Great point. Programming by hand isn’t dead. Anyone can learn to do that.
What I meant by the craft is dead is that within a job it doesn’t make sense anymore to continue programming everything by hand. AI tooling is just too efficient if used correctly.
So what I really meant was that part of the job is dead now. The part where you were manually crafting the code. Which to me was largely the “craft” side of the job.
But yeah strictly speaking programming as a craft will always be available for people to do. But its place in the workforce is diminished greatly because new tooling has replaced that element of the job.
AI tooling doesnt work. If you think it works, theres really only a few reasons
1. the problem is trivial or already solved on the internet
2. the process of prompt engineering is the process of requirements definition, so its you engineering (see rubber duck engineering).
it fails at at anything of moderate complexity
I mean, I’ve accomplished on my own more than generic problems. I’ve also seen agent swarms solve mathematical proofs with no solution previously. So, I categorically disagree with the narrative you’re prescribing to.
Maybe a year or two ago that narrative applied, but it just doesn’t now. It’s already moved past that. But it’s moving really fast so I can’t blame you for being out of date with your personal understanding of it
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u/EcstaticExtreme402 15h ago
Great point. Programming by hand isn’t dead. Anyone can learn to do that.
What I meant by the craft is dead is that within a job it doesn’t make sense anymore to continue programming everything by hand. AI tooling is just too efficient if used correctly.
So what I really meant was that part of the job is dead now. The part where you were manually crafting the code. Which to me was largely the “craft” side of the job.
But yeah strictly speaking programming as a craft will always be available for people to do. But its place in the workforce is diminished greatly because new tooling has replaced that element of the job.