I think the market for folks who understand their own problems is exploding! It’s free money.
  - jtbayly 10mo ago
    Fair enough. But that particular could be anything that has been bothering you but you didn’t have the time or expertise to fix yourself. I wanted that fixed, and I had given up on ever seeing it fixed. Suddenly, in only two hours, I had it fixed. And I learned a lot in the process, too!
blitz_skull 10mo ago
This 1000x! I had a bit of an identity crisis with AI first landed and started producing good code. “If I’m not the man who can type quickly, accurately, and build working programs… WHO AM I?” But as you pointed out, I quickly realized I was never that guy. I was the guy who made problems go away, usually with code. Now I can make so many problems go away, it feels like cheating. As it turns out, writing code isn’t super useful. It’s the application of the code, the judgement of which problems to solve and how to solve them, that truly mattered. And that sparks a LOT of joy.
- spankibalt 10mo ago
  [flagged]
  - jimbokun 10mo ago
    It’s possible to be someone who’s very good at writing quality programs but still enjoy delegating as much of that as possible to AI to focus on other things.
    - spankibalt 10mo ago
      > "It’s possible to be someone who’s very good at writing quality programs but still enjoy delegating as much of that as possible to AI to focus on other things." That's true, Jimbo. And besides the point, because: 1. It wasn't about someone who's very good at writing quality programs, but someone who perceives themselves as someone who "is not the man who can build working programs". Do you comprehend the difference? 2. The enjoyment of using slopware wasn't part of the argument (see my answer to the question). That's not something I remotely care about. For the question my answer referred to, please see the cited text before the question mark. <3 3. People who define the very solution to the problem as "isn't super useful" do at least two things: They misunderstood, or misunderstand, their capabilities in problem solving/solutions, and most likely (have) delude(d) themselves, and... They look down on people who actually have done, do, and will do the legwork to solve these very problems ("Your work isn't super useful"). Back in the day we called 'em lamers and/or posers. I hope that clears things up.
      - cthalupa 10mo ago
        > 1. It wasn't about someone who's very good at writing quality programs, but someone who perceives themselves as someone who "is not the man who can build working programs". Do you comprehend the difference? For someone who has taken heavy enjoyment in likening people to analphabets you seem to have entirely misunderstood (or if you understood, heavily misconstrued) the initial point of the person you are responding to. The entire point is that their identity WAS someone who is the man who can build those programs, and now AI was threatening to do the same thing. Unless you a presupposing that anyone who can be happy with the output of LLMs for writing code simply is impossible of having the ability to write quality code themselves. Which would be silly.
RicoElectrico 10mo ago
This. Busy-beavering is why the desktop Linux is where it is - rewriting stuff, making it "elegant" while breaking backwards compatibility - instead of focusing on the outcome.
- int_19h 10mo ago
  macOS breaks backwards compatibility all the time, and yet...
  - sokoloff 10mo ago
    Other than security-related changes, as a user, I find macOS to be quite generous about its evolution, supporting deprecated APIs for many years, etc. SIP and the transition to a read-only system volume are the only two things that I remember broke things that I noticed. It’s not Windows-level of backwards compatibility, but it’s quite good overall from the user side.
popalchemist 10mo ago
Literally shipping a vide-coded feature as my baby sleeps, while reading this comment thread. It's the wild west again. I love it.
- codr7 10mo ago
  Maybe you can tell us the name of the software so we can avoid it?
  - mrkramer 10mo ago
    Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft....they literally all have the vibe coded code; it's not about vibe coded or not, it is about how well the code is designed, efficient and bug free. Ofc pro coders can debug it and fix it better than some amateur coder but still LLMs are so valuable. I let Gemini vibe code little web projects for me and it serves me well. Although you have to explain everything step by step to it and sometimes when it fixes one bug, it accidently introduces another. But we fix bugs together and learn together. And btw when Gemini fixes bugs, it puts comments in the code on how the particular bug was fixed.
    - duskdozer 10mo ago
      Are those supposed to be companies we don't want to avoid?
      - mrkramer 10mo ago
        These are companies that know how to vibe code efficiently.
  - popalchemist 10mo ago
    It's a personal project. No need to be a dick.
    - codr7 10mo ago
      Presenting AI slop as software is about as as big as it gets.

by arjie 10mo ago

jtbayly 10mo ago

Exactly. And I was never particularly good at coding, either. Pairings with Gemini to finally figure out how to decompile an old Java app so I can make little changes to my user profile and some action files? That was fun! And I was never going to be able to figure out how to do it on my own. I had tried!

