Comment by tpoacher
12 hours ago
Not necessarily an identical thought to OP, but, anecdotally (n=1), my experience teaching the exact same course on Advanced Java Programming for the last 4 years has been that the students seem to be getting more and more cynical, and seem to think of programming as an art or as a noteworthy endeavour in itself less and less. Very few people have actually vocalised the "why do I even need to learn this if I can write a prompt" sentiment out loud, but it has been voiced, and even from those who don't say it there's a very definite 'vibe' that is all but screaming it.
Whereas the vibe in the lecture theatre 4 years ago was far more nerdy and enthusiastic. It makes me feel very sorry for this new generation that they will never get to enjoy the same feeling of satisfaction from solving a hard problem with code you thought and wrote from scratch.
Ironically, I've had to incorporate some AI stuff in my course as a result of needing to remain "current", which almost feels like it validates that cynical sentiment that this soulless way is the way to be doing things now.
I have no idea where this romanticism of software development comes from. I’ve been in the field professionally for 30 years across 10 jobs - everything from startups, to boring old enterprise companies, to small to midsize “lifestyle companies” and BigTech. Most people see the job as a vocation to make money and not a passion.
Scott Hanselman talked about “Dark Matter Developers” in 2012.
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/dark-matter-developers-the-un...
Has the school changed?
And can we assume that because AI has made it easy to solve some hard problems, other hard problems won't arise?
Not that I don't agree
And hasn't the internet generally added to this attitude?
And if it makes you feel any better, as someone around that age, this environment seems to have also led some of us to go out of our way to not outsource all our thinking
I taught intro to programming ~15-20 years ago. Back then everyone just copied each other’s assignments. Plus ça change
The OP said coding now feels like:
> import solution from chatgpt
Which reminded me of all the students in classes (and online forums) mocking non-nerds who wanted easy answers to programming problems. It would seem the non-nerds are getting their way now.