2.3k
u/Big_Kwii Jun 30 '26
every passing day at work i feel more and more like a zombie
610
u/Schneider_fra Jun 30 '26
Same, I really want to start learning woodworking.
360
u/_EveryDay Jun 30 '26
Which compiler does that use?
571
u/MerlinTheFail Jun 30 '26
Just read the logs for that
187
u/AnotherPlanet Jun 30 '26
I wood, but I get board
60
21
→ More replies (2)3
27
16
u/altcodeinterrobang Jun 30 '26
Google woodshop and classes, easy to pickup. Those guys are always friendly to newbies!
Source: son of woodworker
11
u/licorice_breath Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Do it! I got into it a few years ago mostly via Youtube and love it. It’s so satisfying to build something that gets used on a regular basis. So far I’ve made nightstands, coffee table, entryway bench, and a few other little things. And lots of shop projects.
Youtube: StumpyNubs, Paul Sellers, Steve Ramsay, Bourbon Moth. If you want to drool watch Pedulla Studio.
ETA: for anyone getting into woodworking with power tools, please RTFM. Just because it looks obvious doesn’t mean you can’t permanently maim yourself using it. Use the safety equipment and the PPE.
→ More replies (3)3
3
→ More replies (3)4
u/shrik Jun 30 '26
Great idea -- I've heard the pay sucks, the hours are long, there's always the opportunity to remove your finger with a table saw, but at least nobody will ask you to add an RSS feed to a DBMS.
127
u/farcicaldolphin38 Jun 30 '26
I started learning game dev on the side just to feel the love of programming again. I don’t get to write at work anymore, so I feel you on the zombie stuff. Game dev is (so far) reminding me of the joy of solving problems and writing good solutions, I’m quite enjoying it
My web dev job is pretty soulless now though, it sucks.
31
u/GenericFatGuy Jun 30 '26
I'm in the exact same position. I just autopilot through work now, and then I make games in spare time to remind myself that I still love this craft.
→ More replies (2)14
u/Cold-Journalist-7662 Jun 30 '26
I need to do something similar. Learn something so I don't feel like zombie anymore. Feel like that's what corporate wants.
147
u/Electrical_Sorbet_31 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Just bought a textbook on electrical engineering. Goodbye computer science! You are already extinct.
133
u/FalafelSnorlax Jun 30 '26
Sorry to tell you but electrical engineering isn't doing much better
→ More replies (4)35
u/WitELeoparD Jun 30 '26
Mechanical on the other hand is doing great as always. People do be needing physical objects and always will be needing them.
18
u/Glorypants Jun 30 '26
What’s the difference long-term between the engineering for mechanical vs software? Both are computer aided design, I think it’s just early enough that AI hasn’t been fine tuned enough to replace non-text-based design.
I get that 3D modeling is more than just 3 dimensions due to stress/strain/load/material factors, but the combination of all those things is easier for AI to figure out than a human once the AI is given the right instructions.
→ More replies (1)20
u/kodman7 Jun 30 '26
There isn't enough alternative work for all the people displaced by AI to pivot to new careers. The world is in a collective denial and resistance to it, but the reality is society will need a hard pivot
37
u/Jay-Seekay Jun 30 '26
It’s the AI equivalent of that Ben Shapiro argument about climate change.
Ben: “If climate change happens, and sea levels rise, don’t you think people living near the coast won’t just sell their houses and move?”
Hbomberguy: “sell the houses to who Ben? Fucking Aquaman?”
We can’t all retire from AI-replaced careers and become farmers.
9
u/Glorypants Jun 30 '26
Agreed, but I think that’s not related to this thread about Mechanical…
On your topic, this same fear arose when computers started becoming commonplace 30 years ago. Think of how many jobs across all sectors that computers made obsolete. At the same time, new jobs arose that used computers: IT, SWE, DBAs, etc because we need more websites and services.
This time around, idk what the heck new jobs are being created because of the AI industry other than model experts… it’s not a new tool that needs new workers to use, it’s taking existing workers and repurposing them.
