6 ms·

Why is it such a dramatic statement for Boris to claim that he no longer writes code? Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a ti

Why is it such a dramatic statement for Boris to claim that he no longer writes code? Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a time? It would be like a developer in 2020 claiming that he only writes assembly because compilers can’t be trusted. No one is taking that person seriously. If you chose a career in tech you made a decision to work in one of the fastest moving fields in human history. Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt.

bigstrat2003 4mo ago
> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. No, thank you. I have used the new tools, determined that they aren't helpful to me, and set them aside as I would with any other bad tool. I don't feel the need to let hype take the steering wheel.
- chipsrafferty 4mo ago
  Let me guess, you used them 12 months ago?
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
rvz 4mo ago
> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. Exactly. You are free to use openclaw or a coding agent to build a competing bank, hedge-fund, hospital or even a new airliner because the previous ones were built by humans. Surely an AI can do it better by itself. So why haven't you done it yet?
rjrjrjrj 4mo ago
C'mon, the LLM/compiler false analogy? In 2026?
troupo 4mo ago
> Why is it such a dramatic statement for Boris to claim that he no longer writes code? Because we can actually see the disjointed slop that Anthropic produces. And when issues happen, they can't fix them for weeks on end because no one understands what code does anymore, and all of their "hard problems causing issues" they blog about are literally "if we had actual engineers this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with". Like this bullshit they had in spring: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/april-23-postmortem https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/april-23-postmortem > It would be like a developer in 2020 claiming that he only writes assembly because compilers can’t be trusted. LLMs are not compilers. For a few very obvious reasons I'll leave as an exercise to figure out
solenoid0937 4mo ago
It is because HN is contrarian and behind the times. I work at a big tech company and I don't know a single person that still hand writes code. Most people haven't hand written code for at least half a year now. I do wonder what sort of bug is making its rounds on HN that people here find this so shocking and unbelievable.
- troupo 4mo ago
  The bug is called "applying actual engineering principles and critical thinking". The absolute vast majority of people who point out AI's downsides have used it and use it. People who uncritically write things like "I work at a big tech company and I don't know a single person that still hand writes code." scare the shit out of us for a good reason.
  - solenoid0937 4mo ago
    Using it is not enough. You have to explore its boundaries, see what it can do when cost is not a constraint. This is only really possible at the big tech companies and well funded startups. Any eng that is only using Claude Code or Codex or whatever, is frankly not entitled to talk about AI's limits since they are using the most basic harnesses. They literally don't know better. When I see Claude Code or Codex users on HN talking about how coding with AI is risky, it's like watching someone that has only ever seen a catapult argue about how space travel must be impossible.
    - camdenreslink 4mo ago
      > Any eng that is only using Claude Code or Codex or whatever, is frankly not entitled to talk about AI's limits since they are using the most basic harnesses. They literally don't know better. I really doubt big tech has much better harnesses than are publicly available. Definitely not "catapult vs space travel". They have the same base models we all have access to.
      - deleted 4mo ago
        [deleted]
msm_ 4mo ago
>Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a time? Well I use tab completion, of course. And I copy-paste snippets from LLM more often than from SO now. But otherwise not much has changed in my career in the last 5 years. Is this different for you? I'm not fundamentally opposed to code generation, and I use LLMs for some taks, but I don't see myself vibecoding whole pages of production code. I vibecoded a throwaway note-taking app for myself though.
- chipsrafferty 4mo ago
  Yes. If you're copy posting code from LLMs you're in the minority of people who are "in the past". Most people are generating most of their code in ~1-200 LOC chunks, reviewing it, adjusting as needed (usually with another prompt) and then opening a PR, which gets reviewed both my LLM and other teammates.
  - sensanaty 4mo ago
    Citations very much needed on the "most" here. I'm in a huge corpo with ~1500ish devs and the large majority of code is still very much handwritten, and we have access to all the AI tools imaginable (it's not forced on us because they treat us like professionals that will use the most appropriate tools to do the job, thankfully).
- latentsea 4mo ago
  Our whole team has transitioned to agentic engineering around the start of this year. We've been heavily investing in harness engineering to ensure final outputs are production quality and not slop. These days it very much feels like the task has shifted from "building the system" to "building the system that builds the system". It only looks to be trending one way.
matkoniecz 4mo ago
> Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a time? Yes, me. Yes, I tried LLMs for what I am doing and will try again in few months. No, there was no noticeable or clear improvement over doing it manually. Yes, I am using some LLMs for some purposes but Claude Code had slight improvement, if any, not worth introducing proprietary dependency.
lelanthran 4mo ago
> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. If the AI is producing what you tell it to, why are you needed?
- pyth0 4mo ago
  You answered your own question... you are needed to tell it what to do. Let's not pretend that someone with prior software skills will be able to produce larger scale and/or higher quality work compared to someone with no experience.
  - camdenreslink 4mo ago
    > Let's not pretend that someone with prior software skills will be able to produce larger scale and/or higher quality work compared to someone with no experience. This seems like a really confident prediction. It isn't true right now, why do you think it will be true in the future? Right now having knowledge and experience is a huge benefit to steering the LLM (it makes dumb decisions all the time still).
    - pyth0 4mo ago
      I totally intended to say "let's not pretend that ... will NOT be able to". Typo and poorly worded, my mistake. I completely agree that the prior experience significantly amplifies what you can do with an LLM over someone without experience.

