Comment by munchbunny
4 hours ago
It helps to be able to learn as you go, because the end product is motivating, and the learning is fun.
I will corroborate that AI and pressure even in hobby spaces (like game modding) to ship faster if only to preempt a crappier implementation from gaining traction is making it harder to feel motivated to make something because there’s no time to also enjoy the technical puzzle or to really pay attention to excellence in the details.
I’m not really lamenting a bygone era, just saying that the feeling of programming for a hobby has also changed and the parts that are fun don’t line up as well anymore, so I do less of it now.
I still don't get where the pressure comes from. Ultimately, the only target audience of a hobby programmer is themselves. There is never a reason to rush things, because your only stakeholder - yourself - is fine with whatever your only developer - also yourself - does. You always have all the time you'd ever want for the technical puzzles because there are never any deadlines except self-imposed ones.
Unless you mean your hobby is other people using your software, rather than programming for the sake of programming in the literal sense. In which case, yeah, sucks to be beaten by AI on all fronts at the same time.
> Ultimately, the only target audience of a hobby programmer is themselves.
This is true when you don't share it with others.
I don't share most things with others anymore, I just make things with LLMs, and then use them for myself. When I make something to share with others, I pay closer attention. But for myself, I don't really appreciate the process of learning so much, because that's how I end up stalling out and never finishing the project. Maybe it resulted in useful skills anyway, but it really sucks for my mental health.