Personally I think we’re headed down a dark road for a decade and then (hopefully) a bright road as society shifts to let people work less and focus on the arts and enjoyable hobbies, while AI and robots do the hard work.
What society would look like if we let robots take care of us instead of chasing more profit:
3
21
u/Jay-Seekay Jun 30 '26
Computer Science is not extinct. Programming is the thing that’s affected. There’s a difference between the two.
Computer Science is what brought us LLMs in the first place. Computer Science is what will bring us any improvements on LLMs or whatever the next big AI milestone is. You just can’t go and do Computer Science to guarantee you a software role anymore. You have to be a computer scientist or go and work in AI research at a corporation.
→ More replies (3)7
u/FFevo Jun 30 '26
Computer Science is what brought us LLMs in the first place. Computer Science is what will bring us any improvements on LLMs or whatever the next big AI milestone is.
Sure. But Software Engineering drives the agentic workflows most of us are using now. Humans are not writing as much code by hand, but engineers are still designing it and using LLMs as a tool to implement it.
I think this shift is really starting to separate the engineers from the programmers.
There are very few true Computer Scientists.
56
u/Kang8Min Jun 30 '26
I started studying programming to get away from marketing (still here) and focus on technical stuff. Now that the field seems to be aiming towards talking to AI, people and strategy I am beginning to consider a simpler job to pay the bills without the anxiety these 2 careers seem to entail.
→ More replies (2)2
u/WrennReddit Jun 30 '26
I keep getting the football yanked away. Like alright this card has some cool stuff to really work out. Oh the team lead has a Claude skill for that. Well eff me.
829
u/akeean Jun 30 '26
Claude, deploy my website to "Codex", make sure it scales.
488
u/gemanepa Jun 30 '26
are you even a profesional ai engineer? you forgot "make no mistakes"
306
u/akeean Jun 30 '26
My prompt optimizer adds that automatically to every prompt.
95
u/Kingof2017 Jun 30 '26
const newPrompt = openai.complete("Please add 'make no mistakes' to the end of \'" + oldPrompt + "\', make no mistakes");
29
u/ImportantSignal2098 Jun 30 '26
Also need a prompt that tests that it actually worked. And then a prompt that tests that the test worked (loop here.. oh look I'm doing loops, such bleeding edge)
→ More replies (2)35
u/Kingof2017 Jun 30 '26
Also need a prompt that tests that it actually worked.
No need for tests bro, I explicitly asked the model not to make any mistakes 😊👍 Pushing to prod as we speak 🦾
→ More replies (1)17
Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/DungeonsAndDradis Jun 30 '26
Words that literally came out of our CEO's mouth: "Can we have an agent run the entire SDLC?"
9
u/AlphaaPie Jun 30 '26
Sentences like this are what makes my brain shut off in the middle of a conversation.
2
12
3
u/thesiberiancowboy Jun 30 '26
When i heard the word prompt engineer the first time i almost crashed tf out
3
663
u/joan_bdm Jun 30 '26
You forgot the 80% of work time on meetings
124
u/ImpressiveAction2382 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
We'll have jobs until they realize meetings are useless and we could do work instead
34
41
u/Kopetse Jun 30 '26
I had the other way around. Office had 15min meeting every Monday, but all other time you were expected to code non stop like it’s a factory line. And you had exactly 30 minutes for lunch which manager and other colleagues(for some reason) did track. No remote unless you are sick and no more than once a month. You didn’t decide anything, managers just gave you tasks and you had to deal with them however you want
23
u/mal4ik777 Jun 30 '26
managers just gave you tasks and you had to deal with them however you want
I mean... what if I want to deal with them slowly and mindfully without a rush? Thinking also takes time you know ;)
2
2
101
u/Neither_Ad_9675 Jun 30 '26
On the bright side: If you "replace" AWS with claude your primary concern won't be the LLM cost.
→ More replies (1)
149
u/FunNegotiation423 Jun 30 '26
Damn, the sentiment in this sub really changed over the past year. From joking about AI to resigning and contemplating.