bigstrat2003 4mo ago

> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. No, thank you. I have used the new tools, determined that they aren't helpful to me, and set them aside as I would with any other bad tool. I don't feel the need to let hype take the steering wheel.

chipsrafferty 4mo ago
Let me guess, you used them 12 months ago?
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]

rvz 4mo ago

> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. Exactly. You are free to use openclaw or a coding agent to build a competing bank, hedge-fund, hospital or even a new airliner because the previous ones were built by humans. Surely an AI can do it better by itself. So why haven't you done it yet?

rjrjrjrj 4mo ago

C'mon, the LLM/compiler false analogy? In 2026?

troupo 4mo ago

> Why is it such a dramatic statement for Boris to claim that he no longer writes code? Because we can actually see the disjointed slop that Anthropic produces. And when issues happen, they can't fix them for weeks on end because no one understands what code does anymore, and all of their "hard problems causing issues" they blog about are literally "if we had actual engineers this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with". Like this bullshit they had in spring: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/april-23-postmortem https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/april-23-postmortem > It would be like a developer in 2020 claiming that he only writes assembly because compilers can’t be trusted. LLMs are not compilers. For a few very obvious reasons I'll leave as an exercise to figure out

solenoid0937 4mo ago

It is because HN is contrarian and behind the times. I work at a big tech company and I don't know a single person that still hand writes code. Most people haven't hand written code for at least half a year now. I do wonder what sort of bug is making its rounds on HN that people here find this so shocking and unbelievable.

troupo 4mo ago
The bug is called "applying actual engineering principles and critical thinking". The absolute vast majority of people who point out AI's downsides have used it and use it. People who uncritically write things like "I work at a big tech company and I don't know a single person that still hand writes code." scare the shit out of us for a good reason.
- solenoid0937 4mo ago
  Using it is not enough. You have to explore its boundaries, see what it can do when cost is not a constraint. This is only really possible at the big tech companies and well funded startups. Any eng that is only using Claude Code or Codex or whatever, is frankly not entitled to talk about AI's limits since they are using the most basic harnesses. They literally don't know better. When I see Claude Code or Codex users on HN talking about how coding with AI is risky, it's like watching someone that has only ever seen a catapult argue about how space travel must be impossible.
  - camdenreslink 4mo ago
    > Any eng that is only using Claude Code or Codex or whatever, is frankly not entitled to talk about AI's limits since they are using the most basic harnesses. They literally don't know better. I really doubt big tech has much better harnesses than are publicly available. Definitely not "catapult vs space travel". They have the same base models we all have access to.
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]

msm_ 4mo ago

>Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a time? Well I use tab completion, of course. And I copy-paste snippets from LLM more often than from SO now. But otherwise not much has changed in my career in the last 5 years. Is this different for you? I'm not fundamentally opposed to code generation, and I use LLMs for some taks, but I don't see myself vibecoding whole pages of production code. I vibecoded a throwaway note-taking app for myself though.

chipsrafferty 4mo ago
Yes. If you're copy posting code from LLMs you're in the minority of people who are "in the past". Most people are generating most of their code in ~1-200 LOC chunks, reviewing it, adjusting as needed (usually with another prompt) and then opening a PR, which gets reviewed both my LLM and other teammates.
- sensanaty 4mo ago
  Citations very much needed on the "most" here. I'm in a huge corpo with ~1500ish devs and the large majority of code is still very much handwritten, and we have access to all the AI tools imaginable (it's not forced on us because they treat us like professionals that will use the most appropriate tools to do the job, thankfully).
latentsea 4mo ago
Our whole team has transitioned to agentic engineering around the start of this year. We've been heavily investing in harness engineering to ensure final outputs are production quality and not slop. These days it very much feels like the task has shifted from "building the system" to "building the system that builds the system". It only looks to be trending one way.

matkoniecz 4mo ago

> Are people on HN still typing out functions by hand one character at a time? Yes, me. Yes, I tried LLMs for what I am doing and will try again in few months. No, there was no noticeable or clear improvement over doing it manually. Yes, I am using some LLMs for some purposes but Claude Code had slight improvement, if any, not worth introducing proprietary dependency.

lelanthran 4mo ago

> Now it’s time to get over it, learn the new tools and adapt. If the AI is producing what you tell it to, why are you needed?

pyth0 4mo ago
You answered your own question... you are needed to tell it what to do. Let's not pretend that someone with prior software skills will be able to produce larger scale and/or higher quality work compared to someone with no experience.
- camdenreslink 4mo ago
  > Let's not pretend that someone with prior software skills will be able to produce larger scale and/or higher quality work compared to someone with no experience. This seems like a really confident prediction. It isn't true right now, why do you think it will be true in the future? Right now having knowledge and experience is a huge benefit to steering the LLM (it makes dumb decisions all the time still).
  - pyth0 4mo ago
    I totally intended to say "let's not pretend that ... will NOT be able to". Typo and poorly worded, my mistake. I completely agree that the prior experience significantly amplifies what you can do with an LLM over someone without experience.