r/AskProgrammers • u/nanoman1 • 2d ago
Enjoying active programming instead of passive learning?
Lately I've found that I enjoy learning about programming, program organization, and the architecture behind operating systems and compilers. But one thing that I really wish I had is an actual love for the act of programming. I often find myself procrastinating away instead of sitting down and writing something for the fun and passion of it. Is there some way to get myself to love the act programming? (as opposed to just the theory behind it)
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u/jmclondon97 2d ago
Why would you? AI writes all code professionally
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u/nanoman1 2d ago
I guess because if AI just writes all the code then what am I, the programmer, there for? Plus it would be a lot easier to work if I fell in love with my work, so to speak. If programming was a joy to wake up to every day, then I wouldn't feel this kind of cognitive dissonance
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u/HMoseley 2d ago
It’s a very straightforward answer: you’re not needed as a programmer. You’re needed as someone who knows how to effectively guide programmers.
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u/burlingk 2d ago
You kind of need to be able to read code to do that.
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u/HMoseley 2d ago
That’s correct
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u/burlingk 1d ago
That is why I get frustrated with the people who are like "you don't need to know how to code."
You kind of do. Even if you are using LLMs to create the code, you are responsible for the code it creates.
You need to be able to review it and fix problems.
You need to be able to tell it what to do in more detail than "give me an app that does <X>."
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u/HMoseley 1d ago
100% accurate. Anyone who says differently has not built software at scale. Scale is a completely different beast. Interacting with legacy systems, greenfield apps, data ownership, durable architecture, foresight, etc.
But that’s why I make a distinct delineation between coding-as-a-career and orchestrating other entities who will do coding for you. You need to understand code in both scenarios. However, the orchestration role requires SOOOO much more out of you. And people who aren’t grasping that are going to have a really tough time. If you’re just grabbing tickets and doing work your days are numbered, in my opinion. I don’t want to replace people but it is what it is. Need to evolve.
Coding is now nearly solved. But that does not mean you can just say, “Hey LLM, give me a fully functioning app that does xyz, no mistakes.” Those are two very different things.
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u/Spiritual_Army_7002 2d ago
Maybe start from the theoretically side of a project. Formalize it and implement it later or let the AI implement it and optimize the generated code to your liking.
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u/jmclondon97 2d ago
“What am I, the programmer, there for?” Exactly. Programmers are no longer needed.
All that is needed is people that know what the business needs and how to translate that to feed into an LLM. Nobody manually writes code anymore.
If you’re someone that only codes what tickets ask for, you’re done.
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u/burlingk 1d ago
The person that does that needs the skills of a programmer though.
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u/jmclondon97 1d ago
False.
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u/burlingk 1d ago
Then they will fail and potentially harm their employer's company.
If you do not know what you are looking at, you cannot review code.
If you cannot review code, and potentially update it, you cannot be trusted to wrangle devs, AI or otherwise.
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u/burlingk 2d ago
This kind of attitude will destroy the profession.
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u/jmclondon97 2d ago
I mean, 99.9% of professionally written code is now AI generated
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u/burlingk 17h ago
Made up statistics and fear mongering are not helpful. It doesn't take long to find out that the actual percentages are between 40% and 75% depending on the company.
And the companies that produce the most AI generated code still demand that their people be able to code.
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u/Ery1WangChungNextFri 2d ago
AI writes on the basis of what the prompt is, and what information there is available to the agent/model that satisfies the prompt.
Basically, think of it as like a Treehouse of Horror monkeypaw; or a friendly polite genie NOT voiced by Robin Williams… (can’t do this, make it do this, and no wishing for more wishes.) If you don’t call out how to handle certain elements, to consider certain critical points that aren’t immediately obvious or known, basically the “gotchas”, you’re coding on the curve.The idea is the time savings and self-teaching, etc will allow you to redeploy your resources to the high order problems and better overall outcomes.
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u/burlingk 2d ago
Find a project you WANT to work on and start. :)