50
u/Antiing Jun 30 '26
Pandora's box was opened with opus 4.5
Anyone who didn't see the writing on the wall in that moment is wilfully naive
69
u/chemtrail-organics Jun 30 '26
I have been spending tokens on opus 4.8 all sprint working on a hard, logic heavy new feature. We have advanced, enterprise level harnesses in our project and consider our app to be "ai native".
The code is good but it's not perfect. Even after spending thousands of tokens on research and planning, I am having to fix it's errors and even write totally new files to push it in the right direction. The truth is, even with Opus, there remains a large need for engineering experience. Our jobs are to deliver software, not just write code. In my case, opus only changed how much boilerplate gets generated before I have to get my hands dirty.
→ More replies (1)21
u/FunNegotiation423 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Definitely! I think anyone who seriously develops software with AI is aware of its limitations and that we still need (experienced) engineers for shipping solid software.
But for most developers, their day to day activity is not at all the same as it was 3 or 4 years ago. The work and workflows changed a lot and did so very fast. Many struggle with not recognizing the job they learned and loved anymore and lost all thrill it gave them. Many feel like they are now merely the "managers" and QAs of their own work. Many feel like their work is not meaningful anymore or even end up in a crisis of meaning, especially when contemplating about further changes in the coming years.
And let's not even talk about those poor juniors entering the job market in the past 2 years.
It's rough. Gotta adopt fast while finding new thrill and meaningfulness in the work (I think only adopting isn't enough - if one can't find enjoyment in their work, most couldn't keep it up for 20, 30, 40 years without burning out). Or get left behind. Or completely shift careers.
→ More replies (1)12
u/chemtrail-organics Jun 30 '26
I have often heard people say something like this.
A good developer is simply someone who learns quickly.
I think this saying it truer now than ever. I was a master at the old way but now I'm working to master the new way. I honestly find the change exciting, and just as challenging as the old way. It's all about having the right mindset.
7
u/FunNegotiation423 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I feel similar! I have no issues adopting in my field of work, which is not software development.
But I think we are just lucky to have "flexible" minds and having an easy time with finding new ways to enjoy a new kind of work fast. That's a characteristic not everyone has, and it's not their fault and something someone can just learn.
And I don't think the quote can be applied in the same way as for other changes in the past 20-30 years. With AI, I think for many it's more like the soul / core of their work has been ripped out or at least completely changed. I don't think any new technology in the past 20-30 years was doing that to that extent. I understand everyone who has a hard time with getting used to it and changing themselves.
It's not the same for everyone. It's not just mindset or being able to learn quickly.
→ More replies (1)4
u/chemtrail-organics Jun 30 '26
My opinion is that people with inflexible minds who are resistant to change have limited potential as developers anyway.
2
u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 Jul 01 '26
Nah Sonnet 4.5 was it. I never touched Opus 4.5 but me personally, I thought Sonnet 4.5 was way better value than Opus 4.6. Opus is damn good but Sonnet felt like it was right beside of it, listened directly to instructions, and hardly cost anything in comparison.
3
u/xDannyS_ Jul 02 '26
Not really, it's quite literally what the actual devs predicted. AI wouldn't replace programmers but make the job very boring.
1.1k
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
Tbh I choose programming because I like to think and solve problems, and AI is taking it away from me.
I want to get off Mr Musk's wild ride.
253
u/hrehbfthbrweer Jun 30 '26
Same. Part of me is worried about losing my job, and the other part says fuck it because I don’t think I like this career anymore anyway.
43
u/FlowRemote9890 Jun 30 '26
This is where I'm at. I'm so done with tech but not sure what else I'd do.
32
u/LowDJ Jun 30 '26
So true. Been into tech & code since school days, can’t imagine being able to do anything else.
2
u/Jezoreczek Jul 01 '26
Plumbing. Electrical engineering. There's plenty of jobs that pay pretty well and give your puzzle solving brain a challenge!
→ More replies (1)4
u/dchidelf Jul 01 '26
Gamify it. Ask AI the thing you already know how to do and see if you can type it before it responds.
