> My advice to everyone feeling existential vertigo over these tools is to remain confident and trust in yourself. If you were a smart dev before AI, chances are you will remain a smart dev with AI.
We replaced the chess board in the park with an app that compares the Elo score of you and your opponent, and probabilistically declares a winner.
But don't worry, if you were a good chess player before we introduced the app, chances are you will remain a good one with the app. The app just makes things faster and cheaper.
My advice to the players is to quit mourning the loss of the tension, laughter and shared moments that got them into chess in the first place.
Good news, AI coding assistants aren't a magic button that give you the final result without having to play the game at all. You'll still need to make plenty of moves on your own at your job, and you're free to use or not use them as much as you want outside them. Your job was never to play chess though in this analogy though, which is where it misses pretty hard; you were being paid to produce software, and the process was incidental to it.
> you were being paid to produce software, and the process was incidental to it.
Yes, the people who write articles like the one in this post understand this. Previously, they could do it and get paid while doing a thing they loved.
Now that process is no longer economically viable: they can get paid, or they can do the thing they loved. They lost something, so they mourn the loss. At least they would, but a bunch of tone-deaf people keep interrupting them to explain why they shouldn't.
Responding to a blog post that was linked on an external forum with a different viewpoint isn't interrupting; it's kind of the whole point of having a comment section. They're sad, other people don't think it makes sense for them to be sad. You can respond to that disagreement with an analogy, and I can respond that I don't think the analogy makes sense. There's no obligation for people to only respond to an article with viewpoints that agree with it, and sometimes lots of people will think that the take is out of touch for some reason.
I don't see anyone interrupting anyone here. It's people sharing their experiences and thoughts on a public forum. Invariably people will agree or disagree with the point presented in the original post (or comment). That's every HN discussion ever.
Nothing stops people from mourning the loss of their job essentially changing from before their eyes and they no longer love it. That's a valid reason to be sad. Mourn it! Share your sadness with others. But don't be surprised when people who are experiencing the same thing are not sad and share their experiences.
If you want to join an AI/anti-AI echo chamber, there's plenty of places on the Internet that will gladly agree with your opinion and you can have shared joy or sadness. HN isn't that place, nor do I ever want it to become an echo-chamber.
Sure. And since the comment I originally responded to is "giving advice" to these people without taking the effort to understand their position, I feel alright reminding them that they're tone-deaf.
Doesn't mean I want an echo chamber, we're all having fun here. But those who wish to give advice should understand the position of those they're advising, otherwise they'll just embarrass themselves.
Sometimes I like playing chess at the park with strangers or friends. Sometimes I like playing chess online with friends in another country.
Sometimes I like to play games online with my siblings. Sometimes I like to invite people over to play video games with me on the couch.
Sometimes I wanna watch a movie in the theater. Sometimes I wanna fire up Netflix and watch that same movie, but on my couch.
Sometimes I wanna vibe code an entire app in a weekend. Sometimes I wanna play code golf to solve a puzzle, where LLM usage defeats the purpose.
None of these are being replaced in my life despite having more "advanced" options. If anything, I get to enjoy things more because I have more options and ways to enjoy them.
We replaced the chess board in the park with an app that compares the Elo score of you and your opponent, and probabilistically declares a winner.
But don't worry, if you were a good chess player before we introduced the app, chances are you will remain a good one with the app. The app just makes things faster and cheaper.
My advice to the players is to quit mourning the loss of the tension, laughter and shared moments that got them into chess in the first place.