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I think you were incredibly lucky to get to write code that you enjoyed writing. Most of the commercial code I've written, over a 30+ year career, has been shi

I think you were incredibly lucky to get to write code that you enjoyed writing. Most of the commercial code I've written, over a 30+ year career, has been shite. The mandate was always to write profitable code, not elegant code. I started (much like the OP) back in the 80's writing code as a hobby, and I enjoyed that. But implementing yet another shitty REST CRUD server for a shitty website... not so much. I totally see a solution: get the LLM to write the shitty REST CRUD server, and focus on the hard bits of the job.

iqp 8mo ago
^ This. People bemoan the death of coding, but easily 80%+ of the code I've written commercially was just CRUD or ETL shite. I've done a few interesting things (a formula parser, a WYSWIG survey builder for signature pads, a navigation controller for line-guided industrial vehicles, etc.) but yeah, don't miss writing reams of boilerplate. I always tried to take a Kent Beck inspired Smalltalk/TDD inspired approach to the code I wrote and took pride in my work, but ultimately you're working in a shitty corporate environment where none of your colleagues cares because they're burning at both ends, the management only does lip service to Quality, and Deadlines and the Bottom Line are Everything. If LLMs make this shit more bearable then bring 'em on, I say!
- lelanthran 8mo ago
  > I always tried to take a Kent Beck inspired Smalltalk/TDD inspired approach to the code I wrote and took pride in my work, but ultimately you're working in a shitty corporate environment where none of your colleagues cares because they're burning at both ends, the management only does lip service to Quality, and Deadlines and the Bottom Line are Everything. LLMs are a multiplier. If this depressed you, then there is no way I can see the following happening. > If LLMs make this shit more bearable then bring 'em on, I say! What LLMs are going to do is multiply the amount of "none of your colleagues care" and "Management only does lip-service to ..."
  - marcus_holmes 8mo ago
    It's not that none of my colleagues care, or that management is necessarily bad. That doesn't help, but it's not the cause. It's the nature of the job. A CRUD REST server needs to be built. It's a shitty job, but someone has to do it. The interesting part of the job is over there, in whatever actually-novel part of the system is being built. But someone still has to build the CRUD REST server. There are frameworks and patterns that help, but not as much as you'd think, or they claim. It's just part of the job. By far the largest and least interesting part of the job.
- pydry 8mo ago
  It's making it less, not more bearable.

iqp 8mo ago

^ This. People bemoan the death of coding, but easily 80%+ of the code I've written commercially was just CRUD or ETL shite. I've done a few interesting things (a formula parser, a WYSWIG survey builder for signature pads, a navigation controller for line-guided industrial vehicles, etc.) but yeah, don't miss writing reams of boilerplate. I always tried to take a Kent Beck inspired Smalltalk/TDD inspired approach to the code I wrote and took pride in my work, but ultimately you're working in a shitty corporate environment where none of your colleagues cares because they're burning at both ends, the management only does lip service to Quality, and Deadlines and the Bottom Line are Everything. If LLMs make this shit more bearable then bring 'em on, I say!

lelanthran 8mo ago
> I always tried to take a Kent Beck inspired Smalltalk/TDD inspired approach to the code I wrote and took pride in my work, but ultimately you're working in a shitty corporate environment where none of your colleagues cares because they're burning at both ends, the management only does lip service to Quality, and Deadlines and the Bottom Line are Everything. LLMs are a multiplier. If this depressed you, then there is no way I can see the following happening. > If LLMs make this shit more bearable then bring 'em on, I say! What LLMs are going to do is multiply the amount of "none of your colleagues care" and "Management only does lip-service to ..."
- marcus_holmes 8mo ago
  It's not that none of my colleagues care, or that management is necessarily bad. That doesn't help, but it's not the cause. It's the nature of the job. A CRUD REST server needs to be built. It's a shitty job, but someone has to do it. The interesting part of the job is over there, in whatever actually-novel part of the system is being built. But someone still has to build the CRUD REST server. There are frameworks and patterns that help, but not as much as you'd think, or they claim. It's just part of the job. By far the largest and least interesting part of the job.
pydry 8mo ago
It's making it less, not more bearable.