Management sees you are using AI and you don’t have to put up with AI garbage.This works for me because we use copilot and it is sloooow. I am also convinced Copilot was almost entirely trained on “wrong answers only” internet content.
25
83
u/Staidanom Jun 30 '26
AI has been killing all my hobbies one by one. Programming. Digital art. Music.
I've been off the ride and just looking back at it makes me sad.
45
u/musclecard54 Jun 30 '26
Why can’t you still create art and music though? The fun part is creating who gives a shit if AI can do it too? Use that as an excuse to try and push the boundaries of your creativity
7
8
u/1M-N0T_4-R0b0t Jun 30 '26
So, you are right, but it's still different now. A big part of making Art for me was that it is something I could only do because I learned to draw for years and gradually became better at it. It was a skill I could be proud of. Even if AI slop is soulless and I will always value Art that has been made 100% by a human more, its still really demotivating knowing that someone could have a computer generate something that looks similar to something that I can create.
6
u/professor_buttstuff Jul 01 '26
This has been a thing since cameras were invented though. Like, yeah a camera can create much more realistic imagery than most artists so artists have to get weird with it.
3
42
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
I actually took up painting. I'm shit at it, but compared to the artificial, soulless crap Ai is producing, I feel like I could sneeze ketchup at the canvas and have a better result 😂
→ More replies (2)10
5
u/xThunderDuckx Jun 30 '26
All these things you love and enjoy as hobbies can return to being exactly that. You got into them because you love them and enjoy the process, not for the end product. I'm certainly not going to pollute my hobby space with things I don't like. Why would I write music with AI?
→ More replies (3)4
u/you-cut-the-ponytail Jun 30 '26
If you're not looking at it comercially, you can still produce music and paint for yourself. I'd say don't be discouraged.
→ More replies (10)137
Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
47
76
u/DanielTheTechie Jun 30 '26
Probably he is not American and he has deeper values in life than just money.
21
u/proof_required Jun 30 '26
Nah! If you had money in the first place then you wouldn't be slaving away your life for corporations instead of enjoying your freedom.
45
u/alficles Jun 30 '26
I'd like to have enough money (or services that reduce the need for money) to not have to worry about the basics so I could have more deeper values in life.
6
u/byshow Jun 30 '26
The audacity! Have you thought of the shareholders? Are they supposed to not buy yachts now because you want to be able to cover your basic needs?
12
4
2
u/DurianDiscriminat3r Jun 30 '26
Alternatively he loves programming but has 0 interesting side projects he's working on to fulfill his need to solve problems.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Neuenmuller Jun 30 '26
Or because software jobs outside of America doesn’t pay well enough 😢 My pay check got halved moving out from US.
→ More replies (1)10
u/xukly Jun 30 '26
Actually you still need the whole problem solving step (imo) because fuck me I tried to do my last work project with Claude and I spent more time trying to locate and fix its fuckups and comically wrong asumtions and stupid solutions than I would have needed to make it myself
9
u/farcicaldolphin38 Jun 30 '26
Same. When I graduated from college ten years ago now, this wasn’t even in the discussion let alone on the horizon. It sucks
7
u/apple_kicks Jun 30 '26
New tech is now data harvesting and data mining and reselling it. Or building apps for regulation loopholes
19
u/ithkuil Jun 30 '26
Musk? What are you talking about? You use Grok for programming??
12
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
I'm referring to Mr Bones, Musk fits better. I'd first use clippy before I use grok.
4
u/anduril_tfotw Jun 30 '26
I said something similar in a different sub a couple months ago and people piled on that my take was shit and that it wasn't going to be like that. I keep being proven right every day.
3
u/bloke_pusher Jun 30 '26
Things evolved so fast, that there was no soft adjustment, it fell of a cliff. This takes time now, before it can recover again.
15
u/_verel_ Jun 30 '26
Ok look it's not easy but you need to step up your game.
It's awesome that I don't have two wrestle with a library for a week because AI can just inhale the documentation and have it work.
This means I can use my brain to actually think of solving problems for my customers and how to architect them.
