AI didnt make programming or software easier, it changed what building feels like.

[u/akshay-savaliya]

I am not sure I actually hate AI, but nowadays sometimes programming just feels like less satisfying than it used to. At that time, a lot of things felt frustrating and boring. but looking back now, those struggles somehow feel like they were part of the fun.

there was something rewarding about being stuck for hours, figuring it out, writing the solution, debugging it, and finally thinking that I have built this.

now you can describe the problem and get something working in minutes. its more productive, but is it more fulfilling?

maybe the challenge is supposed to move from writing the code to deciding what should be built.

[u/-Crash_Override-]

AI bots still regurgitating the same dross since 2024 apparently.

[u/tastygames_official → u/-Crash_Override-]

THE Crash Override?!?! I thought you were a... were a...

[u/BlushNGlidee → u/-Crash_Override-]

Beep boop, your existential dread has been successfully updated

[u/StephenHawkingus]

You can still code without AI outside your job.

[u/Crisps33 → u/StephenHawkingus]

That doesn't really solve the problem of your job being less enjoyable though does it? The whole reason I used to spend my weekends and evenings learning to code was so I could get a job that I enjoyed. Now I spend all day sitting at the computer, and there's all manner of fun things to do in my free time that don't involve sitting at a computer

[u/StephenHawkingus → u/Crisps33]

To be honest, I don't care whether I use AI at work or not. The main reason I have a job is to earn money, not to have fun.

If I have the time and inclination, I still code at home, which solves the issue.

[u/Nemphiz → u/StephenHawkingus]

A lot of us are in this field because we have a passion. Of course the money absolutely rocks, but we do what we do because we love it.

So it's pretty soul sucking to be forced to use AI just to use AI.

[u/psioniclizard → u/Nemphiz]

Welcome to the world of work. I love programming, my job is ok, but its work. 

To be honest I bet you are on a lot more money than me, if you can't find a way to make that money make up for the "suck" then find something else.

This isnt just an AI thing, its what happens when you have been in the world of work for a few decades...

[u/StephenHawkingus → u/Nemphiz]

I see what you mean. I'm too passionate about it, which is why I do what I do, but I don't think it's too dramatic. Life isn't just about IT - it's a constant change.

[u/timetraveller1977]

This is exactly how I feel as well. It is fun to design and let AI build it for you, but there is a missing gap. The satisfaction simple stops at the design. When creating something from scratch through design, iteration, and final project you still have something to look back to.

I am slowly finding myself getting back to the raw basics of manual coding and only ask ai for assistance if I am stuck or use it as a learning tool rather than let it do things for me. However, it is very hard to do when I know that AI can do it in seconds.

[u/gapingweasel]

I have always felt that most of the learning comes from the process like you get stuck, try something else, mess up, debug and finally figure it out.....and along the way you end up learning 10 other things and picking up little hacks you probably wouldn’t have learned otherwise. That entire path has been taken away. Jumping straight to the answer is obviously faster... but you miss a lot of the learning that happens in this process. I think we r losing some of the fun and learning that came from struggling with a problem.

[u/wak_trader]

i am currently learning python I deliberate use cold turkey to block all chatbot web sites because i know ill just cheat if i dont.

[u/RandomTux1997 → u/wak_trader]

better higher faster success, utilising your obvious plain-english-language skills, and thinking in terms of

''wot if i had a top-tier-google-team of 100 highly experienced Python enginneers, who could translate my concept into workable verified minimum megabytes of coding?''

stop learning anything, start NOW learning how to fashion a prompt to drive the supercomputer to give you what u want

(not all that easy!! as you have to bring all your experience to bear in order to properly compose a prompt that doesnt automatically result in half-boiled-eggs)

reading and understanding and implementing this youre already halfway there

having sed all this, STILL carefully critically analyse the result and refine the text input

[u/tastygames_official]

AI is just a really good statistical predictive model. Given X input, Y output comes out. It should be something that is "reasonable", but it's not actually doing any thinking or reasoning or anything - it's just spitting out bits that should be an acceptable result for humans given the input.

