Hacker News Reader

Comment by TrianguloY | Hacker News Reader

I like this analogy, and in fact in have used it for a totally different reason: why I don't like AI.

Imagine someone going to a local gym and using an exosqueleton to do the exercises without effort. Able to lift more? Yes. Run faster? Sure. Exercising and enjoying the gym? ... No, and probably not.

I like writing code, even if it's boilerplate. It's fun for me, and I want to keep doing it. Using AI to do that part for me is just...not fun.

Someone going to the gym isn't trying to lift more or run faster, but instead improving and enjoying. Not using AI for coding has the same outcome for me.

View on HN

We've all been raised in a world where we got to practice the 'art' of programming, and get paid extraordinarily well to do so, because the output of that art was useful for businesses to make more money.

If a programmer with an exoskeleton can produce more output that makes more money for the business, they will continue to be paid well. Those who refuse the exoskeleton because they are in it for the pure art will most likely trend towards earning the types of living that artists and musicians do today. The truly extraordinary will be able to create things that the machines can't and will be in high demand, the other 99% will be pursing an art no one is interested in paying top dollar for.

You’re forgetting that the “art” part of it is writing sound, scalable, performant code that can adapt and stand the test of time. That’s certainly more valuable in the long run than banging out some dogshit spaghetti code that “gets the job done” but will lead to all kinds of issues in the future.

> the “art” part of it is writing sound, scalable, performant code that can adapt and stand the test of time.

Sure, and it's possible to use LLM tools to aid in writing such code.

> I like writing code, even if it's boilerplate. It's fun for me, and I want to keep doing it. Using AI to do that part for me is just...not fun.

Good news for you is that you can continue to do what you are doing. Nobody is going to stop you.

There are people who like programming in assembly. And they still get to do that.

If you are thinking that in the future employers may not want you to do that, then yes, that is a concern. But, if the AI based dev tool hype dies out, as many here suspect it will, then the employers will see the light and come crawling back.

You can continue to do that for your personal projects. Nobody forces you to like AI. You may not have the choice at your job though, and you can't take Claude Code et al. from me. I've been programming for 30 years, and I still have fun with it, even with AI.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com