"It’s also the nature of the agent automation to feel more like delegation to a clueless junior developer than automation, and that changes your relationship to the work.
In woodworking, the power tools didn’t reduce the woodworker’s emotional investment in what they made. The worker still felt like they’d made that thing out of wood themselves.
Some woodworkers might still use hand tools for a variety of reasons – some of them romantic, some of them, you know, just because it’s more fun.
But having a table saw doesn’t make you feel like you’ve asked somebody else to make the shelf, or table, or chair.
The nature of automation with Large Language Model tools feels substantially different from prior attempts at automation in coding. It’s an abstraction that feels like a delegation, not an automation, and separates you from the output.
That has an effect of making you feel less invested in the output and that takes away much the joy of coding. The flow state is also gone, the sort of focused state of mind that you get into when you’re really deep into solving a problem."
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This viewpoint, expressed by the author, makes perfect sense to me, but I don't see this as an AI or software industry problem, I see it as merely a recognition that something has changed. Well, yes, it has, and the question is not whether you are okay with it or not, but, rather, how are you going to adapt to the enviroment you inhabit that just changed ?
The goal for developers, either alone or in teams, is the same as it ever was ... ship a useful product. We've added data compression to our products and workflows for decades, and now AI allows us to add time compression.
Its exactly the same as the woodworkers relationship with power tools. The person building the desk still has to know how to design and assemble and ship a desk, it just takes less time with power tools. AI seems and feels no different to me.
To all my fellow developers, the identity crisis that results from the 5 year old next door being able to develop an app is optional. Adaptation to the environment in which you now live is not.
When you're done lamenting, you can get back to inventing, and show that 5 year old you're still the man. ;D
( 2 cents from a developer and woodworker, nothing more )
Kevin_Flynn•8m ago
"It’s also the nature of the agent automation to feel more like delegation to a clueless junior developer than automation, and that changes your relationship to the work.
In woodworking, the power tools didn’t reduce the woodworker’s emotional investment in what they made. The worker still felt like they’d made that thing out of wood themselves.
Some woodworkers might still use hand tools for a variety of reasons – some of them romantic, some of them, you know, just because it’s more fun.
But having a table saw doesn’t make you feel like you’ve asked somebody else to make the shelf, or table, or chair.
The nature of automation with Large Language Model tools feels substantially different from prior attempts at automation in coding. It’s an abstraction that feels like a delegation, not an automation, and separates you from the output.
That has an effect of making you feel less invested in the output and that takes away much the joy of coding. The flow state is also gone, the sort of focused state of mind that you get into when you’re really deep into solving a problem."
--------
This viewpoint, expressed by the author, makes perfect sense to me, but I don't see this as an AI or software industry problem, I see it as merely a recognition that something has changed. Well, yes, it has, and the question is not whether you are okay with it or not, but, rather, how are you going to adapt to the enviroment you inhabit that just changed ?
The goal for developers, either alone or in teams, is the same as it ever was ... ship a useful product. We've added data compression to our products and workflows for decades, and now AI allows us to add time compression.
Its exactly the same as the woodworkers relationship with power tools. The person building the desk still has to know how to design and assemble and ship a desk, it just takes less time with power tools. AI seems and feels no different to me.
To all my fellow developers, the identity crisis that results from the 5 year old next door being able to develop an app is optional. Adaptation to the environment in which you now live is not.
When you're done lamenting, you can get back to inventing, and show that 5 year old you're still the man. ;D
( 2 cents from a developer and woodworker, nothing more )