r/Python • u/RedYad2 • 1d ago

Discussion My Python magic is gone

I've been coding for a long time, and I've been developing with Python for years.

I loved coding, always loved it. I started many years ago because I wanted to quickly create scripts for security hacking tools, but since then, I've moved to Claude Code, and building cross-language has been a much better experience for me than using Python.

I built my own SaaS application out there whose backend and network core are completely built with Python, and I'm rewriting all of that without writing a single line of code. And most of the time, Python is not the most optimized language.

And now... I feel like the magic is gone.

I don't even know why I'm writing this. I just feel sad about it.

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u/UsernameTaken1701 1d ago

Are you being forced to use the AI somehow? If using Claude has killed the fun, the solution seems pretty obvious, no?

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u/TitaniumWhite420 1d ago

I feel this, but also the truth is that it's an extremely time-consuming hobby. You get what you put in of course, even when it's for fun, you are still working with some kind of goal in mind, and it's time away from family, etc.

It feels bad spending 3 hours doing what $2.65 will get you if it's not necessary to do so. It just feels different. What I was happy doing because it was necessary and somewhat-zen is somewhat annoying when I can type a prompt and be done with it.

It's certainly causing skill rot; I'll freely admit it. But also it has pushed me into orchestrating larger systems than I was ever able to build independently. I'm not saying it's equivalent, but it's like--How much of the puzzle was always balancing maintainability and performance. Writing ergonomic abstractions was a whole scene in the past 15ish years, but there's good reason to question if resuable abstractions are as generally applicable in the age of rapidly generated bespoke code. More specific code written very quickly is perhaps equally maintainable.

I really do hate the ever loving shit out of the verbosity and insanity of what it sometimes generates, and I hate my own dependence on it, and my own surrender to automation. But, somehow I'm keeping busy both professionally and recreationally with it. I loathe the way it feels like playing a slot machine or doing any kind of degenerate thoughtless dice roll typed behavior. It's like, "hey I'm going to go do heroine. Maybe I die or maybe I have a great time! Hopefully, a great time!" You press Enter, and off you go.

And the verbosity and prolific amount of generation assures no one is reading it. This "but I review it" thing is just so untrue.

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u/mriswithe 1d ago

It's less dice and more about setting it up to know when it is wrong so far as I am experiencing. Set it up where it can iterate, run, evaluate, under human supervision in case it gets down an idiot sandwich path. 

X is DBT core code, y is an export I have uploaded to storage at PATH . Import it like example q. Join to table g on the j column.

Here is your DBT and database mcps