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I’ve been a hacker since I was 10, so about 30 years now. A couple of years ago, I felt the same way you did. And then I started properly/seriously using Claud

by smt88 15d ago

I’ve been a hacker since I was 10, so about 30 years now. A couple of years ago, I felt the same way you did. And then I started properly/seriously using Claude Code. When Opus 4.5 came out, it was sincerely life-changing. I can prototype working projects in possibly 1/30th the time, and I can do them simultaneously. This post has made me realize that the flood of AI news isn’t annoying or boring to me anymore because I think my profession is the only one that’s actually being replaced by it, for better or worse. For coders, there’s nothing even close to the level of importance as AI (which doesn’t mean it’s interesting). Honestly I’d like to see more news about AI, but actually about the way it’s devastated the labor side of our industry and will kill the middle classes of countries like India. Without question, nothing short of the web has been more impactful to our industry specifically than AI has been and will be.

cake-rusk 15d ago
> I can prototype working projects in possibly 1/30th the time, and I can do them simultaneously. This takes all the fun out of programming for me.
- softwarewright 15d ago
  I have the same "1/30th ... simultaneous" experience with coding agents, and I am having fun. Directing teams of agents to solve many problems (or create many useful things) for me has its own fun challenges/puzzles-to-solve. Some of the fun is redirecting coding agents when they get stuck, by showing them code or design they could not work out on their own. Some of the fun is designing tools to rein-in AI coding agents, keep them on track, and verify their outputs. Some of the fun is exploring new areas for me: compilers, game dev, language design, emulators, embedded, etc. So I am having fun at the CTO/PM/Engineering Manager level but also at the lowest coding level. I've been coding since the early 70s. This brings back the joy I had discovering microprocessors and electronics.
  - cake-rusk 15d ago
    Sure, if that is what you like. I for one did not get into this field because I wanted to hire people (artificial or natural) to write the programs for me. Programming as an activity / art is what I enjoyed the most. Managing people / agents is a total turn off.
    - skeledrew 15d ago
      Nobody's stopping you from writing code, whether as a hobby or you find/start a company where that's valued.
    - softwarewright 15d ago
      But I am creating programs to manage the coding agents for me. Of course I am using coding agents to do that. It's turtles all the way down :-)
    - softwarewright 11d ago
      serious question: do you program in machine code or assembler or use a higher level language? do you use design patterns and functional approaches? metaprogramming, code generation, templating, app frameworks? Each tool, abstraction, language feature elevates coding to get more done with less (more concisely). Programming is a social activity, since source code is meant to be read by humans (at least historically) even if it is just yourself later. I'm not trying to talk you into using AI coding agents, but explain why I find them fun, and I've written a lot of code by hand over decades, from spaghetti assembler code to structureed programming to object oriented to functional, etc. Each advance in the industry has been a new and diiferent kind of fun for me.
      - cake-rusk 10d ago
        > serious question: do you program in machine code or assembler Sometimes yes. > or use a higher level language? do you use design patterns and functional approaches? metaprogramming, code generation, templating, app frameworks? Most of the time. > Each tool, abstraction, language feature elevates coding to get more done with less (more concisely) Sure. I hope you understand AI is fundamentally different. It's nothing like the things you listed above.
cromka 15d ago
I do NOT have a problem with AI. Again, the problem is with the flooding that drowns-out other news. I intentionally say "limit the AI news" in this post's title.
- smt88 15d ago
  I wasn’t suggesting you do. But how relevant is AI to your everyday life? Do you use it heavily yourself? I was irritated by AI news until it became one of my main tools.
  - cromka 15d ago
    I absolutely do, in fact I do post on the subject as well. I just think the amount of AI news is overbearing and I do not feel like HN is a good enough source for IT news anymore. Sure, I can use another medium, but that's not the point, I hope we can discuss this and hopefully see YC come up with some good solution.

by smt88 15d ago

cake-rusk 15d ago

> I can prototype working projects in possibly 1/30th the time, and I can do them simultaneously. This takes all the fun out of programming for me.

softwarewright 15d ago
I have the same "1/30th ... simultaneous" experience with coding agents, and I am having fun. Directing teams of agents to solve many problems (or create many useful things) for me has its own fun challenges/puzzles-to-solve. Some of the fun is redirecting coding agents when they get stuck, by showing them code or design they could not work out on their own. Some of the fun is designing tools to rein-in AI coding agents, keep them on track, and verify their outputs. Some of the fun is exploring new areas for me: compilers, game dev, language design, emulators, embedded, etc. So I am having fun at the CTO/PM/Engineering Manager level but also at the lowest coding level. I've been coding since the early 70s. This brings back the joy I had discovering microprocessors and electronics.
- cake-rusk 15d ago
  Sure, if that is what you like. I for one did not get into this field because I wanted to hire people (artificial or natural) to write the programs for me. Programming as an activity / art is what I enjoyed the most. Managing people / agents is a total turn off.
  - skeledrew 15d ago
    Nobody's stopping you from writing code, whether as a hobby or you find/start a company where that's valued.
  - softwarewright 15d ago
    But I am creating programs to manage the coding agents for me. Of course I am using coding agents to do that. It's turtles all the way down :-)
  - softwarewright 11d ago
    serious question: do you program in machine code or assembler or use a higher level language? do you use design patterns and functional approaches? metaprogramming, code generation, templating, app frameworks? Each tool, abstraction, language feature elevates coding to get more done with less (more concisely). Programming is a social activity, since source code is meant to be read by humans (at least historically) even if it is just yourself later. I'm not trying to talk you into using AI coding agents, but explain why I find them fun, and I've written a lot of code by hand over decades, from spaghetti assembler code to structureed programming to object oriented to functional, etc. Each advance in the industry has been a new and diiferent kind of fun for me.
    - cake-rusk 10d ago
      > serious question: do you program in machine code or assembler Sometimes yes. > or use a higher level language? do you use design patterns and functional approaches? metaprogramming, code generation, templating, app frameworks? Most of the time. > Each tool, abstraction, language feature elevates coding to get more done with less (more concisely) Sure. I hope you understand AI is fundamentally different. It's nothing like the things you listed above.

cromka 15d ago

I do NOT have a problem with AI. Again, the problem is with the flooding that drowns-out other news. I intentionally say "limit the AI news" in this post's title.

smt88 15d ago
I wasn’t suggesting you do. But how relevant is AI to your everyday life? Do you use it heavily yourself? I was irritated by AI news until it became one of my main tools.
- cromka 15d ago
  I absolutely do, in fact I do post on the subject as well. I just think the amount of AI news is overbearing and I do not feel like HN is a good enough source for IT news anymore. Sure, I can use another medium, but that's not the point, I hope we can discuss this and hopefully see YC come up with some good solution.