Comment by userbinator
1 year ago
When you have to manually search for files and then Ctrl+F to find functions, lookup docs in a web browser (which I hear is how people who don't use IDEs still do that), or manually run a linter/compiler to see warnings in your code, you're just being really inefficient.
It's inefficient the first time but you quickly build a working memory and a deeper mental model of the code, which becomes even more useful in the future.
Why don't you use automation to help your job when the whole point of your job is automation?
That sort of thinking will get your job automated out of existence.
Good riddance?
Why spend your life doing something a computer could do for you?
The goal of programming is not to write code (however much I enjoy that part), it is to solve problems.
I don't think copilot et al is anywhere close yet though. They are occasionally useful when working with popular APIs you use very rarely, or when you need to write some very repetitive code. Other than that, I feel like it's mostly a monkey typing plausible but incorrect code on my screen everywhere I go.
Why spend your life doing something a computer could do for you?
Why spend your life doing _anything_ a computer could do for you? Why even live, if you're going in that philosophical direction?
I don't think copilot et al is anywhere close yet though.
Unfortunately, many of those in management already think it is.
The less people use their brains, the more easily they will be replaced, and the worse the product they'll produce. Unless you want to lose your job and let society drown in mediocre software (which you will no doubt need to use), do not hand over your agency to the machine.
I don't want to write any code. I want to think about the design of the program and have it pop out of my head fully formed.
The latter gives me dopamine. The former gives me carpal tunnel.
For myself, the code is the journey. There are times though when I'm not fully invested in the problem, that I really just want to skip that part.
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> The goal of programming is not to write code (however much I enjoy that part), it is to solve problems.
Right, which is exactly why autocomplete is not a huge help.
That makes no sense whatsoever. Autocomplete helps you speed up the writing of the code so you can focus on solving the problems more often.
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We are not paid to “code” we are paid to use our knowledge of the technology ecosystem to add business value - either save the company money or to make the company money.
Back in the 2000s for me part of that job was to lead the buildout of a data center with a SAN that took up a whole room to hold 4TBs. Now I do that with 5 lines of yaml in a CloudFormation template.
My job was not “automated out of existence” by not having to provision a data center as part of it.