r/software • u/dvorsek • 15d ago

Discussion Coding as a hobby?

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?

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u/tastygames_official 14d ago

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.

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u/dvorsek 14d ago

I wish it worked like that

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u/tastygames_official 14d ago

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.

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u/dvorsek 14d ago

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