Post #2773893

2026-02-07 00:22 UTC

I've had a theory for a few years that most software engineers don't actually like software engineering. Had there not been money in it they would have followed a different career path instead of getting a CS degree from a 4-year college (or boot camps). LLMs align with this theory. The people who are excited that something else is doing their job for them are the same people who picked the job for the salary, not the joy.

Replies (11)

@theotherbrook@sunny.garden 2026-02-07 19:47

@jason @vie@hachyderm.io It used to be people who were into computers got CS degrees and people who were into money got finance degrees. About 20 years ago CS programs began turning out people who were into money, not computers and the outcomes have been terrible.

Open ##2773894
@andymoose@fedi.aiga.rocks 2026-02-07 21:47

@jason @airshipper@cloudisland.nz I came to the same conclusion. I know so many who went into software as a path to management as well, and they were terrible programmers and only needed to hang on for a couple of years before switching internal roles. If AI coding had been a thing 20 years ago they would have been all over it from day one.

Open ##2773904
@eschaton@mastodon.social 2026-02-09 05:13

@jason @vie@hachyderm.io Unfortunately I know some excellent engineers who have gone all-in on LLM slop. It really made me re-examine my position, but I wound up at the same conclusion: They’re just—and very unfortunately for them—wrong. It sucks to know because I really respected them, too.

Open ##2773906
@fluffydotorg@sfba.social 2026-02-09 05:40

@jason @vie@hachyderm.io heck yeah. When people do LLM demos and talk how great it is they don't have to problem solve or "type stuff" any more I'm like "why did you sign up for this career?"

Open ##2773907
@carbsrule_en@polyglot.city 2026-02-09 06:04

@vie@hachyderm.io @jason could also be that they got into it because of joy but it's been sucked right out of them, so now they just want to get paid for not doing any work. (I haven't found much joy in my work for the last ~10 years, but I still want to do good work and not offload my thinking to a magical plagiarism machine)

Open ##2773908
@dominykas@fosstodon.org 2026-02-09 06:31

@jason @vie@hachyderm.io not a very good theory I'm super excited about being able to build things that I couldn't before. Also with career progression, you start to appreciate how much of the building happens under the surface. The quest for Building Properly, for me, has resulted in quite some builder's block. That has now been simplified.

Open ##2773909
@wolf480pl@mstdn.io 2026-02-09 09:54

@jason What if you went there for the joy, but ended up in an understaffed company, with low bar for quality, and discovered that sucks the joy out of it? @vie@hachyderm.io

Open ##2773910
@numpsyuk@mastodon.online 2026-02-09 10:08

@vie@hachyderm.io @jason The way meetings are going at work recently I sometimes get the impression I'm the only one who cares about developing stuff, there are quite a few people who seem to be desperate for Copilot or Codex to do absolutely everything :-(

Open ##2773912
@woo@fosstodon.org 2026-02-09 10:46

@vie@hachyderm.io @jason There is another way to look at this. Most writers hate writing. Many are highly motivated but constantly disappointed in themselves. That's perfectionism. We want that. Being rushed to release something faster and worse than they want to is painful too.

Open ##2773914
@sowophie@chaos.social 2026-02-10 22:23

@vie@hachyderm.io @jason An LLM power-gluesniffer once told me something along the lines of "LLMs are perfect for code that you don't care about." I fully agree.

Open ##2773915
@deadofwinter@tech.lgbt 2026-02-13 21:37

@jason @vie@hachyderm.io well at least it cured my imposter syndrome I do not want to be replaced I want to make software because I like making software I am, in fact, a real software engineer

Open ##2773919