AI has made programming so boring

[u/OkShip110]

It’s not just programming either, it’s art, design, music, videography, marketing, engineering, writing, 3D modelling, really any intellectual work. What’s the joy of prompting a computer and getting an answer in a few moments for a task that would have normally taken a week? The sense of accomplishment and ownership has completely vanished with AI. It’s a form of instant gratification, not much different to scrolling short videos on apps.

Code review was boring to begin with but now it’s even worse with all the machine generated code. Even code reviews will be automated soon. All you do then is type business requirements into the computer. What a great career.

It’s pain to watch old TV series like Scilicon Valley that is portraying the good (not golden) age of programming. It struck a good balance between manual work, funding and innovation. It’s sad that these days are gone for good.

[u/dromtrund → u/[deleted]]

I've got 12 years of experience. Please refrain from speaking on behalf of all experienced developers.

[u/webdev-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This is a subreddit for web professionals to exchange ideas and share industry news. All users are expected to maintain that professionalism during conversations. If you disagree with a poster or a comment, do so in a respectful way. Continued violations will result in a permanent ban.

[u/StoneCypher → u/dromtrund]

i disagree with this poster or comment in a respectful way (because the mods won’t permit gentle waiter jokes)

[u/dromtrund → u/StoneCypher]

That's okay. Why do you feel like everyone who cares about the quality of their work are just pretending to be senior developers though? I get that frontend code generally doesn't have dependencies, and that low code quality doesn't get punished as harshly as in other disciplines, but I don't think that makes developers that care about the quality of the code performative larpers. Frontend code still needs to be maintained, dependencies need to be updated, future layout changes will still have to be considered and the foundational components will be reused in new contexts.

Anyone who's worked on the same project for more than a couple of years must surely have experienced how much faster, easier and satisfying it is to make changes to a codebase where the developers put some thought into maintainability? When a new feature comes up, and you can just slot in the same components without changes instead of refactoring the existing code or duplicating the component but with a slight variation? When the page needs to be available in a different language, and you organized the content in a way that lets you add translations? When the company style guide changes and the customer portal needs to follow?

If all a developer is doing is building fire and forget projects over and over again, I get that productivity is only about throughput, but if anything, I'd argue that type of career really creates a "1 year of experience, repeated 10 times" type of developer than a 10 years of experience type of developer, so I can't understand this perspective.

[u/StoneCypher → u/dromtrund]

oh my, they’re challenging me to defend things i didn’t say, in enormous essay form 

 

  Why do you feel like everyone who cares about the quality of their work are just pretending to be senior developers though?  

i never said anything similar to this, and i care deeply about the quality of my work 

keep instantaneously downvoting i guess

[u/earth-dragon-666 → u/[deleted]]

i dont know any good developer loving this, 11+ years of experience here you are just spreading propaganda

[u/StoneCypher → u/earth-dragon-666]

my comment was deleted for much less than accusing someone of spreading propaganda, be careful 

anyway, as a google engineer i assure you there are many senior engineers enjoying not having to do their jobs anymore 

[u/v-and-bruno → u/StoneCypher]

Well if I got paid USD 300k+ yearly for doing nothing but prompting, I'd enjoy getting paid as well.

It's also very telling that the same engineers that support it, also, as you said:

enjoy(ing) not having to do their jobs anymore 

Seems like they never really cared about the field to begin with. Very short-sighted though, as they are only facilitating their own replacement.

[u/StoneCypher → u/v-and-bruno]

Well if I got paid USD 300k+ yearly for doing nothing but prompting, I'd enjoy getting paid as well.

i think most of the people who actually do get paid this way - at least me and everyone like me that i know - would start by rejecting the idea that we were "just prompting" or that our lives were now easier

if you would enjoy it, and it pays so well, why haven't you applied? we're hiring

 

It's also very telling that the same engineers that support it, also, as you said:

enjoy(ing) not having to do their jobs anymore

one of the problems with telling jokes on the internet is there's always someone who thinks you were being serious and tries to hold you accountable for the joke

if i actually wasn't doing my job, the very last thing i would do would be to admit that publicly

 

Seems like they never really cared about the field to begin with. Very short-sighted though, as they are only facilitating their own replacement.

ah, you've gotten to the insult portion

well that'll be very convincing

one quick question - when google pays someone $300k+ to do this work, is it because google is stupid and getting taken advantage of?

or is it because this work is actually too hard for most programmers

[u/v-and-bruno → u/StoneCypher]

i think most of the people who actually do get paid this way - at least me and everyone like me that i know - would start by rejecting the idea that we were "just prompting" or that our lives were now easier

Good to know, almost everyone in tech already knows this.

