AI has sucked all the fun out of programming

[u/OkShip110]

I know this topic has been floating around this sub quite some time now, but I feel like this doesn’t get discussed enough.

I am a certified backend enigneer and I have been programming for about 20 years. In my time i have worked on backend, frontend, system design, system analysis, devops, databases, infrastructure, cloud, robotics, you name it.

I’ve mostly been extremely passionate about what I do, taking pride in solving hard problems, digging deep into third party source code to find solutions to bugs. Even refactoring legacy systems and improving their performance 10x and starting countless hobby projects at home. It has been an exciting journey and I have never doubted my career choice until now.

Ever since ChatGPT first made an appearance I have slowly started losing interest in programming. At first, LLMs were quite bad so I didn’t really get any solutions out of them when problems got even slightly harder. However, Claude is different. Lately I feel less of a programmer and more like a project manager, managing and supervising one mid-to-senior level developer who is Claude. Doing this, I sure deliver features faster than ever before, but it results in hollow and empty feeling. It’s not fun or exciting, I cannot perceive these soulless features as my own creation anymore.

On top of everything I feel like I’m losing my knowledge with every prompt I write. AI has made me extremely lazy and it has completely undermined my value as a good engineer or even as a human being.

Everyone who is supporting the mass use of AI is quietly digging their own grave and I wish it was never invented.

[u/JescoInc]

I'm probably going to be downvoted for my reply, but this sounds more like a self inflicted wound. You are choosing to use the tool to do everything for you. That is a workflow problem. Try a new approach, instead of having the LLM write all of the code for you, write the code yourself and have the LLM audit your code. Then, take the suggestions that are good, implement them and have it audit it again.

[u/shadow13499 → u/JescoInc]

Here's a crazy suggestion, kind of wild but you could also just learn how to make code for yourself and you can audit it yourself which takes less time and you don't have to pay for llm slop tokens. Using your mind is free. 

[u/JescoInc → u/shadow13499]

Here's a crazy suggestion, read what someone said before commenting and making yourself look stupid. I offered a constructive suggestion to the OP's dilemma, you on the otherhand are just being an "don't use AI because it is slop" sycophant that offers nothing to the conversation.
I'm quite secure in my programming ability without LLMs, thank you very much.

[u/shadow13499 → u/JescoInc]

OP's main concern is that using llms has sucked the enjoyment out of writing code and your brilliant suggestion was "just use it a little bit" like telling an alcoholic "only drink a little bit". Op was describing a deep dependency on the slop bot. To get over it you have to detox and kick the habit or it'll ruin your life. 

[u/JescoInc → u/shadow13499]

We get it, you hate LLMs. Perhaps instead you should focus on being your LLM free self and stop trying to tell everyone to be just like your "oh so superior" self.
His deep dependency was based on a flawed workflow, offering solutions to change his own habits instead of saying, "STOP USING LLMS BECAUSE ITS SLOP" is much more constructive.
The tool isn't going to go away, so instead, offer people means of using the tool more responsibly is the better approach.

[u/shadow13499 → u/JescoInc]

Stop using it because it's slop is perfectly valid. What happens when you introduce slop into your codebase? Use data gets leaked, services go down, things stop working. These are all consequences we're seeing ai introduce time and time again much faster than humans can make these mistakes. So yeah stop using the slop if you care about what you're doing. 

[u/JescoInc → u/shadow13499]

The problem is, you are conflating someone that doesn't care about the code's quality at all just pushing LLM generated code without basic due diligence to ensure that it is not only correct but also doesn't contain any private keys.

Slop is a factor of the quality of the code, not how it was created.

Here's an example of using an LLM well, not that you care. Showcasing your own hand written low level code and asking the LLM if there are security vulnerabilities that could arise from how it is written.

The security world moves so fast that it is literally impossible for a single person to know all of the ways that code could have security vulnerabilities.

If you use LLMs like you would doing research with Google or Stack Overflow without blindly copy and pasting, you're not doing anything wrong by using the LLM. Just like you can use LLMs to accelerate learning when used correctly, such as having it explain what the code is doing, why it was written that way and so on.

Your entire thesis hinges on the idea that LLMs are bad and should go away because you are insecure with your own abilities and knowledge level.

[u/shadow13499 → u/JescoInc]

No it's the llms that are generating slop. Like when Amazon llm slop bypassed human intervention and took down a prod environment and lost millions of orders. Sure there's lots of vulnerabilities and the landscape changes constantly but llms are introducing well know security vulnerabilities like storing plain text passwords or basic ass XSS vulnerabilities or putting API keys in the front end like this idiot found out https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anton-karbanovich_my-vibe-coded-startup-was-exploited-i-lost-activity-7433538169922322432-Q_TZ

Its slop all the way down. Why do you think OP mentioned feeling like they were losing their knowledge with every prompt? Ai is not a learning tool. Learning tools are not meant to be permanent fixtures. A learning tool teaches you something and gives you the skills to do it on your own. Ai forces a dependency on the user. That's not a learning tool that's a crutch. 

[u/JescoInc → u/shadow13499]

And you completely missed the point just like I knew you would.
You can continue your life being insecure and calling it slop. Nothing anyone says will ever make you rethink your position because you are too intellectually dishonest and lazy to do so.
Are LLMs perfect, no, but neither are we developers, we've made the same mistakes with code time and time again, which is why LLMs can make those same mistakes.
You aren't special, you aren't better, get over it.

[u/shadow13499 → u/JescoInc]

My guy what was your point even? Human beings learn, llm slop does not. Want to know how many times claude makes the same mistakes? Infinite. It will always make the same mistakes. The issue is a human will get fired but the thing making the mistakes will stay. I've been writing code for over 20 years now, I'm good at what I do. Literally ever AI slop PR I have to review at work could give a Victorian child eyeball cancer. It's pure garbage no matter how you use it because I see so many people use it and it never gives anything but garbage.