Just like how more RAM and compute in the cloud made us worse engineers (no need to turn your brain on to tune performance).
When the brain is off for one thing, it's off for the rest as well. There is a lot of talk about "we don't have to think about code so we can think of ideas", but that's not how it works. We just don't think.
They should put microphones in the cloud servers so you can hear the fans spin up when you run a program. It's a bit more impactful than a silent CPU usage graph.
Same. I used to develop Windows apps with Borland C++ once, that's how old I am. Last year, I finally installed a second Linux Mint boot - for Windows games!
The level of disregard for quality from MS is just obnoxious. We are really crossing some kind of line here, I think, where taking the pain of migrating once seems easier than dealing with all this nonsense.
(I had to clean install Windows after that infamous update with system check infinite loop at boot time).
Give your agent a perfectly working code, insist that the output is not what it should be. Go to lunch. By the time you come back, the poor thing will evaporate a small lake trying to figure it out.
"i'm in aisle 32 of the data centre. please evaluate the previous query using exclusively servers 2438-2458. and quickly, it's f-ing freezing in here".
This might be why agentic development/vibe coding leads to more burn out. It's been a long time since I've truly been 'stuck' on a problem and needed to sleep on it to figure out the answer. Now I just ask Claude to fix it until it's fixed...
Sounds like polyphasic sleeping might re-emerge as the lifestyle solution. Instead of waiting for agents to complete, you should sleep on the response so when you arise you have the optimized prompt ready to go and a reset on your energy to prevent the burnout.
Amusingly this is an almost-exact description of how I work on my current project, sharc. I'm porting Arc to Common Lisp, and implementing as many HN features as I can. I've been documenting as I go with handoffs: https://github.com/shawwn/sharc/tree/main/docs/agents/handof... (Also thanks partly to dang, who is kind enough to find time to answer an email here and there about their current Arc stack.)
At one point I was working so hard that Claude actually suggested, all on its own, that I should get some sleep.
FWIW I've had the opposite experience. Whenever I work late the output is absolute garbage. If I work past midnight it takes me 3 hours to get done what would have taken me 30 mins in the morning, and with way less frustration and stress. Your inputs to the LLM are only as good as how fresh your mind is so I've made it a rule to not work past midnight (unless there's an emergency).
In the good old days you would reach flow and actually know when you're too tired to continue. Now you can just say "please just fix it" over and over again and get yourself in a slophole much easier.
Most software doesn't really have "hard enough problems" unless you're working in deep tech. The majority of SWEs are probably working on some sort of SaaS which isn't super challenging for a model like Opus 4.7. Most of the problems I face are on the product side, which I do need to take time to think through, but it's not as challenging as debugging in the good old days.
How do you go from SaaS to “not super challenging”? The part of a SaaS product that I’m working on uses graph algorithms to work with what’s essentially an interactive form. There’s some mildly university-level computer science stuff and it’s mixed with enough domain expertise that Opus 4.7 is still unable to make even small changes without breaking everything or going against the architecture.
Then get a better, more challenging job. Its your responsibility to make sure you stay sharp and keep growing, by pushing at the edge of capability and stretching yourself.
At the gym, the bodybuilder increases the mass of the weights until a workout generates the correct amount of stress, because thats how they get to the next step.
Or dont, stay where you are and atrophy, whatever :))
Pardon me for feeling icky when giving money to the guy who is obsessed with "white replacement".
I am old and cynical - I have no illusions, but I also have my limits and a semblance of moral compass. We, as citizens, can vote with ballots, but also with money.
And, no, I am not someone who keeps boycotting companies for every little grievance (was on the receiving end of that nonsense twice).
Do you not use any major provider's AI at all? Because the other big options are from companies actively aiding a genocide (Google), or companies clamouring to be the tools used in future war crimes (OpenAI and Anthropic - the latter only attempted to put weak muzzles on it, they're still heavily involved).
Every one of them is involved in actively involved in destroying non-white people's lives and livelihoods, people just seem to not pay attention unless they're really loud about it like Elon is.
As I said, I have no illusions about the "morals" of corporations, especially in this post-shame world, but one has to have lines. Musk is a uniquely vile human being who seems to revel in the suffering of others. It's much different from "good business is where you find it".
Yep, large scale murder is just "business is business", but Musk ouchied my feelings with the bad words and that's far worse - that checks out for the current US left attitude.
As a non-white person, I'm far more worried about the danger and damage from openAI and Google, that is real and current. Elon sees us as inferior and isn't quiet about it like most of the rest of the powerful folks are, but "business is business" gets our families killed far more than some tweets do.
Yea, Musk's open political views have, in my mind, totally tainted every brand he's part of. Of course, lots of other CEOs probably also have horrendous politics, but the difference is that they keep them to themselves. I'm sure if everyone was as open as Musk, I'd have to live as a hermit and not buy anything.
If the only people openly caring about the future of Europe are the Hugo Boss fans, then all the people caring about said future will go to them.
If the far right are the only people with sane immigration and asylum policies, I have no choice but to vote for them, even if I disagree with everything else they preach.
Honestly many companies would do well to use these services. I think we get too much into the idea our apps need the same guarantees as the large products out there. Define your SLAs and then choose the platform.
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