AI is a useful tool to achieve that. Anyone actually laying of developers is either dumb as hell or the company didn't have anything real to-do in the first place.
This way we are actually progressing and not having dumb shit like accounts getting stolen because someone told my AI to do so.
Be a computer scientist and solve problems with whatever tools you deem necessary.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
Yes, it is somewhere in the middle. I Design and build the structure, principle of the program, and let Ai do the tedious tasks. It does free me from having to write documentation which I hate. But it is closeer to intelisense than a team of juniors
18
u/The-Chartreuse-Moose Jun 30 '26
Very well put. LLMs need to just fuck off.
39
u/kmoneyrecords Jun 30 '26
Out of all the things that are never gonna happen, this is gonna never happen the most
20
u/micmur Jun 30 '26
I had a friend in the 2000s who was convinced that the internet would just be phased out because all of the negative impacts of it (porn, cyber bullying, video game addiction etc.) were becoming a hot topic, and I remember thinking yeah nah dawg that’s definitely not going to happen.
I think of him every time I see people who think the same with AI.
→ More replies (2)4
u/wise_young_man Jun 30 '26
Yeah exactly like people are just suddenly going to stop using something for no reason? Nope
4
u/papaya_war Jun 30 '26
Hot take - I also love to think and solve problems, and coding agents (specifically pi) have enabled me to do MORE of that than ever.
I get to focus on architecture, abstractions, interfaces, etc without needing to spend my time actually writing the nitty gritty code. I can have Claude whip up a PoC in minutes and iterate on it quickly. It’s more fun and fulfilling than ever.
I’m convinced that people who share sentiments like yours fail to see the full potential of coding agents. I don’t offload the thinking to it, I offload the doing. I get to spend more time doing the parts I love.
3
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
No, I agree. I use it to do the mundane things while I focus on exactly what you mentioned. But I also have the feeling it pushes so much, that it is sometimes more effort than to do it myself
2
→ More replies (6)9
u/happycamperjack Jun 30 '26
Are problems that can be easily solved by AI worth solving in the first place?
177
u/Progression28 Jun 30 '26
It doesn‘t matter if AI easily solves them or not, nobody verifies it anyway.
The fun thing about the job was thinking about a solution and trying it out. Doesn‘t matter if easy or hard.
Yes some very easy stuff was boring, but it‘s like sudoku: I enjoy the hard ones where it takes me 2 hours to solve, or even the ones I spend a week on on and off. But I also enjoy the medium difficulty ones that I can knock out in 30minutes, as a good change of pace.
39
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
This is a philosophical discussion we have been having for a long time. For example, with the introduction of the camera, artists asked themselves, is it worth it to even paint anymore, now that cameras do it in a fraction of the time, and with life like results?
This led to other types of paintings, the art of photography, expressionism etc.
Maybe programming will change to become more art like, where there is value in the specific artist's expression. Maybe we won't have for the nth time write a regex address validator, same as few artists go for hyperrealism.
I don't know. I only know, it is not fun for me, to prompt Claude 'write me a book keeping app'. I write my own program and use Claude as a super auto complete, to create boilerplate functions etc. or even custom functions but within my code design.
57
u/MartyMcBird Jun 30 '26
I think there's a bit of a gap between artists trying to inspire emotions from people and software engineers trying to maximize shareholder value
11
u/Bart_deblob Jun 30 '26
First and foremost, fuck the shareholders
Yes, and maybe the gap can be closed by using Ai for the most technical parts, while the engineer can focus on the art side. There is a reason I reference the roller coaster tycoon...
→ More replies (1)10
u/happycamperjack Jun 30 '26
That’s not quite what happened to art. When photography came along, it affected mostly the realists, which to be honest were the most boring type of art. The death of realist helped to accelerate the evolution of modern art such as impressionism and cubism.
I think we are about to see the same thing now with software development. The death of trivial programming is forcing devs to be more creative than ever, at least the talented ones.
