Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

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So the choice is squeezing every ounce of productivity out of me I didn’t even know I had before, burning myself out faster for likely the same amount of money (I doubt you are earning 20x) and not even having the pleasure of coding but just having to argue with a stupid machine that doesn’t even have the decency to get tired or frustrated, yet always falls short of the mark

OR

just keep coding by hand, thinking things in front of a whiteboard when it gets complicated, burning myself out slowly at a more humane pace as we have done for 50+ years of software engineering.

Why is this even a choice? I mean, serious question, do you people have a little bit of self-respect? I am expecting the excuse of “but my boss expects me to use AI”. It is clear most of you have not experienced true burnout, because it’s going to be a world of pain when it hits. Stop turning yourself into machines. You are not.

You’re right I’m not earning 20x more. I recently nearly doubled my rate for new clients and raised existing up by 50%. That’s not enough to offset the efficiency gains in the long run because I will bill fewer hours per client, but right now I’m making more (as said I’m billing a lot of hours). Isn’t that always how it is though with new tech? The power loom operator wasn’t ever going to make 1000x what they made hand looming. A modest increase is I think all workers can expect. The important caveat being only those that survive the destructive reorganization of the field can expect it.

I’m not sure where you work, but I have to compete for every contract (and then to keep them). Hand coding everything isn’t an option anymore or won’t be for much longer. And I don’t even think it’s just freelancers who will be affected. As a solo dev I feel like I’ve been given super powers, but if I worked at a hundred head software house, I’d be looking left and right to see which 30 of us were going to be left when the dust settles.

Not to trivialize your point. I agree we aren’t machines and we should reject being thought of or treated as one. But the reality of software dev IMO has already moved. All reactions are likely over reactions, but I don’t think the swing back is going to land anywhere near where it was.

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