> I must admit that for a few days I felt very depressed about it all. Not about “AIs writing all the code” - that much is clear to me, and I do not lament the changing landscape of the craft
If you're not under pressure to vibe code for work, and you still like writing the code, I don't understand this sentiment. People coding on their own time won't be left behind. It's your own time to use as you like. And if you want to take a longer time to hand craft a library or your pet project, more power to you.
Sure, if you need help from the AI for something too difficult, time consuming or tedious, that makes sense. But the idea that everyone needs give up hand coding is absurd. This also isn't true for all paid programming work and will continue not to be, despite the marketing hype.
> Sure, if you need help from the AI for something too difficult, time consuming or tedious, that makes sense
First, I offloaded the tedious. There was no real joy there. Then I offloaded the merely time consuming - after all I could have more fun on interesting problems.
But suddenly everything is too difficult, and I am not going to get any better at those pieces by glancing over ai prs. Still, this is what I do
> But the idea that everyone needs give up hand coding is absurd.
Unfortunately (?) this seems to be the ground truth for the majority of people I speak to. What's not clear to me yet, is whether we'll stop reading code. I suspect that reading is going away as well. There's a push at $WORK to expedite 50-files/20,000 line PRs via agentic reviews..
If this continues, then language readability and "pleasure" of hand coding will likely diminish. I'm still not clear where we're going to land with libraries and re-use. Non-technical pressures are forcing functionality to be re-vibe coded instead.
I've always loved Rails for its pragmatic approach; I've delivered many projects with it. I'll be sad when it disappears but it seems inevitable.
I've been thinking about this too, since my livelihood depends heavily on this answer.
As far as I can tell, agentic software development (aka vibe coding) simply doesn't scale for lay people. At $WORK, I'm seeing the 5th version of the same small project being rewritten by execs. The 5th version is marginally better than the previous 4, but it still has major problems. 5th version has no CI and accesses 6 databases directly. These VPs are slowly becoming software engineers. It's hilarious to watch, but seems rather inefficient.
I've been asked this question by non-software people and the best answer I've come up so far is this. You can go to the hardware store and purchase a chainsaw. You can now prune small trees. This does not make you an arborist though. For reference check out YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arborist+fails+...
I agree with this but I think because while basically truish fascism is so overused as a word I think many stop listening when they see it (one aspect that is not being reproduced these days is fascism was developed as a right wing populist response to socialism, but the right is not quite mobilizing a large working class base).
One description I think that aligns somewhat with our current era is “technoplatonism”, which is my own coinage but I think is not wholly original after googling. They want to create an artifical philosopher king that is commanded by a small elite of capitalists. So it has elements of fascism but it’s also a bit different, more classical in some ways. Just straight repression of the working class without inspiring or mobilizing the petite bourgeoisie in great numbers (though the artificial prominence of AI boosters on X and other digital platforms owned by the rich is one attempt at this).
Look how I don’t care anymore, and you should not care either
What DHH actually said:
I have AI delirium. AI euphoria. Because this is simply the most exciting thing we have made computers do in the time I have worked with them, played with them, interacted with them. But I think actually to wrestle with the fact that on the one hand, this is tremendously exciting, it is also a little unnerving.
and
There's only one play here, and it's total Fucking optimism. Lean in to the max possible. Because the utopia is almost here.
> I must admit that for a few days I felt very depressed about it all. Not about “AIs writing all the code” - that much is clear to me, and I do not lament the changing landscape of the craft
If you're not under pressure to vibe code for work, and you still like writing the code, I don't understand this sentiment. People coding on their own time won't be left behind. It's your own time to use as you like. And if you want to take a longer time to hand craft a library or your pet project, more power to you.
Sure, if you need help from the AI for something too difficult, time consuming or tedious, that makes sense. But the idea that everyone needs give up hand coding is absurd. This also isn't true for all paid programming work and will continue not to be, despite the marketing hype.
> Sure, if you need help from the AI for something too difficult, time consuming or tedious, that makes sense
First, I offloaded the tedious. There was no real joy there. Then I offloaded the merely time consuming - after all I could have more fun on interesting problems.
But suddenly everything is too difficult, and I am not going to get any better at those pieces by glancing over ai prs. Still, this is what I do
> But the idea that everyone needs give up hand coding is absurd.
Unfortunately (?) this seems to be the ground truth for the majority of people I speak to. What's not clear to me yet, is whether we'll stop reading code. I suspect that reading is going away as well. There's a push at $WORK to expedite 50-files/20,000 line PRs via agentic reviews..
If this continues, then language readability and "pleasure" of hand coding will likely diminish. I'm still not clear where we're going to land with libraries and re-use. Non-technical pressures are forcing functionality to be re-vibe coded instead.
I've always loved Rails for its pragmatic approach; I've delivered many projects with it. I'll be sad when it disappears but it seems inevitable.
If it gets to the point that developers no longer need to write or read code, just manage agentic swarms, then what is the reason for developers?
I've been thinking about this too, since my livelihood depends heavily on this answer.
As far as I can tell, agentic software development (aka vibe coding) simply doesn't scale for lay people. At $WORK, I'm seeing the 5th version of the same small project being rewritten by execs. The 5th version is marginally better than the previous 4, but it still has major problems. 5th version has no CI and accesses 6 databases directly. These VPs are slowly becoming software engineers. It's hilarious to watch, but seems rather inefficient.
I've been asked this question by non-software people and the best answer I've come up so far is this. You can go to the hardware store and purchase a chainsaw. You can now prune small trees. This does not make you an arborist though. For reference check out YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arborist+fails+...
Thoughts?
I wish I understood what goes on in the mind of people which today insist it's absurd to believe that LLMs can code, and that it's all marketing hype.
The strength of the Reality Distorsion Field would make the one of Steve Jobs pale in comparison.
I mean, considering what came after the Weimar era, I'm not sure if this is meant to make me feel reassured...
Techno-fascism is the modern reincarnation. One of the goals being sufficient disruption to the labor market so workers lose their bargaining power.
I agree with this but I think because while basically truish fascism is so overused as a word I think many stop listening when they see it (one aspect that is not being reproduced these days is fascism was developed as a right wing populist response to socialism, but the right is not quite mobilizing a large working class base).
One description I think that aligns somewhat with our current era is “technoplatonism”, which is my own coinage but I think is not wholly original after googling. They want to create an artifical philosopher king that is commanded by a small elite of capitalists. So it has elements of fascism but it’s also a bit different, more classical in some ways. Just straight repression of the working class without inspiring or mobilizing the petite bourgeoisie in great numbers (though the artificial prominence of AI boosters on X and other digital platforms owned by the rich is one attempt at this).
Dangerous comparisons. Finance and AI ruin the economy and a strongman will create jobs in 2033?
That is the part DHH does not get. Nobody will protect him from the gypsies (his words) if all are unemployed.
What the article characterizes DHH as saying:
Look how I don’t care anymore, and you should not care either
What DHH actually said:
I have AI delirium. AI euphoria. Because this is simply the most exciting thing we have made computers do in the time I have worked with them, played with them, interacted with them. But I think actually to wrestle with the fact that on the one hand, this is tremendously exciting, it is also a little unnerving.
and
There's only one play here, and it's total Fucking optimism. Lean in to the max possible. Because the utopia is almost here.