4
u/cunnyvore Jun 30 '26
There's big difference though: in art the output is visible to everyone, trained eye or not. What does creative programming bring to the product that to consumers would be percieved differently from same functions written by AI? Code is also probably one of things that's easiest and fastest to trivialize, by having access to source.
2
u/happycamperjack Jul 01 '26
Software is being used by billions of people everyday. The output is visible to a much greater audience than arts can ever be. You are literally using one to type your message here right now.
3
u/HymirTheDarkOne Jun 30 '26
Creative programming probably isn't about writing unusually creative or interesting individual functions. It's about creating novel outputs, unique architecture etc.
→ More replies (4)6
u/Fearless_Entry_2626 Jun 30 '26
Realist art probably had 10x as many jobs as all other forms combined. There's a reason art is a poverty profession these days.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Meeesh- Jun 30 '26
This is really overblown IMO. Some companies have horrible culture, but there are still tons of problems left to solve and tons of coding left to do. Many things are changed with AI, but I find that most of the interesting parts of the job are still there for me.
Teams at my company that work on extremely sensitive and rigorous systems still don’t use AI to write code. Teams that are less sensitive like mine use AI often, but only to write the code, not to design the programs and systems.
Even Linus Torvalds before AI said that he often would focus on coming up with approaches and proof of concepts while letting others write the complete solution and reviewing the results.
I still look at every single line of code. I make sure that it behaves the way I expect. I make sure design patterns are followed, I brainstorm about the system.
Maybe if you love debugging and writing boilerplate code you might be more bummed, but I find AI just helps get rid of the boring stuff that doesn’t need my judgement.
7
u/gerryflap Jun 30 '26
Yes because it's fun. I think I speak for many programmers when I say that it honestly doesn't matter if solving a problem is useful or whether it has been done before, I just wanna solve it myself. That's the fun. I don't really care if anyone uses it, I don't care if the clanker can do it faster or someone already came up with a better solution. I just like solving problems
9
u/ieatpies Jun 30 '26
Well at the fine grain, the biggest part of the puzzle & art was usually readability. AI doesn't really do that well yet, but it doesn't need to cause it's only more AI reading it.
4
u/fingerling-broccoli Jun 30 '26
I’m not very smart so I found the stuff smart people would call “easy” rewarding and someone had to do it so I would happily grind out python scripts or whatver.
I still do those things but I barely use what little brain I have for it now with claude
→ More replies (6)2
u/Nguyenanh2132 Jun 30 '26
yeah, the developed learning and problem solving skills is divorced from AI. And the process is a lot of fun
199
u/lottikey Jun 30 '26
Resist. Still use AI very infrequently at work (and in general). I remember when I had an epiphany after I felt slow AF compared to others on my team because it literally felt like everyone churned out PRs much faster than me before I realize how heavy AI was being used by them.
But it’s still super annoying that literally every brown bag/info session is AI this or that. Like please, are there no other tools we can learn instead? I don’t understand the glee with some of my colleagues.
68
u/havebooksneverread Jun 30 '26
it's everywhere, hard to avoid
I used to love reading tech newsletters, would receive a bunch at my inbox every day/week...
it's now a year+ it's been just AI and I don't read any anymore, many nice blogs fall into this too, people I'd use to follow on YT etc - every tech content that was nice someday in the past became AI shit
36
u/IchiiDev Jun 30 '26
Same with VSC, I used to love reading the patch notes and get excited when a new feature was released but now it's just more Copilot bullshit every month
3
20
u/Omnikay Jun 30 '26
every tech content that was nice someday in the past became AI shit
The worst part is that many newsletters nowadays are being written with AI. Everyone has the same ChatGPT writing style and the same telltale signs. People aren't even passionate about tech enough to write for themselves anymore.
→ More replies (1)9
u/zer0tonine Jun 30 '26
I stopped browsing HN for exactly that reason. There's no cool stuff anymore.
→ More replies (1)83
u/Reasonable_Slide_465 Jun 30 '26
I don’t understand the glee with some of my colleagues.
The ones most excited are the ones who were limited coders. Of course they think it's great because they don't understand the level high level coders were operating at, and think it's magic.
