When I was younger, I loved 'getting into the weeds'. 'Oh, the audio broke? That gives me a great change to learn more about ALSA!'. Now that I'm older, I don't want to learn more about ALSA, I've seen enough. I'm now more in camp 'solving problems', I want the job done and the task successfully finished to a reasonable level of quality, I don't care which library or data structure was particularly used to get the job done. (both camps obviously overlap, many issues require getting into the weeds)
In this framework, the promise of AI is great for camp 'solving problems' (yes yes hallucinations etc.), but horrible for camp 'getting into the weeds'. From your framing you sound like you're from camp 'getting into the weeds', and that's fine too. But I can't say camp 'solving problems' doesn't like programming. Lot of carpenters out there who like to build things without caring what their hammer does.
Though, doing this is still the right way to learn how to debug things!
nb I actually just realized I never understood a specific bit of image processing math after working on ffmpeg for years, asked a random AI, and got a perfectly clear explanation of it.
Maybe because I don’t think in terms of code. I just have this mental image that is abstract, but is consistent. Code is just a tool to materialize it, just like words are a tool to tell a story. By the time I’m typing anything, I’m already fully aware of my goals. Designing and writing are two different activities.
Reading LLMs code is jarring because it changes the pattern midway. Like an author smashing the modern world and middle earth together. It’s like writing an urban fantasy and someone keeps interrupting you with some hard science-fiction ideas.
To split the definitions one step further: That actually sounds not like you 'enjoy solving problems'(the process), but rather you 'enjoy not having the problem anymore'(the result).
Meaning you don't like programming for itself(anymore?), but merely see it as a useful tool. Implying that your life would be no less rich if you had a magical button that completely bypassed the activity.
I don't think someone who would stop doing it if given the chance can be said to "like programming", and certainly not in the way GP means.
Disliking toil is not the same as disliking programming.
Most software developers never write software outside of education or employment. That's completely normal.
Even most recreational programming is to solve a problem. Very few developers write software for the pleasure of it and would happily use a magical "solve my problem" button instead.
This is also true for all employers and customers.
Honestly, it sounds to me that you fundamentally misunderstand the industry in which you work.
Pay and conditions in software are so much higher than any vocation that it attracts many people who would never program recreationally. If that's not you and you are overjoyed to be able to write software everyday, that's fine. But you should recognise that you're in a tiny minority of developers.
Do you like playing guitar or do you like putting pressure on the correct length of the string at the specific distance from the fret?
Do you like programming, or do you like manually typing out all the trivial details of each separate line? I've not found any pleasure in typing out the details of DTOs and their conversation functions repetitively by hand, for example.
Money. Startup hype. Thinking they’ll be the next Zuckerberg (as if that’d be a good thing).
Someone may say, like in this post, "AI makes my work easier", and that may be a valid point.
Someone else may say "AI has made my work much harder" [1], and that's a valid point too.
It may very well be that we'll find a place in the middle, but in the meantime it seem disingenuous to me to accept one side without acknowledging that the other is making valid points too.
I personally love programming but I don't disrespect people who are in it because they need to be or even just feel like they need to be.