The bet on juniors just got better

Link: https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-bet-on-juniors-just-got-better

Context

This is fair. The bet on junior aka me was that I will take the ownership. And this previous year I did. They might have gotten the payback but not quite like AI. The thing that AI might miss is reliability. Not availability. If something goes wrong, I can wake up and roll in. But if some non-informed developer or AI does it, there it could get into a different rabbit hole. I think the more quickly you can show your eagerness to solve problem, actual user problems the better the bet payoff would be. Its not rocket science but is easier said than done.

Welcome to Gas Town

Link: https://steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-gas-town-4f25ee16dd04

Context

Agents as code generation orchestrators. This is quite a ambitious thing. I haven’t read the full post. But I can see where it goes. I haven’t either been in situations with 10s of these agents ripping in the background. There are reasons for them and some of them I am trying to overcome. I don’t have that many ideas honestly, this is flawed in my opinion, my biggest weakness maybe. I don’t have claude code as I don’t have much to spend on AI. I am limited by free options and some work related subscriptions. I am bogged down by the clumsy free models. The habit of abandoning a project after the setup is too evasive now. The earlier habit has just got more notorious with AI. That all said, I love this idea, the next step in AI is agents orchestration. Maybe I am behind it, but I had a few ideas, not exactly this but some level of parallel agents running. Not orchestrating. Maybe that idea is speaking more than ever. I thought someone solved it, but nope. Need to roll up the sleeves.

• what a flashback, everything makes sense.
• Programming is not mechanical
• yet people tried hard to make solve for it as it was mechanical
• COBOL made syntax readable. CASE tools eliminated typing. Visual tools eliminated syntax. AI can now generate entire functions from descriptions
• Each advancement addressed a real friction point. Yet the fundamental challenge persists because it’s not mechanical. It’s intellectual. Software development is thinking made tangible
• Just sheer facts those two. We need to find a way around using AI not away from it.

• what a flashback, everything makes sense.
• Programming is not mechanical
• yet people tried hard to make solve for it as it was mechanical
• COBOL made syntax readable. CASE tools eliminated typing. Visual tools eliminated syntax. AI can now generate entire functions from descriptions
• Each advancement addressed a real friction point. Yet the fundamental challenge persists because it’s not mechanical. It’s intellectual. Software development is thinking made tangible
• Just sheer facts those two. We need to find a way around using AI not away from it.

True empathy is key Liability, everything becomes liability if outsourced. LLMs don’t have the taste, the care feeling of the users, the developers yet.

This is interesting and it comes at the right time

facts are facts, and AI is going to change programming forever

It does not matter if this or the other CEO of some unicorn is telling you something that is off putting, or absurd. Programming changed forever, anyway.

What is the social solution, then? Innovation can’t be taken back after all. I believe we should vote for governments that recognize what is happening, and are willing to support those who will remain jobless. And, the more people get fired, the more political pressure there will be to vote for those who will guarantee a certain degree of protection. But I also look forward to the good AI could bring: new progress in science, that could help lower the suffering of the human condition, which is not always happy.

This is interesting and it comes at the right time

facts are facts, and AI is going to change programming forever

It does not matter if this or the other CEO of some unicorn is telling you something that is off putting, or absurd. Programming changed forever, anyway.

What is the social solution, then? Innovation can’t be taken back after all. I believe we should vote for governments that recognize what is happening, and are willing to support those who will remain jobless. And, the more people get fired, the more political pressure there will be to vote for those who will guarantee a certain degree of protection. But I also look forward to the good AI could bring: new progress in science, that could help lower the suffering of the human condition, which is not always happy.

AI should be free software

Link: https://substack.com/inbox/post/183934559

Context

Yikes, this looks like a good take on LLMs being free and open weight. If not, the larger AI labs might offer ads into the LLM suggestions. This, just the thought of it makes me wiggle with fear. It might push us in wired directions. The point of drawing a line of “our goal” vs “model’s goal” becomes hazy and it just doesn’t align with human values. Its a pretty hard problem to solve if it goes in a bad direction, which it seems to be at the moment.