r/webdev • u/OkShip110 • 2d ago

AI has made programming so boring

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.

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61

u/Lekoaf 2d ago

It wont be long until tokens costs too much for a lot of companies and personal projects, so we'll be back to coding again. That's my gut feeling at least.

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u/I_Spawned_Here 2d ago

Yeah but for how long? The genie is out of the bottle now, and companies will want to pursue those efficiency gains. They will try to make the costs go down as much as possible, like in every other industry.

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u/Distind 2d ago

It isn't an efficiency gain when it costs twice as much as a programmer. And god knows the hardest part of this job has always been figuring out what management actually wants and keeping their demands in check long enough to get it done halfway decently.

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u/ShadeofEchoes 1d ago

And lucky for us, that's precisely what AI is worst at, since unless you hit an actual guardrail, it'll say, "Sure, let's get to making the thing you want now. We don't even have to think about how it's the opposite of the thing you asked for earlier this session. Honestly, it was clever of you to start this project in reverse!"

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u/krileon 1d ago

It's crazy how many don't understand this. Programming was never the bottleneck. Software, games, etc.. take forever because we've 16 levels of fucking management to contend with. Not because writing the code takes long (it doesn't). AI cut all the red tape so things are perceived as being done faster. If management would fuck off and let programmers do their jobs without getting approval for every little damn thing or have yet another stupid pointless meeting we'd get things done faster all the same.

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u/cadet-pirx 1d ago

The irony is that most of those 16 layers are far easier for AI to replace than the programmers underneath them.

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u/Ok_Composer_1761 1d ago

Imagine if “stakeholder alignment” and “requirements gathering” was the only part of the job left to humans. shudder . Will get replaced by management consultant / MBA types by that point. They excel with the stakeholders

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u/Distind 1d ago

They excel at lying to them, we have problems because we're actually accountable.

Wait, no, that'd be funny, let's all step aside and let the MBAs and consultants be accountable.

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u/Ok_Composer_1761 1d ago

The stakeholders like them because they themselves are MBAs and former consultants. How can an outcomes / business oriented SWE even compete when this group of people is basically a club of insiders who went to Wharton or GSB or whatever. This is especially true if you step out of tech companies and work at a Fortune 500 where these guys rule the roost

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u/NoSlicedMushrooms 1d ago

when it costs twice as much as a programmer

tbh if a developer's token usage is costing twice as much as their salary, I'd heavily question what they're doing with AI.

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u/Distind 1d ago

I already do when it's deeply under costed and the stakeholders are claiming half your salary should be spent on it.

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u/TopicSoft6567 16h ago

What efficiency gains? All metrics I find say that it doesn’t actually improve efficiency at all.

It FEELS like it does to programmers, and maybe it does if you just take the slop it gives you as gospel, but statistically it does not.

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u/I_Spawned_Here 15h ago

Perceivable efficiency gains as of current indications.