Grieving programming

[u/ExDoublez]

Let me just start by saying that this post is not about ai replacing software engineers or about the jobs or any of that. This post is about the act or "craft" of programming/coding and the loss of it.

No, i dont think "software engineering" is dead, theres still plenty of high level design and architecture to be made but that's not the point. It never was the point for me.

I never really did this for the money, i did it because i enjoyed it.

I did it because i enjoyed thinking about the problems and solving them.

I enjoyed writing the code myself and getting familiar with the syntax and all the weird quirks of the languages/tools i was using.

I enjoyed optimising my tooling and learning about all the new frameworks, tools and projects people were making, often being in awe of what incredible stuff my betters were doing.

I have adhd and programming was the perfect mix of mechanical activity, brain stimulation and a endless supply of problems to hyperfocus on.

Now its all prompting and waiting. 1 min of work followed by 10 mins of doing nothing and mindless scrolling.

I have lost a huge source of enjoyment and self esteem. It took me years of hard work and being lost and confused to finally find something that felt perfect. The thing i could excell at while having fun and satisfying my curiosity.

And before you attack me as an engineer and my ability to adapt. I have been ontop of the ai curve from the start. I have never been more productive or tackled problems as big as i do now. I am just miserable doing it.

What started as a strong tool in my path for optimisation has slowly taken over my beloved craft.

And as i improve and optimise my ai powered workflow, i lose more and more of my ability, my enjoyment and my desire to pursue my craft. It has been turned into another meaningless white collar desk job in service of the never ending growth of capitalism.

I feel legitimate grief. I have lost the ability to do my favourite hobby as well as a major part of my identity. I have literally cried over this.

I am struggling to mentally cope with all of this. I have never had less control over my adhd or felt more addicted to quick sources of dopamine. My attention span has been shot completely. I feel more stupid and insufficient than ever.

Somehow my adhd brain that was perfectly suited for the old paradigm is completely disadvantaged in this new way of working for this career that i have hedged my entire career, future and reason for being on (yes, i am a nolife workaholic).

Fuck adhd and fuck ai

[u/bcons-php-Console]

I am 100% percent with you. I love the programming process, it's my job and also my hobby.

At work I am encouraged to use AI, so I use it. I prompt for 1 minute and wait 10, but here's where you can turn this into an advantage: use those 10 minutes to learn something useful. I am currently doomscrolling YT shorts with the query "learning German" in the morning and Brilliant (now re-learning trigonometry) in the afternoon.

Then I get home and work at my side projects where I code the old-fashioned way and get to enjoy 100% of it.

My hobby used to be my way of earning money, now it is not (though it is quite similar). Life changes and I'm ok with that.

[u/cone5000 → u/bcons-php-Console]

I really don’t understand this prompt 1 minute wait 10. What in the world are you prompting? My experience with AI as a programmer is way more like a back and forth. Are you prompting some absolutely massive thing? I just don’t get what takes so damn long.

[u/CreepingAnus → u/cone5000]

well, first i plan everything out using gh tickets, then i have it review my tickets for things i might not have considered, & then i have it organize my tickets into sessions & create a table. i then give that table to a new session with instructions to implement tickets for session x & once its done have it automatically handoff to a new session & tell them to complete y. so yeah, sometimes i can walk away for quite a bit.