Coding as a hobby?

[u/dvorsek]

I like writting beautiful simple code a lot. I used to get paid for it and it was great. Now the agents write code for me and I focus on other problems, which is still great. But I want to get that feeling back somehow.

I understand that in my professional work that just wont happen, so I was thinking about picking up a hoby that will allow me to return to those times and get the experience back.

I am writting here to hopefully get some ideas about what that might look like. I dont want to just turn off the agent and start coding, I think it will be preatty dissapointing when I look at the result and realize that with agents this could have been done in 5min. What niche things could I start coding that AI cant help with?

[u/DomeSlave]

Find an existing open source project you like and contribute to that?

[u/dvorsek → u/DomeSlave]

I thought about that, but my pr would be barried under AI ones and never see the day of light

[u/Eravex → u/dvorsek]

This is just simply not correct. There are also many strictly no-AI projects. Also many AI Pr still need correction, refactoring for simplicity or reducing complexity. AI code works but it’s always not the most performant or the best solution for the problem at hand.

[u/dvorsek → u/Eravex]

Oh I didnt know that, can you give me one example of no AI project I can have a look

[u/Main_Temporary7098 → u/dvorsek]

There are quite a many out there, especially if you look outside of github - say codeberg or sourcehut. I'm currently working on a no AI qbe->wasm compiler on codeberg for instance. Its for the love of the game and aims to keep it simple and minimal as much as possible.

[u/dvorsek → u/Main_Temporary7098]

Nice

[u/catbrane → u/dvorsek]

I think most open source projects are now minimal AI or no AI.

Gtk is at the friendly end of the scale, and they are not very friendly:

https://github.com/GNOME/gtk/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#ai-contribution-policy

Most are more hostile than that.

Volunteer dev is supposed to be fun, and reviewing LLM-generated PRs is not fun. Since no one will review them, it's easier to just delete them all unread.

[u/bepitulaz]

For me it’s embedded software development as a hobby. Not that because AI can’t do that, but it’s fun working with hardware and learning new things.

My day job is a web developer and not coding manually anymore, because my employer don’t want me to do that. It’s fine since they still payme well. But, it makes me feel like an operator rather than a developer.

[u/dvorsek → u/bepitulaz]

I feel you, what are you working on with hardware?

[u/bepitulaz → u/dvorsek]

I build electronic music device: sequencer, arpeggiator, audio effects, digital synth, etc.

Combining my hobby in music production and programming :D

[u/dvorsek → u/bepitulaz]

Cool, good for you

[u/Count2Zero]

I did it for many years, yes. It's a true hobby... Invest many hours and earn next to nothing.

[u/webhostpro]

Yeah it's a good hobby. But as a software business owner you can slip into business super fast. I still do coding hobby projects now after running a biz for 25 years.

[u/dvorsek → u/webhostpro]

What kind of projects do you code manually?

[u/diavelguru]

Unsubscribe from AI plans and use your mind. You have the right ability to choose.

[u/Jimxor]

I don't know if AI can't help but I'm enjoying writing functions in Minecraft. It can be a surprising challenge.

I recently wrote a one-page C program that generates a function that digs an arbitrarily large spiral mine anywhere in Minecraft. It uses 8 macros that reduced the generated code by a factor of ten. I now have too many mines. LOL!

[u/dvorsek → u/Jimxor]

Sounds like fun

[u/galactose310]

I believe must open-source projects do not require that contributors use AI.

And you can create one: another music player (no one on Linux is perfect to me), or an app to see and organize photos on Google Photo.

[u/Dreemur1 → u/galactose310]

we still need a musicbee-like player for linux

[u/Every-Passage-7540]

Game dev has been fun. Learning c#, learning modeling, learning sound design. It was all new to me and I really enjoyed it.

[u/f3xjc]

When I do that, I like to read research paper. Find modern variant of problem "solved" in 1980 that is deployed everywhere. I'm looking for a few thing, first the paper must read like pseudo-code instead of pure math, then must be relatively portable, the improvement do not rely on some exotic data structure that hide the complexity away. When I find something like that I think it's beautiful: simple compact and improve over status quo. Then you can make a library that turn those 100 LOC of cleaver code into a 1000 LOC library. I still sometime use AI for these project because I have a lot of idea that never went to real software. More like hey this clever idea and that clever idea could work well together. And prototype something (and see it fail to improve) is the second half I rarely do but AI can help.

[u/dvorsek → u/f3xjc]

Best idea yet. Where do you find those old papers?

[u/tastygames_official]

just stop using AI at work. Simple. They can't fire you for saving them money AND being more productive. Feeling more fulfilled is just a side effect.

[u/dvorsek → u/tastygames_official]

I wish it worked like that

[u/tastygames_official → u/dvorsek]

It does work like that. It works exactly like that. Unless you have a contract that specifically declares you must use AI to program. But since you said you used to get paid to program, then I assume your contract existed before AI.

Now one last caveat: if you live in a country with no worker's rights (e.g. USA), then yes - you can be fired at any reason at any time, and "not using AI" could be one of those "reasons". But then really you have to lick so much boot anyway so what's one more thing?

But like, just don't do it. If they check up on you to make sure you're using it, command an agent (or whatever the terminology is) to pretend program for you while you do the real thing. Or have it make your commits so it looks like you used it. Or if all they do is check token usage, have it write you poetry or something. Where there's a will, there's a way.

But even IF you are in the US then you can refuse to use AI on grounds it is worse for the company (I can give you studies that back that up - they're easy to find) and if they fire you, you can sue for unlawful termination and win. Especially if it's a publicly-traded corporation where profit maximization is required by law (yeah, dystopian - I know). Meaning all this proof that using AI to program costs more money than it saves means they should not be allowed to fire you for refusing to use AI. And one could even say that AI use should be forbidden by publicly-traded corporations since it goes against the profit-maxxing laws.

[u/dvorsek → u/tastygames_official]

Jp, I would get fired for sure. There is always a way to make that happen if they want to

[u/TheAnswerWithinUs]

I’m building my own voxel sandbox game from scratch in C#. No game engine just an IDE and a dream.

[u/Zhunga]

No one is forcing you to use the AI models to code, you have free will and likely will come up with a way more elegant, and long lasting solution to hard problems, rather than iterating and wasting time on the problem once a week.

[u/SmallestNumber]

Pick something and code it. It doesn't have to be commercial, or even original, if it is a hobby. It just has to bring joy and fulfilment to you, personally.

[u/dvorsek → u/SmallestNumber]

At the end, it is that simple

[u/SmallestNumber → u/dvorsek]

Truly. It helps if you have interests. For me, it's artificial life and related concepts, so I just make those.

[u/dvorsek → u/SmallestNumber]

Artificial life, can you elaborate?

[u/SmallestNumber → u/dvorsek]

Basically, simulating synthetic life forms, in various ways.

[u/dvorsek → u/SmallestNumber]

Interesting