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Ever since I started experimenting with AI coding, I've totally lost that feeling of accomplishment. For projects I actually developed by typing in the code, it

Ever since I started experimenting with AI coding, I've totally lost that feeling of accomplishment. For projects I actually developed by typing in the code, it feels like I actually did something--like here's something I built and am responsible for bringing into the world. When I finish an AI-built project, I feel...nothing. Just that empty: "Code now exists where it didn't exist before, but I didn't really do anything." Without any sense of ownership or attachment whatsoever. If someone DMCA'ed one of my GitHub projects and made me take it down, I'd be pissed. But if someone DMCA'ed an AI-coded thinggy, I'd probably delete the repo and never think about it again in my life.

culopatin 5mo ago
AI is like cheap void calories. Writing by hand is calories from a good home cooked meal with all the nutrients and love, AI code (unless maybe you worked on putting together an AI system and the harness is your build), feels like calories from a Sprite. Also I’ve been thinking that ai code is like cheap amazon furniture and hand crafted is well… hand crafted.
- boringg 5mo ago
  Your analogy is apt. The challenge is that most of the world runs on cheap calories and cheap furniture and that seems to be growing more and more.
- number6 5mo ago
  Will there be a point where hand crafted does end you somewhere like the Toaster Project [1] [1]https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/ https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/
  - gmueckl 5mo ago
    Wr are already there, in a sense: the amount of basic software in a box that is required to produce more software is already huge. And so is the supply chains behind it.
  - SpaceNoodled 5mo ago
    The idea of having all of those steps generated so unreliably is haunting.
sushshshhs 5mo ago
If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file handling” and “logging” and syntax wrangling and caring if some “variable” is on the “stack” or the “heap” I can live without very happily. It’s not that they are uninteresting in and of themselves but I find it hard to justify keeping my focus on these microscopic issues again and again and again and again.
- TakeItToTen 5mo ago
  I have landed here myself. I have always enjoyed writing code, but I find lately that I am getting so much more satisfaction from the process of exploring and designing systems more, and code is simply the substrate. I am becoming a better architect with AI, because I am spending more mental energy in that lane, getting less embroiled in the nitty-gritty of the code.
  - ryandrake 5mo ago
    There was a thread[1] about this the other day! People have different goals, motivations, and reasons for developing. I guess I just like sorting colored blocks. I'll agonize over the code... I really will go back to a class I wrote months ago and ask "Do I really need this member variable?" and "Does this really need to go on the heap or can it live on the stack and be automatically cleaned up?" "Can I use a pImpl C++ pattern here and reduce the number of headers that this header file includes?" 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316056 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316056
  - dgellow 5mo ago
    I had that the first few months, but that feeling doesnt stay forever. I think a difficulty with that discussion is that some are still in the honeymoon stage, while others are at the “wtf is the point” stage of the relationship with coding harnesses. In my case that took ~1y from using tools like Claude code daily to the point where I lost interest and motivation once I understood the technology contributed negatively to my personal growth.
kccqzy 5mo ago
That’s why fully AI written projects are only interesting to those who care only about productivity (i.e. business use cases) rather than the developer’s enjoyment and satisfaction. For my own sanity, I never allow AI to do everything. Either I write some code and turn to AI for debugging help and code review, or I let AI write the initial draft and I debug the AI-written code.
- shrubby 5mo ago
  Meaning, purpose, essence. Instead of void shit, empty pleasure.
- shrubby 5mo ago
  The current state of humanity, not only AI.
- ryandrake 5mo ago
  I feel AI is interesting if the purpose is utilitarian, but not if the purpose is artistic or expressive. I've thought to myself: If AI could create a bicycle, would I ride it? Probably, yes. If AI could create a bed frame and matching bedside cabinets, would I outfit my bedroom with them? Maybe, maybe not. If AI could paint a picture on canvas (it probably can), would I hang the output in my house? Hell no!
- gmueckl 5mo ago
  Welcone to Management - AI Edition: everything bad about technical management except for the people problems.
- krd8ssb 5mo ago
  I think this is completely dependent on the person building it and why they love building software. Some people got into software development because they love to code. Others got into it because they love bringing ideas to life and coding was the only means to do so. I am of the latter. I love software development because it allows me to bring my idea to life. Yes, I love to code but it's a means to get to my ultimate goal. I don't have a lot of time outside of work and family to work on my ideas. They usually just sit in my head until I forget about them. Being able to use AI to assist in feature planning while I'm on the go, break everything down into organize phases, put those phases into the structured tickets, work on architecture design, and have things come to life around my requirements and within my constraints has been a complete game changer.
nurettin 5mo ago
Learning some schmuck's framework, IDE, language or OS never felt rewarding to me. It was always like playing with broken toys. Hear me out. There was always some subtle quirk, a bug that irks me once every so often, something I'd never want to unleash upon masses and although these people made their work available through various channels, paid or unpaid, for some reason I felt more of a grudge than gratitude. And I tried to fix things I did. It was a breathless, thankless exercise of working through someone else's code line by line for decades while hardly being able to lift my head because of actual work I had to do to support my life. And thus a villain was born. I am so glad it is over. It is all ingested into neural network weights and high-pressure sprayed to the masses through RNG. I am finally free. I don't have to learn your stupid aws commands, your helm configs, your systemd antics, your http api. I don't have to care about your life times, your gc params. I tell the computer and it clinks and clanks and eventually gets the job done like gene rodenberry intended.