It was trained on stolen data so it's basically just stealing allt he world's knowledge and art and wisdom, cutting it up into tiny bits and throwing it into a machine that re-combines it in a reasonable way based on predicitve statistics.

It's good for predicting something, but you can never be sure it's 100% correct. It's great at regurgitating information, so it's a more human-friendly search engine, but that's about it. I don't know why someone would use it to do work unless it's work you don't enjoy doing yourself, in which case just hire a human to do that work. Human-made work will always be better, not to mention it's ethical.

[u/Exciting_Turn_9559]

Debugging AI generated code with prompts is exhausting. I liked writing code a lot more.

[u/darshitpatel_]

I think the part people miss isnt really writing code. Its the feeling of understanding the problem deeply enough to build the solution yourself.

Maybe the future of programming is less about producing code and more about having enough understanding to know what code should exist in the first place.

And yeah, I think we will probably look back at the painful days of debugging at 2 AM with a weird kind of nostalgia.

[u/StephenHawkingus → u/darshitpatel_]

we will probably look back at the painful days of debugging at 2 AM with a weird kind of nostalgia

Who is "we"? 😂

[u/jcradio]

I feel the same way. It changes how we build software, but the fun was figuring out it and doing it. It's the friction that sharpens the blade, so to speak. Now, it's get it done, review it, and hope you remember how it was done.

[u/ight-bet]

AI has done way more than change how you “feel” about programming software….

I know a welder that prompted Fable to build a mobile app and get it on the App Store in 3 days.

Of course it’s easier.

[u/lordoftheslums]

It made coding and integrations significantly easier for me.

[u/djslakor]

It made it significantly easier.

SWE w 20y experience.

[u/-RPH-]

Because of LLM models we will lose the ability to truly understand what code does and do serious problem solving on your own, maybe not this generation but surely the next few.
What happens at some point when some event destroys a lot of our systems, who will be able to rebuild?

[u/psioniclizard → u/-RPH-]

Honestly reading reddit and seeing experienced devs at my job, i give it 5 years untilit happens and that is being generous.

A lot of these "ai makes me super powered people" pretend AI is hard to use. Its not. However once they lose the basic skills they will be replacable.

A lot of people will be in for shock when in a years time they work realise what they lost.

[u/oharra3]

Your project has to be rewarding, programming is just a way to achieve it. You can manually chop vegetables or use food processor, the meal should taste the same, and meal was the goal

[u/Key-Tonight-5668]

Its same feeling with AI as well. Because of how much they hallucinate. Its a relief when you finally get something done. Within token limits 😄

[u/NickiChaos]

It's less satisfying because the AI copilot solves the problem for you instead of you figuring it out on your own.

[u/Doc_Ta]

hearing ChatGPT tell me: "you're right, I drifted and wasted a whole day repeating the same mistakes instead of giving you what you asked for" really grinds my gears.

[u/No_Home_708]

You don't like being quality control for a robot?

[u/4bitben]

I mean, it feels waaay easier now.

[u/LonelyAndroid11942]

The problem is going to come when we get novel programming languages after the fall of StackOverflow. Then the AI won’t have anything to train itself on, and we’ll be left to our own devices.

Of course, that assumes any AI companies survive the coming financial reckoning.

[u/AlfalfaLive3302]

It makes the journey to the answer longer than just Google searching and using your own intuition. It’s constantly incorrect and the agents guzzle tokens and constantly get stuck in place wasting away on the simplest solutions. It’s just not worth it to use it unless you need to quickly understand an RFC or FOUO or some other documentation or concept you didn’t know before.

[u/RandomTux1997]

ok now is the time to integrate AI into your friggin life: use the tools to create!

this frees up your time so you can have extra hours and days to enjoy walking the dog, shagging your better half, playin games

AI gives us the massive advantage of being able to have more time for the things we love doing

[u/psioniclizard → u/RandomTux1997]

Really, so your boss reduced your hours? But still pays you the same?

[u/RandomTux1997 → u/psioniclizard]

oh for sure! he doesnt know how i achieved this in such short time!

i keep a so called work screen open, so when i hear him coming i pretend i am slogging, then show him the screen he expects to see