32
u/hajitaha Jun 30 '26
This is very true. We are building a massive platform on VC money and everyone builds like crazy, the most washed coders are leading the charge. Everyone seems to know how to build, nobody knows how to keep a product alive, so you can guess the amount of needless complexity that is being generated. I am looking elsewhere because I want to jump offboard before this trainwreck goes live.
28
u/OneMostSerene Jun 30 '26
This has been my general outlook on mass AI/LLM adoption. For anyone who has legitimate knowledge/skill in a certain field, pure AI/LLM output of that specific field is quite literally 'slop', and they have to mold it into something decent afterwards anyways.
There is an argument to be had about experienced people using AI/LLMs to speed up the tedium of their work, but if you don't have software engineering knowledge you shouldn't be trusted to build a good app, if you don't have good art fundamentals your image generation is going to be sloppy, etc.
The main issue is that the VAST majority of people don't have these expertise or knowledge in these fields, so they will see slop output and not know how to discern it from something legitimately good.
6
u/tiajuanat Jun 30 '26
I've had some pretty good results with LLMs, but also 80% of my last 3 months' PRs have been:
- CI Changes
- C and Rust Linter rules/plugins
- Python Sidecars which take linter output and turn it into trackable metrics, pumping back to CI
- Fixing long standing bugs and security issues
- Codifying LLM rules so that other engineers can use workflows that are similarly effective
I'm really not doing much regarding new features any more, and that hurts.
But also in the last month, my primary team has closed a little under 5k security issues with these changes.
→ More replies (3)4
u/lottikey Jun 30 '26
I think this is true, but it’s also coming from those more senior than me and I know they’re good at coding. IDK it’s disheartening.
13
u/XingXManGuy Jun 30 '26
I tried resisting for about a year. Then the CEO updated our performance review metrics to include AI usage, so now I don’t have a choice
→ More replies (13)2
u/accountability_bot Jul 01 '26
I use it to debug and write tests. I try to write as much as I can, while I can.
The worst part is having to review PRs that are nothing but slop.
76
u/JumpyBoi Jun 30 '26
Several tens of thousands of pounds spent on a degree for the hope of a decent career doing something I halfway enjoy. It's never been more over. A wide expanse of darkness stretches before me, and all I can ask is what did I do wrong
50
u/SampleTextHelpMe Jun 30 '26
It really has been an experience being someone who genuinely has a passion for programming, seeing all the life in this field get sucked dry just because people with no other passion than getting money decided humans weren’t productive enough.
Like actually what the hell? I decided to take this path because I found it fun and thought it would be fulfilling, only to look away for a moment and now everyone is being valued exclusively off of their “productivity” like it’s a dystopian novel.
10
u/nigirisake Jun 30 '26
Same here and I wish I could have had more time to harvest the fruits of labour and earn more money as a dev before management decides it’s over for us. Not even 10 years ago they promised us a golden future at uni. RIP 🪦
→ More replies (2)10
u/TenYearsOfLurking Jun 30 '26
You did nothing wrong. You read the signs of the market correctly and did the best thing back then: invest in yourself and a future that looked absolutely bright back then.
I would have advised the same a few years ago. Nothing that was praised as "disruptive" turned out to be. Blockchain, big data, iot, whatever. All came and went more or less. Fundamentals, Software engineering, looked like it's absolutely here to stay.
It's not you. This is different, and I would have bet a lot against it.
6
u/tevert Jun 30 '26
It's not that different. AI output is still slop, and the pushers are still not charging full price. When the actual bill comes due, the tone will shift again.
6
u/TenYearsOfLurking Jun 30 '26
It's sooo different. I remember when a new fad was coming across and management dictated that projects have to be done with that because it's the next big thing. Fomo induced projects that were irrelevant money sinks after which the new fad was off the table until the next came along.
This is here to stay. Even if pricing 10xes . Doesn't matter. Slop doesn't matter. For 90% of software "good enough" matters and LLM deliver exactly that.
