Comment by jimsmart | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jimsmart | Hacker News Reader

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> Yes, I'm a developer.

It's interesting that you describe yourself as a developer now.

Because just three months ago, in your first post [1] to HN, you said:

> I'm somewhat non-technical but I've been using Claude to hack MVPs together for months now.

Sure: you might feel as though you have now 10x'ed yourself. But, quite honestly, when the reality is that just a few months back you self-described as "somewhat non-technical", it's clear that (a) you're at such an early stage in your learning and understanding of tech, as a developer, that it's relatively easy to experience bigs gains, and (b) you can't actually have much of an objective measure on this, because you are in fact quite new to the field.

I read a lot of your other comments. To me, even before I had confirmation that you were actually "somewhat non-technical", and fairly new to the field — effectively a junior developer by any real measure — this was already quite apparent to me.

Based upon having been a developer for some decades myself already: I can generally spot those that talk-the-talk — and similarly: I can generally spot those who have non-trivial / deeper experience with various fields of tech.

Powering-up with AI tooling doesn't remedy that. Even if it might seem otherwise from your "somewhat non-technical"-but-newly-empowered position.

Good luck with your coding endeavours though, and with your evangelism.

I have no doubts at all that the world is changing — including how software is developed. But I see your posts for what they are.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42423573

Yeah I was a jr developer for a year before I became a PM. That's the definition of being "somewhat non-technical" as I put it.

you've been a developer for some decades which is why your reality is threatened that your craft is increasingly becoming irrelevant so you had to snoop my profile to find some confirmation that your reality doesn't get shattered

this is nothing new of course. obnoxious neckbeard engineers who don't understand where the world is going have existed since the unix debates on irc. you'll find plenty of people who agree with you on mastodon lol.

Just stop talking. You don’t know anything about anything. Loser.

How triggered you are betrays your insecurity lmao.

Ah right, junior dev for a year. Wow, how amazing.

Plenty of room for you to 10x many times over then.

Over the years, I’ve met plenty of folk who have dabbled with software development, before deciding it wasn’t for them - then pivoting to something less technical.

Nah, I don’t feel threatened at all by AI. My job is secure. Tools change, sure. But there’s plenty of years left in software development for sufficiently skilled humans. No matter what a junior-level dev / AI evangelist might claim.

I’ll be cleaning up and properly re-implementing the MVPs that less knowledgeable folk are throwing together, slap dash. For a long while yet. And doing other stuff that AI simply can’t do properly - and quite honestly is quite far from doing.

Your rhetoric betrays your knowledge, and your bravado and insults can’t make up for that in any way.

It’s easy to get enchanted by current generative AI, and believe it far more capable than it is. Particularly if not overly skilled in whatever domain. Particularly if one doesn’t have much of a grasp on how generative AI actually works. Good luck with that.

> you've been a developer for some decades which is why your reality is threatened that your craft is increasingly becoming irrelevant so you had to snoop my profile to find some confirmation that your reality doesn't get shattered

Hahaha - no, that's really not accurate at all. On lots of levels. The ability to read another user's comments is there so that anyone who chooses can actually get a better understanding of who they're talking with, and what that person is about. One doesn't have to feel threatened at all to want to use it, one simply has to be intellectually curious, and interested to find out more...

There's no need to try and portray it as a negative, and make out there's something afoot which isn't actually taking place.

Anyone who's been here on HN for any significant amount of time knows exactly what that feature is for — as well as when it might be best to use it. And people absolutely will use it.

It helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

— Please do try and take care that your wide-of-the-mark unnecessary put-downs and name calling don't violate the HN guidelines! (Just for your own good!)

Yikes. Can/should this guy be banned from commenting? People like him substantially degrade the quality of the conversation.

Unfortunately there’s no bans for stuff like that.

But that’s why I call it out: yes, exactly, it degrades the conversation when someone is preaching about a new tech, and how it’s gonna change development, and claiming they’re a developer themselves - while not being upfront about the fact that they’ve not actually got much real-world experience as a developer at all in general.

And this kind of thing should always be called out when spotted. It’s just plain disingenuous at the end of the day.

I’ve probably been contracted to fix more broken projects (by devs who royally messed up), than the count of MVPs this person has made, or indeed the number of months they’ve been coding.

But at the end of the day, these kinds of folk simply make us more experienced folk more valuable to those that need a professional service in a bail-out scenario. I’ve got decades of real-world coding experience, and a healthy list of successfully published / deployed projects, including some fairly big clients over the years. My CV speaks volumes, particularly when contrast against someone with little experience in the field of software development. I’ve seen languages and tooling come and go. I’ve headed teams and worked solo. I’ve witnessed plenty of folk like this in my time. It’s certainly not my first rodeo!

Unfortunate that someone chose to downvote me, as opposed to engaging me in conversation as to why my view might perhaps be incorrect or maybe shortsighted - as per the HN guidelines. But no real surprise - I guess that in itself is quite telling here.

Karma points might come and go sometimes, but whatever: I’ve been posting on HN (and other sites) for years, on and off. I’ve no need to try and portray myself as something I’m not, nor portray myself to have skills or experience that I don’t have. I generally post to share my knowledge and experience, because real-world experience adds up over time.

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