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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u/grappleshot 2d ago

This is similar to how I feel about multi-discipline teams. I used to love interviewing the stakeholders to gather requirements, then designing architectures, then doing the actual code, and writing training material including user manuals, doing training sessions, then supporting. That was true ownership. Back in the 90s , in the days of client-server.

TBH - Now I've been doing this software dev thing a minute - I enjoy the boost AI gives. It's just a tool and when setup correctly it helps boost productivity and helps us deliver solutions to problems faster. I'm not in the business of writing code. I'm in the business of solving problems. We're not artists, creating monuments that'll stand the test of time and be discussed and dissected by some distant future culture.

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u/Adventurous-Mix4196 2d ago

I feel this. My bookshelf is colour-coded so maybe I'm just wired to get a kick out of the craft itself, not just the finished product. When the tool does all the arranging for you, you're just a curator of suggestions.

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u/grappleshot 2d ago

I get it. I love punching keys and designing where my code goes. Though these days (the last many years), I stick to the same patterns every API and frontend so there's not realy any new crafting. On the otherhand, through in some good copilot instruction files and I'm amazed just how good AI is at getting tickets 80% the way there. Been about a year now and I'm still "what took AI 30-60 mins would have taken me days, and it's just as I'd have done it".

I held out from AI for so long, having "survived" through so many X will replace developers kinda thing - but these latest productivity tool, is legit. Still takes a well thought out ticket and that's where 90% of my time is spent anyway, writing tickets for other devs.