> “The code they write isn’t any good” doesn’t really cut it any more.
I propose that it cuts deeper than that. Many of us 'nerds' have/have had a love affair of sorts with computers and software, deeply rooted in our personalities: ambiguity no more, what you put in is what you get out. Not like the messy social interactions where things can hold a multitude of meanings simultaneously, and where none of those meanings need to be true in a logical sense. The strict logic of programming is being dethroned, in favor of prompts that can be ill-written and ambiguous as hell, but the damn things still produce approximately what the vibe-coder was thinking, at a fraction of the cost.
Of course there will be a place for old school good programmers, just like a fine carpenter will always be in demand, no matter how many new Ikeas spring up. But we used to be kings.
I think the most comforting thing to be said is that all things must pass, new things bring new opportunities and everyone need to adjust, always. It is still a bit hazy what those opportunities are in general though.
It's not a perfect analogy but I often compare the advent of LLM development to the Battle of Crécy [1], where the introduction of the longbow meant that a common peasant with minimal training could potentially bring down a knight who had spent his entire life mastering the art of combat.
> “The code they write isn’t any good” doesn’t really cut it any more.
I propose that it cuts deeper than that. Many of us 'nerds' have/have had a love affair of sorts with computers and software, deeply rooted in our personalities: ambiguity no more, what you put in is what you get out. Not like the messy social interactions where things can hold a multitude of meanings simultaneously, and where none of those meanings need to be true in a logical sense. The strict logic of programming is being dethroned, in favor of prompts that can be ill-written and ambiguous as hell, but the damn things still produce approximately what the vibe-coder was thinking, at a fraction of the cost.
Of course there will be a place for old school good programmers, just like a fine carpenter will always be in demand, no matter how many new Ikeas spring up. But we used to be kings.
I think the most comforting thing to be said is that all things must pass, new things bring new opportunities and everyone need to adjust, always. It is still a bit hazy what those opportunities are in general though.
It's not a perfect analogy but I often compare the advent of LLM development to the Battle of Crécy [1], where the introduction of the longbow meant that a common peasant with minimal training could potentially bring down a knight who had spent his entire life mastering the art of combat.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Crecy
Arcade Fire's song Deep Blue fits this mood well. And the album it's on, The Suburbs, is a story of civil war in suburban America.
I don't know.
IBM's landmark chess-playing supercomputer that beat Kasparov in 1997 will always be what I think when I hear Deep Blue.
https://www.ibm.com/history/deep-blue
Yes, that's the joke?
I must have a more sophisticated sense of humor.