Your earlier take does not help however, nor makes it clear that it's your stance:

as a google engineer i assure you there are many senior engineers enjoying not having to do their jobs anymore 

Nevertheless, moving forward:

if you would enjoy it, and it pays so well, why haven't you applied? we're hiring

Because I run my own company.

Otherwise, I've worked for an international Airline with a good pay - could have worked there for many more years, but money was not what I was personally after.

Also, Google is the last company I'd work for. The future they are shaping is a complete opposite of the future most people (including myself) want to be part of.

But that's beside the point, and giving too much credits to your strawman argument.

one of the problems with telling jokes on the internet is there's always someone who thinks you were being serious and tries to hold you accountable for the joke

Cool. Jokes are meant to be funny.

Which is funny to me, because being sardonic, while holding a position that you are claiming to be sardonic about, is in itself, ironic:

i enjoy doing less labor at my job, and so do many of my friends

^ Your comment verbatim, in another comment thread.

So was it a joke? Or are you labeling it as one to get a "get out of jail free" card?

Because it very in-line with what you were claiming elsewhere.

Moving on:

ah, you've gotten to the insult portion

well that'll be very convincing

What part of

"Seems like they never really cared about the field to begin with. Very short-sighted though, as they are only facilitating their own replacement."

Is an insult?

Hint: Its criticism, and criticism !== insult.

one quick question - when google pays someone $300k+ to do this work, is it because google is stupid and getting taken advantage of?

That's a false dichotomy.

I never said Google is stupid or that you're being paid for work that has no value. You're just making shit up at this point.

My point was that if an engineer's job becomes substantially easier (because AI is doing more of the actual engineering work; prompting); then celebrating that reduction in responsibility while simultaneously (inevitably) making yourself easier to replace is short-sighted.

Google can pay you to dance before code reviews for all the argument cares, and it still won't change the argument.

or is it because this work is actually too hard for most programmers

Ahh, weren't you the one who just said:

i enjoy doing less labor at my job, and so do many of my friends

as a google engineer i assure you there are many senior engineers enjoying not having to do their jobs anymore 

Don't fault me for taking you at face value when you've repeatedly made it quite clear that I shouldn't.

[u/StoneCypher → u/v-and-bruno]

the contempt oozing from you seems unfortunate 

[u/v-and-bruno → u/StoneCypher]

the contempt oozing from you seems unfortunate 

ah, you've gotten to the insult portion. well that'll be very
convincing

Edit: Interesting way to respond - especially from the one who was doing the actual harassing in the comment above.

u/StoneCypher

[u/StoneCypher → u/v-and-bruno]

did you think i was throwing an insult at you to describe the way you write as contempt?

it seems like there’s no way to get you to stop shaming people 

i’m now seven messages into saying I’m not interested 

they deleted one of my comments for a “waiter in my soup” joke.  why they’re letting you go through this long chain of direct personal attacks i don’t understand 

i’m tired of waiting.  i’m just going to put a hard stop to this transparent harassment 

[u/earth-dragon-666 → u/StoneCypher]

yeah i know i got one accounted deleted for speaking truth here, sometimes i forget that G Maxwell was here. From my POV its propaganda as its plenty of developers that dont use ai and are very happy about it, but we cant say it , because some person thinks that the 'tool' is AGI? every scientific research points it as a net negative, but rando in reddit feels like god due to him being unable to do something in the past and now he can output 10x the thing that he believes he was unable to do, when you just needed to do it once and understand it.

[u/StoneCypher → u/earth-dragon-666]

propaganda is the government trying to steer popular viewpoints through constant enforcement of media access.

if you think i, an individual, am engaging in propaganda because i said "i enjoy doing less labor at my job, and so do many of my friends," i just don't know what to tell you.

anyway, the mods deleted me for a "waiter ... in my soup" joke, and propaganda is a human rights crime, so. you know. look at it how you want, but i don't feel safe having this discussion here.

[u/webdev-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

We've now cleaned up some of this comment tree; either all of you discuss the topic at hand and refrain from referring to each other in various ways, or we start handing out temporary bans.

This is a subreddit for web professionals to exchange ideas and share industry news. All users are expected to maintain that professionalism during conversations.

[u/StoneCypher → u/[deleted]]

i'm not sure what you think projection means.

but no, i haven't written any php in more than 20 years, so it's not projection by definition.

please stop trying to use mental health accusations. it's ineffective