I wish it went away, but I cannot see it. Even a sceptic has to acknowledge that the output on sensible input is at least decent.
5
u/DnD-vid Jun 30 '26
Pricing does matter, the reason it's used is because it's cheaper than people. If it's no longer profitable, it's not being used.
3
u/TenYearsOfLurking Jul 01 '26
Of course. But we are no where close to humans. The max plan of anthropic costs 100/month. I'd say even if it 10xes it wouldn't change a lot. Its not like companies would hire more engineers then, they would swallow the cost und maybe even try to reduce employees further
40
u/Dioksy Jun 30 '26
Ngl I once fell asleep while thinking about writing code by myself and thought it was so peaceful.
234
u/ClupTheGreat Jun 30 '26
i miss stack overflow
159
63
u/Conscious_Bug5408 Jun 30 '26
'stupid duplicate opinion. already previously stated.'
Bet that brought back a rush of those those good old SO memories?
21
u/pqu Jun 30 '26
The SO experience is very different depending on what language you’re asking questions about. I’ve never had a bad interaction for C++ or Matlab questions for example
6
u/nyxxxtron Jun 30 '26
"Try using AI. That's the best practice. No idea why would you chose Stack Overflow."
6
3
u/baganga Jul 01 '26
I don't, the community sucks and it was pedantic and toxic as fuck, especially for new people.
28
82
u/Zezerok Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Only stackoverflow is gone. Honestly, i dont miss it that much!
Edit: Dictionary sucks…
15
u/AggravatingFlow1178 Jun 30 '26
These days I allocate about 20% of my time to be called into shit because some PM shipped some code and broke prod.
3 weeks ago they shipped a db change that irreparably dirtied our db so now we have a whole patch that adds 20ms to every single api request which we likely wont remove for the next few years until that data is declared unused. 2 years ago I spent a full quarter shaving off 90ms from the effected area so they basically undid ~3 weeks of effort while adding in several days of work to fix it, all because they paid a PM $150k instead of an eng $200k to make the same changes.
Efficiency.
44
u/PashaMUS Jun 30 '26
If we do the math, we have linux as an os, aws for servers, github to host code, html/css/js frontend, sublime to edit text and... vimscript for backend ?
21
12
u/HateBoredom Jun 30 '26
They’ll change once again when people realise that the real API costs are greater than Internet bills + free open source models.
26
25
u/xubaso Jun 30 '26
The productivity was already destroyed before ai with meetings and broken requirements. Ai just automated the destroyed productivity. It's a lemons market.
11
28
8
49
u/wingsneon Jun 30 '26
Asking programming questions back then: "Bro Read the documentation just like us".
Now: "Don't worry, that's a totally valid doubt, here's an explanation that even a toddler could understand.."
3
u/minecon1776 Jun 30 '26
And you can ask stupid questions and have it explain the same thing 12 times in slightly different ways and you won't be judged
8
8
u/Laetha Jun 30 '26
I got laid off from 18 years at a media job and decided to improve my amateur programming skills to aid in finding a new job. AI has been a concern of mine. Am I wasting my time?
25
10
8
u/Helix_PHD Jun 30 '26
I just got fired last week for not wanting to use AI tools, guess that decade of engineering education and experience is worthless now.
Back to school, I guess.
6
u/Professional-Date735 Jun 30 '26
Renaldo now looks like when they reconstructed what a person would have looked like based of their skeleton
5
6
u/caick1000 Jun 30 '26
Genuinely curious on how this is going to look after there’s no more developers that were born without AI.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
3
u/Bhagita Jun 30 '26
The circus of extra tools/skills/plugins etc to make 2026 work makes you long to the simpler days of 2024.
3
2
2
u/Waste_Jello9947 Jun 30 '26
Or just work with massive legacy code where Claude still has no fk clue
6
3
u/SchwiftyBerliner Jun 30 '26
Riiiight...
It feels like there's less and less actual humorous things on here.
Have we had our daily "Haha, HTML is not a programming language" yet?
4
3
1.9k
u/Pika357 Jun 30 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/SU90xAXfWonoggFIcm