[CGamesPlay]

This resonates with me, for sure; both the benefits and the drawbacks of copilot. But while I think kids and hackers were artisans, engineers were always just engineers. The amazing technical challenges they had to solve to create some of the foundational technologies we have today, exist because they had to solve those challenges. Looking at only these and saying "that's how things used to be" is survivorship bias.

[gleenn]

I feel privileged to be able to say that as a software engineer who's been doing it the hard way for 20+ years, I relish the hard problems. The CRUD app updates are unbearable without the random in-between challenges that bend my mind. The rare recursive algorithm, the application of some esoteric knowledge I actually learned in college, actually having to do big-o estimates. These are the gems of my career that keep me sane. I hope the next flock of AI-driven SWEs appreciates these things even more given the AI can spout off answers which sometimes are right and sometimes are horribly wrong. Challenges like these will always have to have someone who actually knows what to do when the AIs start hallucinating or the context of the situation is beyond the context window.

[hollowsunsets]

If someone commits to doing it the hard way, I wonder how much they risk being left behind. And will anyone out there really appreciate what it is they're trying to do or their commitment to their integrity? It seems like a deeply dying art. I hope it is the case.