The engineer, who posted anonymously on X under the username voxium for fear of reprisal from his employer, called his new role at an undisclosed company "soul-sucking."
Look I’m all for the AI hate but this is just stupid. I’m aware this might not be the most popular opinion here but be warned
Honestly if I were to change jobs atm asking about their AI policy and usage would be one of the first questions that I’d do and if they don’t use it well and haven’t figured out how to integrate it in their company (as a tool, not necessarily as a product) then I’d end the meeting then and there.
I’d quit my current company if they prohibited AI tools. Fortunately they don’t force us to use them, nor but we’re all encouraged to find actually uses for it (which in Software Engineering are a ton). If one of my colleagues wouldn’t use AI in any way I no only would consider them less productive, I’d consider them a worse engineer because it shows they can’t adapt.
AI in general and Claude Code as an example is an AMAZING tool. You just gotta use it properly. I still own the code I ship even if I understand it in less detail than before (that’s the trade off by being able to ship many more features than I could in the past).
I’ve been in this company for a few years now and just in the past months there are so many projects I have done that there was never an opportunity to do so ever since I joined because it would be days/weeks of work and now it’s a couple of hours while I work on other shit.
And people/companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in AI every month are idiots who are just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. My company pays me a 100$ month subscription and many colleagues have even cheaper ones. Thats like 1% of my salary and it for sure increases my productivity many orders of magnitude of that.
You’re right, and the person you’re replying to is, too.
My take is an analogy (strictly from the cells in my brain lol) -
The “ground” we all stood on, that previously felt ~flat (trying to be brief here) rapidly shifted under all of us, and very suddenly merely standing in one place, meaning anything from keeping a job, retaining enjoyment (even understanding) of the craft and crafted thing, an ideological stance, a hundred other things -
The ground sloped suddenly, and merely remaining in one place became a struggle not to slide and tumble downhill. And so we all are, tumbling downhill, at varying rates of speed and control, and it seems like the slope might be getting steeper, though at least much more slowly, now…probably.
Resulting from the sudden slope, the most experienced became wildly capable, that shit is real (at least at present). The least experienced? Those who need to get the experience, and to pay their bills, experience their lives, and to maybe later become the wise arbiters? Well, fuck them. Fell into the bottom of that new slope. Fuck everyone else, too, actually, hits everyone in lotsa ways, slope don’t care.
It’s all fucked, the ground has become a maw.
spoiler
Sidenote (most important note) - when there is a swing back - doggedly insist on training, helping, spending time with the juniors, it’s your biggest and truest value throughout this all, AND SEPARATELY your heaviest punch back
Nah, fuck AI. I will pivot careers. Anyone that claims to be a developer but generates all of their code is just a modern day script kiddie. Idgaf about efficiencies because the ethical implications of AI are far worse than the extra money I can make for a company.
I will never be an AI code reviewer, because that’s all prompting is. Like I said, I’ll pivot careers out of dev work before I do that. Pick up a trade and work until I’m 80 if I have to, but that’s still better than being one of Claude’s bitches.
Outside of the ethics of AI, the idea of sitting in front of a screen and being a “prompt engineer” takes everything I enjoy out of coding. If it was that or death, I’d choose death.
I have not found AI code to be so helpful. I actually use it a lot less and more strategically than back when it first became viable. It can save a lot of time in the right situation though.
Look I’m all for the AI hate but this is just stupid. I’m aware this might not be the most popular opinion here but be warned
Honestly if I were to change jobs atm asking about their AI policy and usage would be one of the first questions that I’d do and if they don’t use it well and haven’t figured out how to integrate it in their company (as a tool, not necessarily as a product) then I’d end the meeting then and there.
I’d quit my current company if they prohibited AI tools. Fortunately they don’t force us to use them, nor but we’re all encouraged to find actually uses for it (which in Software Engineering are a ton). If one of my colleagues wouldn’t use AI in any way I no only would consider them less productive, I’d consider them a worse engineer because it shows they can’t adapt.
AI in general and Claude Code as an example is an AMAZING tool. You just gotta use it properly. I still own the code I ship even if I understand it in less detail than before (that’s the trade off by being able to ship many more features than I could in the past).
I’ve been in this company for a few years now and just in the past months there are so many projects I have done that there was never an opportunity to do so ever since I joined because it would be days/weeks of work and now it’s a couple of hours while I work on other shit.
And people/companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in AI every month are idiots who are just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. My company pays me a 100$ month subscription and many colleagues have even cheaper ones. Thats like 1% of my salary and it for sure increases my productivity many orders of magnitude of that.
You’re right, and the person you’re replying to is, too.
My take is an analogy (strictly from the cells in my brain lol) -
The “ground” we all stood on, that previously felt ~flat (trying to be brief here) rapidly shifted under all of us, and very suddenly merely standing in one place, meaning anything from keeping a job, retaining enjoyment (even understanding) of the craft and crafted thing, an ideological stance, a hundred other things -
The ground sloped suddenly, and merely remaining in one place became a struggle not to slide and tumble downhill. And so we all are, tumbling downhill, at varying rates of speed and control, and it seems like the slope might be getting steeper, though at least much more slowly, now…probably.
Resulting from the sudden slope, the most experienced became wildly capable, that shit is real (at least at present). The least experienced? Those who need to get the experience, and to pay their bills, experience their lives, and to maybe later become the wise arbiters? Well, fuck them. Fell into the bottom of that new slope. Fuck everyone else, too, actually, hits everyone in lotsa ways, slope don’t care.
It’s all fucked, the ground has become a maw.
spoiler
Sidenote (most important note) - when there is a swing back - doggedly insist on training, helping, spending time with the juniors, it’s your biggest and truest value throughout this all, AND SEPARATELY your heaviest punch back
The reality is that these tools are not going away. Thinking that will happen is not realistic.
They’re part of the deal now. People who refuse to use them will simply become obsolete. It starts in technology, but it will quickly move around.
Thinking you can just avoid it isn’t practical. It is no different from cars displacing horses and computers displacing typewriters.
Think of how absurd it would sound if you came across someone who refuses to use a computer and only a typewriter.
Nah, fuck AI. I will pivot careers. Anyone that claims to be a developer but generates all of their code is just a modern day script kiddie. Idgaf about efficiencies because the ethical implications of AI are far worse than the extra money I can make for a company.
I will never be an AI code reviewer, because that’s all prompting is. Like I said, I’ll pivot careers out of dev work before I do that. Pick up a trade and work until I’m 80 if I have to, but that’s still better than being one of Claude’s bitches.
Outside of the ethics of AI, the idea of sitting in front of a screen and being a “prompt engineer” takes everything I enjoy out of coding. If it was that or death, I’d choose death.
I have not found AI code to be so helpful. I actually use it a lot less and more strategically than back when it first became viable. It can save a lot of time in the right situation though.