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Comment by random_duck

2 days ago

Agreed. Also I could not imagine being in his shoes, it must be heartbreaking seeing all his work burn like this.

It is "progress" when tech bros displace traditional workers, but it is "heartbreaking" when a tech bro gets displaced by other tech bros.

Whats the 2026 version of "you should learn to code"?

  • "You should learn how to vibecode and ship whatever works enough, as fast as possible, to get bought for a wildly disconnected from fundamentals valuation." This may sound flippant, or low quality, but it I assure that it is not intended to be. It is derived from observations of the current tech macro. Quality does not appear to matter, ethics do not appear to matter, sustainability and engineering rigor do not appear to matter; it appears that all that matters is "Start up. Cash in. Sell out. Bro down."

    I would love to be proven wrong, truly, because this is a path to the death of craftsmanship, deep knowledge, and to some extent, curiosity, in the domain.

    • It satisfies the dream of a business with no people. As Doctorow illustrates it, like plugging the Fisher-Price steering wheel into the drive train of the business.

    • > Quality does not appear to matter, ethics do not appear to matter, sustainability and engineering rigor do not appear to matter

      I don't know why people keep saying this, as if quality, ethics and sustainability mattered before and every developer was a pure artisan of their craft. In reality, having been in many companies and looking at their codebases, it has always been slop, with very few exceptions.

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    • You might be right but even then this feels fundamentally really immoral

      The sell out is the biggest fundamental issue in this equation because it is the part of the equation which doesn't reward Quality,ethics,sustainability and engineering rigor overall.

      Welcome to the AI bubble fueling it.

      I genuinely don't know but I think AI prototyping/using it for personal use cases are fine but when we completely start to vibecode, if your project is complex enough, you will reach problems and all the other factors/researches point out. In my opinion, for longevity, vibecoding is not the deal.

      But as you said, longevity isnt rewarded. I really hate how the system has become of just selling businesses.

      I feel like as such the businesses who are truly passionate about their product (because they faced the problems themselves or are heavily interested in it/passionate about it) might win "long term"

      To me trust feels the biggest resource in this day and age. Information era has now been sloppified. Trust is what matters now.

      I don't know but I will take the slow but overall steady route. There is a sense of commitment with human trust which I feel would set apart businesses and I will try to create side projects with that initiative

      One of the ways I feel like acheiving it while still getting the shipfast aspect is that I just build things for myself, vibe coding in this case can help and I launch it for public, if there is interest in any product or smth, I will try to respond and try to add feedbacks fast (perhaps still using vibecoding) but in long term, I try to promise to keep the code lean (usually approx 2-3k lines of code at max) and then if I see prospect and interest about the idea, I have tried to think that a middle way is either rewriting or completely understanding AI generated code to its core and having a very restrictive AI access afterwards any product feels good and then the trust aspect of things can be gained.

      I don't know too much about side hustles. I just build things for myself in whatever I want mostly I must admit using vibe code and end up usually sharing it online/deploying it for others as well if it might help.

  • You should learn to vote for UBI?

    • UBI will turn Earth into the Earth of the Expanse. I truly believe it would be absolutely ruinous on man. Our psychology is just not built for that.

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    • Agreed, it's one of the only ways forward I can think of while still maintaining markets in some part of the economy...that is, if you care about the human condition at all. Plenty of these tech leaders seem to want to replace humanity though, so this will be an uphill battle.

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    • I can't imagine how it could work internationally, when people can literally migrate between countries and countries ain't sharing resources for free

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    • Funded by an automation tax as proposed by Martin Ford. Not holding my breath on either count. We mustn't upset the 1,000 or so billionaires in this country in any way for they are wise and they are kind and only bad things will happen if we do.

      But chin up, peasant, each and every one of us can dream of one day being a billionaire as well if only we act as wise and as kind as they do.

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    • Everyone suggests UBI like this sort of thing is a massive hurricane and we just gotta take it on the chin.

      Nah man, this stuff isn't happening anywhere else. We can simply say "No, you don't get to ruin the economy for your personal profit."

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    • The reality of UBI in the United States is that it's going to go from being something freely given to being something that is a full time job to maintain, and then it will be cut or replaced with services that are specifically designed to be as cheap as possible. Until we're all living in terrafoam, birth-controlled and warehoused until we die.

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  • >Whats the 2026 version of "you should learn to code"?

    Elderly care.

    • Is it that mass unemployment will lead to caring more for one's family again, resulting in proper family structures that take care for their elders like in the past? I hope so.

  • When you talk in meaningless terms like "traditional workers" and "tech bros", all it tells me is that you have divided the world into people you like and people you dislike and mourn / celebrate accordingly.

    • If ones position for "other people" was "they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps" then the same applies. If your position was we should stop/slow/consider the march of progress - well you lost to 30 years of moving fast and breaking things.

      I suggest and ask for nothing but consistency, irrespective of if you like or dislike the people who are affected.

  • unfortunately, it doesn't seems like tech bro gets displaced by other tech bros at all and more like corporates running costly ephemeral branding as tech bro by abusing other tech bros works.

    • What's the difference between tech bros and corporates? Isn't being a tech bro almost by definition about getting to the point where your can sell out your company and your principles?

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