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Comment by jackdoe | Hacker News Reader

Programming was very meditative and fulfilling experience for me, "building something" whatever it is, now I can see it slipping through my fingers.

You know the feeling of starting a new mmorpg video game? The first time you enter a new world, you dont know what to do, where to go, there is no "optimal" way to play it, there are no guides, you just try things and explore and play and have fun. Every new project I start I have this feeling.

Few years later the game is a chore, you have daily quests, guides and optimal strategies and simmulations and if you dont play what elitistjerks say you are doing it wrong.

With AI it feels the game is never new.

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> Programming was very meditative and fulfilling experience for me, "building something" whatever it is, now I can see it slipping through my fingers.

I've been characterizing it to others as the difference between hand-carving a post for a bed frame vs. letting a CNC mill do it. The artistry-labor is lost, and time-savings are realized. In the process, the meditation of the artist, the labor and blood, sweat, and tears are all lost.

It isn't 'bad', but it has this dulling effect on my mind. There's something about being involved at a deep level that is satisfying and uplifting to my mind. When I cede that to a machine, I have lost that satisfaction.

Some years ago, I noticed this same issue just looking at typing vs. hand-writing things. I _think_ very differently on paper than I do typing at a terminal. My mind is slow and methodical with a pen, as if I actually have time to think. At a keyboard, I am less patient, more prone to typing before I think.

I’m the opposite. I’d rather spend more time in a flow-like state where I’m dreaming of possibilities and my thoughts come to life quickly and effortlessly.

I often find tools frustrating because they are imperfect and even with the best tools you inevitably have to break from your flow sometimes to do stuff in a more manual way.

If a tool could take care of building while I remain in flow I’d be in heaven.

That’s interesting because i love computers and parts of programming. Algorithms are fascinating and I get a deep sense of satisfaction when my program works.

But at the same time I find programming to be a frustrating experience because I want to spend as much time as possible thinking about what I’m trying to build.

In other words I’d rather spend time in the dream-like space of possibilities, and iterating on my thoughts quickly than “dropping down” to reality and thinking through how I’m actually going to build it, what algorithms to use, how to organize code, etc.

Because of that I’ve found vibe coding to be enjoyable even if it’s not perfect.

Love of the process vs the product

These are intertwined, though, and rather tightly in some cases. Game dev is an excellent example of this.

Perhaps you're confusing enjoyment with necessity. Iteration is necessary to build a good game, but I want to minimize iteration time as much as possible so I can finish the game.

In that sense, the process is the enemy. A long, laborious process kills games.

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