harryquach

I am almost there also, the vast majority of posts seem like low effort slop

It seems most companies who employ developers are going the direction of agentic coding, so for most of us there is not an option. This is where the real crisis is.

I have graduated to not using the internet when at all possible. Its mostly been hijacked by large corporations whose only goal is you spending as much time scrolling as possible.

Did your employees have equity? If so how did this process work, with the PE firm?

I relate to this on a deep level. I have been writing software professionally for 18 years. Programming was the fun part of the job. Solving deep technical problems, digging through docs, etc. All that seems to be gone now. Unfortunately the business does not care about any of the above, all that matters is output. My job pays me for output therefore I have no choice but to embrace the Claude pandemic.

I wish I had better news, but really just want you to know you are not alone and I empathize with you. I do think there is a cost to pay when using AI to output all of the code. A deep mental model is impossible and this will have downstream impacts. I am hopeful this will settle into a happy middle ground where AI is used but not relied upon.

I am already being forced to use Claude for all coding in my job. All personal projects/code I still write by hand. This has always been the fun part of software development for me.

I was in my younger years but realize now how little meaning hard work in the corporate world has brought me. Today I try to do the best I can but mostly focused my energies on things outside of work.

> Work is just a transaction now

Always has been

> Worried about your own kids but acting against their interests.

> That same VC invests in AI companies and by what I heard about her, has done phenomenally well.

Her kids will be fine, its the vast majority of other, non wealthy, kids who are in trouble.

> I have never used an LLM for my writing, software, or personal life

Must be nice to not have a paycheck tied to using this tech. For many people, myself included, its either use it (adapt) or lose your job. Most of us relay on our jobs to pay bills and live in the modern world.

Commit messages are often squashed after merging a feature branch

Agreed, over the last 6 years I have been able to spend lots of time with my two kids. Would not trade that for anything.

I've been running pi-hole for years and love it. https://pi-hole.net

If I knew I was traveling to a region, with a potential conflict, I would do my due diligence and read the news. For the vast majority of people, reading news is a net negative.

I have tried focusing my attention on the interview process. Although almost all of our knowledge is a prompt away, interviewing is a skill which cannot be outsourced. It seems like this is the way to outlast AI in this industry.

I've been investing in low cost index funds for decades. Although not "income" in the spirit of your question, these funds distribute quarterly dividends which is income. This is truly passive income.

This is the way. A common theme for older people is wishing they worked less and spent more time with family. I have two kids and cant imagine sacrificing more time than absolutely necessary working. Once my first was born, my priorities immediately changed. Its difficult to describe but work instantly became a lower priority.

I don't think its possible to define what a perfect codebase would look like let alone write one. Programming is enough of an art form that quantitative analysis will always fall short. This also happens to be one of the reasons I love to write software.

Lifting, cycling, reading historical non fiction, gardening. Essentially anything not involving a screen.

If European society survived the Black Plague we will be fine. Imagine living in a time where an unknown virus kills half of the population. Half of everyone you know is gone. This is only one of countless examples throughout history.

No doubt today we have unique challenges but I am optimistic we will overcome and thrive. Like a poster mentioned above, perhaps its time to log off and go for a walk.

I have been doing sets with a grip trainer during zoom meetings. Forearms are getting huge.

This reinforces my belief that today is the best time in human history to live. Yes there is still pain and suffering but overall more humans live lives our ancestors could not begin to imagine.

What industry are you thinking of moving towards?

39

Thanks for the laugh friend. I was thinking the same thing.

Utilize your local public library. Reading is a great hobby and can be done for free at any local library.

Unfortunately, at least at my company, leadership has caught this bug. This means features need to be delivered faster, with a smaller team, etc. Not a good way to create quality software.

I have been "encouraged" by my company to go full throttle into integration LLMs into our workflow. I have found is has taken much of the enjoyment out of solving problems with code. As others have said, it has made me lazier and I can see myself losing my edge.

I love this community, the only social media worth investing time into. Here's to another 20 years.

I hate cookie popups, this will improve my browsing experience a ton, thanks for sharing!