Comment by Thanemate
4 days ago
I'm oddly enthusiastic about seeing someone who beings the HACKER in HackerNews. But at the same time, this made me remember the days when display of skill and craftsmanship were rewarded in the industry.
Maybe it's finally time to move on from being a career programmer.
What a dismissive comment. Now that anyone can have an LLM write code for them, the only people who have value to bring to a project are the ones who can improve upon the LLM's output. That is, the ones who have a deep enough understanding of the logic and language. And the only people who will ever be in that position are the ones who take the time and effort, out of sheer curiosity, to learn how things work. Whatever your alternative is to this, there is no future in the alternative.
Artisanal code has a future. Maybe not a high paid one but maybe we go back to roots. if you enjoy programming and were never focused on output or on pipelines, LLM doesn't offer the same ezperience
Sometime around when wordpress came out, or at least 2005 or so, I started positioning myself as a bespoke web designer, then app developer. Whereas anyone could get a site done, I turned myself to doing things that hadn't been done before, for which standard solutions wouldn't fit. I turned away 80% of jobs and raised my rate from $25 to $100, then to $300/hr. To me, pricing and only doing bespoke work was a defensive measure against falling into a career hole I didn't want to end up in. But mostly it was just that I didn't want to repeat myself or waste my time doing something that a client could already buy off the shelf.
Artisanal code, or bespoke code, has always been the best paid and most satisfying work. If we no longer have a new generation of curious people who enjoy solving hard problems, it's only going to become more valuable.
2 replies →
I don't see anything dismissive here. It is a realistic assessment: if the choice is between code generated by AI or code generated by a human, and the AI is better in an objective manner, then why should a company employ a human? I refer here solely to the code result; naturally humans may do things AI can not do yet, but if the question is solely about code quality and AIs are better here, then why would that comment be dismissive rather than realistic?
> And the only people who will ever be in that position are the ones who take the time and effort, out of sheer curiosity, to learn how things work.
People learn something new all the time, AI does not learn anything, it just simulates and hallucinates. But the core question is not addressed with that. What would you do if you have to compete against AI, and AI is better? We already see these with the new generation of humanoid robots from China. Those things make Boston Dynamics robots look like tinker-toys in comparison - already as-is. Give it ten more years and we finally reached AI skynet for real.
What do you mean when you say AI code is better? I am looking at AI code all day and it's just garbage that happens to work for whatever feature was requested... in no way is it better code. Any human who was so careless as an AI to commit such atrocities would be fired.
I don't see it as dismissive, maybe you two are talking past each other but seem to be on similar side. I think the parent just articulated a sense of resignation that many people probably share. I think you might be saying that maybe there is still some shred to hold onto, possibly.
Don’t be naive. Anthropics (et al) mission is to make us unemployable. They need to sell their tools to companies so that they can finally discard 90% of their workforce. It’s a win win for companies and for anthropic (et al). Obviously we are the losers in the middle. And people around here on HN may think they cannot be affected, that they are the elite class of developers… they are gonna get hurt
success through perseverance and toughness - fucked by AI
success through cleverness and inventiveness - not yet fucked by AI
achievement through stubborn persistence - you can still dig deep holes in the garden
you still could have a character, if you were lucky
human agency? not yet fucked up, but it's gonna be
achievement earned through one's own qualities or effort? - intact somewhat