This is *brutal*...
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@llorenzin - I kid you not I had a potential mentor say the exact same thing! He gave me so general wisdom and insight but he told me and i quote “The pathways to got me to where I am and where I want to go aren’t around anymore”.
@heroicthehobbyist at least he was honest with you. Not that that's a consolation.
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@llorenzin i keep complaining about the loss of the pipeline, but i'm just some greybeard who's probably long overdue for the firing squad.
the worst part is i meet young people every day who have the same excitement and zeal that i enjoyed at the beginning of my programming days. they are curious and inquisitive about the world of computers, and the best leadership has for them is becoming prompt engineers and review farmers.
@elmiko that's absolutely the most painful part for me - I'm at the point where I want to reach down and give a hand up, and the ladder just fucking evaporated.
Honestly, I'm to the point of telling young people excited about coding to go learn a trade that will pay their bills, and find an open source project to be passionate about in their free time... -
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@elmiko that's absolutely the most painful part for me - I'm at the point where I want to reach down and give a hand up, and the ladder just fucking evaporated.
Honestly, I'm to the point of telling young people excited about coding to go learn a trade that will pay their bills, and find an open source project to be passionate about in their free time...> Honestly, I'm to the point of telling young people excited about coding to go learn a trade that will pay their bills, and find an open source project to be passionate about in their free time...
@llorenzin that sounds like a tough conversation to have. i know it would be for me.
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@llorenzin
Thank you so much for sharing. Even with the dire truth in it it was a nice read.I loved the way the picture was painted so vividly.
@inw he really takes something I think we've all been vaguely feeling, and absolutely nails it.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin The section towards the last third about Sara and the cron job... yeah... that's me. 100%
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@llorenzin The section towards the last third about Sara and the cron job... yeah... that's me. 100%
@tsturm indeed... I think there are a whole lot of Saras out there, unrecognized and uncompensated.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin b/c they're fucking built on reddit?
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin They cut off the lowest rungs for so many career paths, not just programming. I see it in writing as well.
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@llorenzin They cut off the lowest rungs for so many career paths, not just programming. I see it in writing as well.
@AimeeMaroux @llorenzin I can’t see how this ends well. Eventually you need to bring people up in the system. How do you get senior devs without juniors. You just end up with a gaping hole in the talent pool.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
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@llorenzin @wordshaper I can confirm all of these things.
@llorenzin @wordshaper let's note the author's words,
"AI didn't take our jobs. Greed did."
Cc @drwho
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin "You knew. And you signed off anyway. Because the alternative was losing the job, and the job was the mortgage, and the school fees, and the visa, and the version of yourself who'd fix it later once things stabilized."
If you had stood up and said no the first time it would have been a much easier fight that the one you have now.
An unwillingness to speak truth to power is at the core of the failings of our society.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
By the way, if anyone wonders about the title of this blog post "Programming still sucks" (and the "sorry peter" at the beginning), its like a continuation, or maybe a response from an old article, called "Programming Sucks" by Peter Welch.
Which is also nice read, albeit less pessimistic than this one IMO. The current one sounds more like a eulogy for programming as craft and as an art form (hopefully it does not come true).
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin This is the best possible error message to get when trying to read this story
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin @solsetur I like boreal forests. Why? Because they have this neat trick. Every so often when things get out of hand, there is a massive forest fire. And it does something amazing. It cycles the nutrients, triggers the seeds and starts the process all over again. It rejuvenates the forest. Now, why I am talking about boreal forests? Because I hope to god that humans have a similar trick up their sleeve, because things are way out of hand and I have no idea where we go from here.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin This is so on the money.
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@IAmDannyBoling same. Sooooo very grateful I got out of tech just before the AI craze really started eating people's brains.
@llorenzin @IAmDannyBoling Congrats. It's pretty awful.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
@llorenzin I have a job where AI isn't likely to impact me anytime soon. But I have seen the same problem, albeit over a longer time-span.
What I've seen is a company who underbids contracts in order to win business. Then cuts staffing (or never hires) to meet the bogus cost targets. What this means is that we no longer have lead engineers. We no longer have someone responsible for training the juniors.
I've been pitching the idea that, when I retire, all my skills will go with me.
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This is *brutal*...
"There are no more juniors. There was a funeral for their passing in 2024. Nobody came. The machine does what they do now, but cheaper. Of course, juniors weren't valuable for what they produced, they were valuable for who they would become: the senior engineer who knows where the bodies are buried. We optimized for output, and abolished apprenticeship. A few years from now, we'll wonder where all the seniors are. We shot them. Nobody will remember."
Programming Still Sucks. — Writing
Sorry Peter. — I'm at a birthday party, and while most people here also work in tech, there's always a Guy with a Real Job. You know, a physical job, building some or other thing people need. And this Guy always asks some variant of the same question: aren't you worried AI is taking your job? I glance around and see a few faces turning around toward us, rolling their eyes ever so slightly before returning to their previous conversation. Yes, this question again.
(www.stvn.sh)
This will self-correct over time, because halting forward progress isn't really an option, and some of us will always want to know how things work and learn. That's not to say it won't be painful and lots of folks will have a really bad time before they learn a lesson. But there's a lot of businesses that are going to make a cautionary tale out of themselves.
