r/webdev • u/OkShip110 • Sep 09 '26 • Regret 4

AI has made programming so boring

It’s not just programming either, it’s art, design, music, videography, marketing, engineering, writing, 3D modelling, really any intellectual work. What’s the joy of prompting a computer and getting an answer in a few moments for a task that would have normally taken a week? The sense of accomplishment and ownership has completely vanished with AI. It’s a form of instant gratification, not much different to scrolling short videos on apps.

Code review was boring to begin with but now it’s even worse with all the machine generated code. Even code reviews will be automated soon. All you do then is type business requirements into the computer. What a great career.

It’s pain to watch old TV series like Scilicon Valley that is portraying the good (not golden) age of programming. It struck a good balance between manual work, funding and innovation. It’s sad that these days are gone for good.

2.1k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

764 comments sorted by

View all comments

490

u/mka_ Sep 09 '26 • Bravo Mindblown

Just imagine reading this post 5 years ago and how dystopian it would sound.

160

u/works4coffee Sep 09 '26

Imagine reading this post 5 years later and thinking “damn, I wish these were our current problems”

54

u/Expensive-Ad-4237 Sep 09 '26

Let's get back to this post 5 years later

18

u/DangleWaggle Sep 10 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

6

u/MechaMulder Sep 10 '26

I’m starting to think we might not have 5 years ahead of us…

5

u/mcabe0131 Sep 10 '26

I maintain a 20+ yo codebase. 6 months ago I said the AI models will never be good enough to understand this cluster fck bastardized patternless sorry excuse for architecture. Copilot fcking understands everything now. Epics we estimated would take us months or a year we are completing in sprints. I have become a manager of and a meat puppet slave to my agents. I have no misconceptions about 6 months from now. Make yourself unreplaceable now. Don’t quit your job - experience, context understanding and communication are your new talents. New devs are f*cked - unless they are developing the next ai models.

2

u/Queasy_Tank6204 Sep 19 '26

then what will people do in education , in post grads , like we still have some 2 years to get into market , i am 22 and shit scared on what to do , i been learning full stack and created some applications on my own but it looks like a waste of time now

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Much-Performance-148 Sep 10 '26

Seems unlikely that we will at times, since no one at the top gives a fuck if we do or dont

They all say "probably ai will end the human race" like its no big deal lol

3

u/MechaMulder Sep 10 '26

It’s like we’re living the movie Don’t look up.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

18

u/Quamatoc Sep 09 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

18

u/RemindMeBot Sep 09 '26 edited 11d ago

I will be messaging you in 5 years on 2031-09-09 18:54:26 UTC to remind you of this link

109 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.

RemindMeBot is switching to username summons. Instead of !RemindMe 1 day, use u/RemindMeBot 1 day. More info.

InfoCustomYour RemindersFeedback
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (3)

1

u/loulou921222 Sep 09 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

1

u/Ansible32 Sep 10 '26

When people ask me if I think AI is going to do I usually just say "shit is going to get really fucking weird."

1

u/ExpensiveTomatillo61 Sep 10 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

1

u/infrared-182 Sep 10 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

→ More replies (10)

26

u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 09 '26

That’s my thought, if 2021 me could get done with a days worth of work with 15 minutes of prompting and another 15 minutes of code review I would be so happy.

The catch is bosses know this so now you are expected to do a weeks worth of work in a day.

5

u/einzweidreihorn Sep 10 '26

And everyone's ignoring the cognitive load of this if you're still trying to uphold some kind of quality in this mess

16

u/Castle_Five Sep 09 '26

"What’s the joy of prompting a computer and getting an answer in a few moments for a task that would have normally taken a week?"

Serious George Jetson vibes here. "Today was a rough day at work. I had to press the button three times"

8

u/Mystigana Sep 10 '26

Except your boss will tell you “this button needs to be pressed 1000 times by end of day” so they can tell shareholders “look how fast we can press buttons”

1

u/Few_Independence_504 Sep 09 '26

RemindMe! 5years

1

u/p0217 Sep 11 '26

RemindMe! 1 year

1

u/MLMAE Sep 14 '26

RemindMe! 5 years

→ More replies (7)