jimbokun 10mo ago
Fewer things sound less interesting to me than that.
- cmwelsh 10mo ago
  > Fewer things sound less interesting to me than that. To each their own! I think the market for folks who understand their own problems is exploding! It’s free money.
- jtbayly 10mo ago
  Fair enough. But that particular could be anything that has been bothering you but you didn’t have the time or expertise to fix yourself. I wanted that fixed, and I had given up on ever seeing it fixed. Suddenly, in only two hours, I had it fixed. And I learned a lot in the process, too!

blitz_skull 10mo ago

This 1000x! I had a bit of an identity crisis with AI first landed and started producing good code. “If I’m not the man who can type quickly, accurately, and build working programs… WHO AM I?” But as you pointed out, I quickly realized I was never that guy. I was the guy who made problems go away, usually with code. Now I can make so many problems go away, it feels like cheating. As it turns out, writing code isn’t super useful. It’s the application of the code, the judgement of which problems to solve and how to solve them, that truly mattered. And that sparks a LOT of joy.

spankibalt 10mo ago
[flagged]
- jimbokun 10mo ago
  It’s possible to be someone who’s very good at writing quality programs but still enjoy delegating as much of that as possible to AI to focus on other things.
  - spankibalt 10mo ago
    > "It’s possible to be someone who’s very good at writing quality programs but still enjoy delegating as much of that as possible to AI to focus on other things." That's true, Jimbo. And besides the point, because: 1. It wasn't about someone who's very good at writing quality programs, but someone who perceives themselves as someone who "is not the man who can build working programs". Do you comprehend the difference? 2. The enjoyment of using slopware wasn't part of the argument (see my answer to the question). That's not something I remotely care about. For the question my answer referred to, please see the cited text before the question mark. <3 3. People who define the very solution to the problem as "isn't super useful" do at least two things: They misunderstood, or misunderstand, their capabilities in problem solving/solutions, and most likely (have) delude(d) themselves, and... They look down on people who actually have done, do, and will do the legwork to solve these very problems ("Your work isn't super useful"). Back in the day we called 'em lamers and/or posers. I hope that clears things up.
    - cthalupa 10mo ago
      > 1. It wasn't about someone who's very good at writing quality programs, but someone who perceives themselves as someone who "is not the man who can build working programs". Do you comprehend the difference? For someone who has taken heavy enjoyment in likening people to analphabets you seem to have entirely misunderstood (or if you understood, heavily misconstrued) the initial point of the person you are responding to. The entire point is that their identity WAS someone who is the man who can build those programs, and now AI was threatening to do the same thing. Unless you a presupposing that anyone who can be happy with the output of LLMs for writing code simply is impossible of having the ability to write quality code themselves. Which would be silly.

RicoElectrico 10mo ago

This. Busy-beavering is why the desktop Linux is where it is - rewriting stuff, making it "elegant" while breaking backwards compatibility - instead of focusing on the outcome.

int_19h 10mo ago
macOS breaks backwards compatibility all the time, and yet...
- sokoloff 10mo ago
  Other than security-related changes, as a user, I find macOS to be quite generous about its evolution, supporting deprecated APIs for many years, etc. SIP and the transition to a read-only system volume are the only two things that I remember broke things that I noticed. It’s not Windows-level of backwards compatibility, but it’s quite good overall from the user side.

popalchemist 10mo ago

Literally shipping a vide-coded feature as my baby sleeps, while reading this comment thread. It's the wild west again. I love it.

codr7 10mo ago
Maybe you can tell us the name of the software so we can avoid it?
- mrkramer 10mo ago
  Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft....they literally all have the vibe coded code; it's not about vibe coded or not, it is about how well the code is designed, efficient and bug free. Ofc pro coders can debug it and fix it better than some amateur coder but still LLMs are so valuable. I let Gemini vibe code little web projects for me and it serves me well. Although you have to explain everything step by step to it and sometimes when it fixes one bug, it accidently introduces another. But we fix bugs together and learn together. And btw when Gemini fixes bugs, it puts comments in the code on how the particular bug was fixed.
  - duskdozer 10mo ago
    Are those supposed to be companies we don't want to avoid?
    - mrkramer 10mo ago
      These are companies that know how to vibe code efficiently.
- popalchemist 10mo ago
  It's a personal project. No need to be a dick.
  - codr7 10mo ago
    Presenting AI slop as software is about as as big as it gets.