culopatin 5mo ago

AI is like cheap void calories. Writing by hand is calories from a good home cooked meal with all the nutrients and love, AI code (unless maybe you worked on putting together an AI system and the harness is your build), feels like calories from a Sprite. Also I’ve been thinking that ai code is like cheap amazon furniture and hand crafted is well… hand crafted.

boringg 5mo ago
Your analogy is apt. The challenge is that most of the world runs on cheap calories and cheap furniture and that seems to be growing more and more.
number6 5mo ago
Will there be a point where hand crafted does end you somewhere like the Toaster Project [1] [1]https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/ https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/
- gmueckl 5mo ago
  Wr are already there, in a sense: the amount of basic software in a box that is required to produce more software is already huge. And so is the supply chains behind it.
- SpaceNoodled 5mo ago
  The idea of having all of those steps generated so unreliably is haunting.

sushshshhs 5mo ago

If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file handling” and “logging” and syntax wrangling and caring if some “variable” is on the “stack” or the “heap” I can live without very happily. It’s not that they are uninteresting in and of themselves but I find it hard to justify keeping my focus on these microscopic issues again and again and again and again.

TakeItToTen 5mo ago
I have landed here myself. I have always enjoyed writing code, but I find lately that I am getting so much more satisfaction from the process of exploring and designing systems more, and code is simply the substrate. I am becoming a better architect with AI, because I am spending more mental energy in that lane, getting less embroiled in the nitty-gritty of the code.
- ryandrake 5mo ago
  There was a thread[1] about this the other day! People have different goals, motivations, and reasons for developing. I guess I just like sorting colored blocks. I'll agonize over the code... I really will go back to a class I wrote months ago and ask "Do I really need this member variable?" and "Does this really need to go on the heap or can it live on the stack and be automatically cleaned up?" "Can I use a pImpl C++ pattern here and reduce the number of headers that this header file includes?" 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316056 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316056
- dgellow 5mo ago
  I had that the first few months, but that feeling doesnt stay forever. I think a difficulty with that discussion is that some are still in the honeymoon stage, while others are at the “wtf is the point” stage of the relationship with coding harnesses. In my case that took ~1y from using tools like Claude code daily to the point where I lost interest and motivation once I understood the technology contributed negatively to my personal growth.

kccqzy 5mo ago

That’s why fully AI written projects are only interesting to those who care only about productivity (i.e. business use cases) rather than the developer’s enjoyment and satisfaction. For my own sanity, I never allow AI to do everything. Either I write some code and turn to AI for debugging help and code review, or I let AI write the initial draft and I debug the AI-written code.

shrubby 5mo ago
Meaning, purpose, essence. Instead of void shit, empty pleasure.
shrubby 5mo ago
The current state of humanity, not only AI.
ryandrake 5mo ago
I feel AI is interesting if the purpose is utilitarian, but not if the purpose is artistic or expressive. I've thought to myself: If AI could create a bicycle, would I ride it? Probably, yes. If AI could create a bed frame and matching bedside cabinets, would I outfit my bedroom with them? Maybe, maybe not. If AI could paint a picture on canvas (it probably can), would I hang the output in my house? Hell no!
gmueckl 5mo ago
Welcone to Management - AI Edition: everything bad about technical management except for the people problems.
krd8ssb 5mo ago
I think this is completely dependent on the person building it and why they love building software. Some people got into software development because they love to code. Others got into it because they love bringing ideas to life and coding was the only means to do so. I am of the latter. I love software development because it allows me to bring my idea to life. Yes, I love to code but it's a means to get to my ultimate goal. I don't have a lot of time outside of work and family to work on my ideas. They usually just sit in my head until I forget about them. Being able to use AI to assist in feature planning while I'm on the go, break everything down into organize phases, put those phases into the structured tickets, work on architecture design, and have things come to life around my requirements and within my constraints has been a complete game changer.

nurettin 5mo ago

Learning some schmuck's framework, IDE, language or OS never felt rewarding to me. It was always like playing with broken toys. Hear me out. There was always some subtle quirk, a bug that irks me once every so often, something I'd never want to unleash upon masses and although these people made their work available through various channels, paid or unpaid, for some reason I felt more of a grudge than gratitude. And I tried to fix things I did. It was a breathless, thankless exercise of working through someone else's code line by line for decades while hardly being able to lift my head because of actual work I had to do to support my life. And thus a villain was born. I am so glad it is over. It is all ingested into neural network weights and high-pressure sprayed to the masses through RNG. I am finally free. I don't have to learn your stupid aws commands, your helm configs, your systemd antics, your http api. I don't have to care about your life times, your gc params. I tell the computer and it clinks and clanks and eventually gets the job done like gene rodenberry intended.