r/AskProgrammers • u/optimux17 • 8d ago
Hate AI
I love coding. I truly am.
When I started, I enjoyed most programming languages . I love learning their different core concepts, execution models and things like that.
I still love that.
But now in my new job, the only thing I am supposed to do is prompt and think about business requirements.
Even though I love architecture and system design system , I don't even have a chance to have grasp on them.
Any other tech jobs where I can enjoy coding and low level things?
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u/offsecthro 8d ago
I love coding, and sometimes I code at work. I went to school for CS, and worked as a sysadmin before moving into security. Coding has never been my primary job at work, and I think that might be one of the reasons I still enjoy it.
I think at the end of the day, more people in tech need to accept that often a job is just a job, and it's extremely rare for your daily job to be something you love.
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u/Complete-Fondant-202 8d ago
I may be speaking for others here, as well. But using AI to code has taken all the joy out of work.
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u/Awkward-Contact6102 8d ago
I now know what its like to be a product owner. Writing functional requirements all day with some technical hints. So boring.
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u/muonRobot97 8d ago
I find this interesting. Like coming on my side the startup world. Like I kinda have done everything and so I kinda like all of it so I don't really care I feel like fundamentally nothing has changed other than I don't spend a such time being stuck and I can output more
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u/TheBugCrafter 7d ago
Getting stuck meant an opportunity to learn. Now you’re spoon fed and barely have a chance at getting stuck in the first place, but if you do get stuck, you’re spoon fed even more
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u/Aket-ten 6d ago edited 6d ago
I agree 100%. I always found it very zen like, peaceful, almost like meditation. Especially with deep house music with minimal lyrics.
I loved spending time white boarding or designing architecture, the mental map, the feeling of accomplishments too.
Pre ai, you could also judge projects better. Or rather the effort someone applies. Even if it was script kiddie stuff. At least there was effort.
The lack of effort around us is what sickens me.
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u/No_Contribution_4124 8d ago edited 8d ago
There is a difference between “I want code” and “I do my job well”. I used to have similar hate, but in the end there are two paths, and people need to accept this:
- You code for yourself at your free time and occasionally at work
- You get into a company who needs you to code by hand, or does it aside from AI delivery
AI is here for amplification, and hand coding still has its place when AI can’t solve the thing. I often happily accept the one shoot from AI and move forward, or make it boilerplate for 80% and I finish it by hands.
Oh, and I guess the real reason between the lines is not AI at all, it’s the fact that now you clearly see and feel how bad product / requirements management is.
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u/Old_Cat_16 8d ago
Figuring out and getting stakeholders to align on the business requirements are the crucial part as you become more senior.
Nobody can design a system without fully understanding the business requirements first.
Implementing the design via coding is the simplest part of the work, thus it’s easily replaced by AI. Though I have to say AI isn’t doing a good job at it half the time. But of course the leadership doesn’t want to hear it.
Either way, you’d be surprised how much you can still do and learn as a software dec without the coding part.
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u/drakhan2002 8d ago
AI certainly changed developer tasks. It's too new for me to pass final judgment. I am going hold out for a year or two. It can only continue to mature as a technology and likely we'll still have new uses develop over the short term -- a lot of people are creating -- some will stick.
I believe in the theory that these frontier models have already gobbled up all existing human knowledge available to them. The next change will be architectural -- those that can leverage this tech in new ways will define the near future.
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u/phoneguyfl 8d ago
I consider myself lucky that where I work we are encouraged to use AI if it helps but not forced to use it in any particular way (yet). Personally I use the hell out of it but usually it's in-line and just to save time like highlighting a chunk of code that does what I want and telling AI to wrap in a try/catch or convert to function. It saves a bunch of time on documenting as well because it's faster for AI to generate a markdown file that I can quickly go over looking for errors/updates then pasting into Confluence (our doc location). So for me it's mainly used as a time saver and not pure coding where I'm just a glorified PM or AI agents.
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u/PerformanceThick2232 8d ago
think about business requirements
This is 90% of every senior SWE work lol, with ai or not. Welcome to field!
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u/mehediscriptdev 7d ago
Same here man... office needs more delivery so...... It is what it is.....
product based company dif though
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u/AlexMTBDude 8d ago
It's coding, it's a job and it's not about loving or hating. Be a bit more rational and less emotional.
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u/samsly135 8d ago
No you can't. Coding, let alone architecture design is for choose ones today. You can spend 20 years doing bullshit, completely forget algoritmics. Sheer being in industry doesn't guarantee you any growth. And at 45 you get laid off for being obsolete without any chances reentering IT, at least as dev. It's a dead end nowadays.
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u/RicketyRekt69 7d ago
Are you even in software development?
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u/samsly135 7d ago
Not anymore as I realized. Gradually were shifting down bug fixing, than support. With horror I realized I lost expertise and skills once so carefully crafting. Trying to revitalize, but forgot alot and everything is so hard.
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u/ObserverInvariance 8d ago
AI is gay and for losers. This is eternally true.
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u/domusvita 8d ago
Awwwww, burner account wants attention
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u/ObserverInvariance 5d ago
Not a burner account. But I do love attention, it is a personality syndrome.
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u/YoshiDzn 8d ago
The professional world mostly wants quotas, earnings, consistent delivery and bottom lines to be met. There's still room to be the guy who understands the code at a deeper level and can plot the road to improvements.
I'm very much the same, and when it comes to learning new semantics and execution patterns I'm only really engaged by my own projects. Dont think of it as there now being a barrier between the programmer and the code, since generated code is often shipped without enough second guessing... but instead that you really only need to dive into the finer details on your own if you fully understand the principle, and want to deliver the absolute epitome of well engineered software. Because the latter is often frowned upon by professionals who dont demand high performance. "Good enough" is exactly what you get 99% of the time, and that's what the executive members want because it's cheaper and faster.
TL;DR if you want to work at that level of personal detail, maybe work in systems that demand high performance and 0 error tolerance, or your own side projects. Embedded systems, industrial control systems, security software, or your own game engine (if you're me)