202
Software developers are not okay (www.baldurbjarnason.com)
submitted 17 hours ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 30 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (5 children)

Really?

Because nearly each time I point out that software has been getting so bad that I legitimately can't go more than 1 day without wild bugs in everyday software that was fine 6 years ago, I'm surrounded by 17 AI bros screeching about how "umm actually I'm way more productive and AI has found 6,500 issues in this code and that's great!"

Yea what's not great is when they use AI to "patch" the vulnerabilities.

You ever try to go back in basically any industry and figure out what the fuck the last person at a job site did?

Now imagine that, except instead of intuitively being able to figure some things out because human thought is at least a base to start from, you have no fucking clue what the AI was thinking.

AI is also a massive shortcut that tugs your dick anytime you use it.

Humans can't be trusted to not optimize every little thing, and AI is taking advantage of that.

I genuinely pine for a time when it was hand coded and I'm tired of pretending this is better

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

    Thing is, the ones who use ai to code large segments of code, don't usually know how it works in sufficient detail. Even the block diagram is done by ai with little oversight. The fix is simply to ask the ai to do over.

    I ask the bizfolks: would YOU allow a guy in a suit with no prior engineering knowledge, but with an ai design the structural elements for a bridge for thousands of vehicles a day? So why would you allow that when developing software that is critical for handling your enterprise data and finances?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    I ask the bizfolks: would YOU allow a guy in a suit with no prior engineering knowledge, but with an ai design the structural elements for a bridge for thousands of vehicles a day?

    They would allow it. The difference is that our societies decided that liability for builders of bridges is a sensible thing and nonnegotiable, but for reasons unknown to me you can release any piece of crappy software to the public without any liability whatsoever as long as you tack on it some terms and conditions that absolve you of warranty and liability. This is unthinkable with all other commodities. When it comes to software, the people in charge turn off their brains.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 2 hours ago

    I ask the bizfolks: would YOU allow a guy in a suit with no prior engineering knowledge, but with an ai design the structural elements for a bridge for thousands of vehicles a day?

    For less money in less time with no liability? Yes, without hesitation.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] [S] 11 points 5 hours ago (1 child)

    I feel like this is the difference between the people who became developers for the craft and developers who became one just for the job

    If you're just doing it as a job, you tend to just want to get stuff done, as long as it works

    If you became one for the art of the craft, you now feel the things described in the post. You don't create anymore, you just delegate and code review. The LLM code might even be perfectly fine. But you don't create, and it's just tiring

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 hours ago

    Exactly.

    And it's not just programming, it's in every career, artistry, journalism, etc.

    When barriers are extremely low, one side effect is you no longer have the passionate people as easily rise to the top.

    You have a shit load of people with surface level or worse understandings of things in charge.

    See the following:

    Parts of Hollywood from studios to directors, nepotism and mbas nearly ruined cinema.

    Gaming companies often sell out to go public or allow themselves to be bought by soulless corps, this often but not always goes very very wrong.

    The music industry is RIFE with plants, nepotism, and absolute garbage music.

    Now programming is opened to the masses.

    And you even have people like Linus Torvalds taking what I think is a stance that likely makes sense for him, but is such a damning thing to openly say because people take Torvalds use of AI as a blanket "look he uses it so it must be ok" where there is SO much nuance.

    I miss times before AI lol

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent