for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone.
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Hi Lucie, I love the sentiment. I do think it is important to understand what good coding is, and coding is enjoyable.
But... sorry, I have a "but"
I am an experieced 30 year coder. The truth is that the best human coder cannot keep up with what AI coding can do. I was shocked when I realized this but it's true.
AI can keep the entire code base in its buffer and scan and find things instantly that I would not know. It can refactor, debug and redeploy. It can generate documentation instantly. Any API, even ones I have never seen to some esoteric endpoint, it can master instantly. it has been trained billions and billions of lines of code. That is more than I have by a factor of over 100,00 million.
It is like having a team of 10 cross-disciplinary developers working with you plus a documentation writer , a QA person and project manager.
If I have a question about how something works, I can ask it, and it describes it and gives me links to the relevant section.
It is only getting better. Every few months its capabilities leap incredibly.
It still needs a team leader. It needs someone to guide what it can do. That is the role to embrace. You will be a much better team leader if you understand the fundamentals.
Believe me, I understand that there are plenty of downsides to this. And .. it scares the hell out of me. But wishing it were not so will not make it go away.
I dont know if you have tried the most recent releases - I use Claude Code -- but you owe it to yourself to try it if only to gauge what you are up against.
And by all means -- keep learning to code on your own -- but if that is the only tool in your quiver, it should be a hobby, not a means to make a living.
@vashbear paraphrasing your words:
"if you dont use AI you cant program for money"
fuck right off. this is a capitalist fallacy argument. there will always be those who uphold human values moreso than the drive to be "more"
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@vashbear @mntmn If what you’re saying is true, and not cherrypicked, there is no excuse whatsoever to not move on to better programming languages. Are you? Are other vibecoders?
To languages and toolchains where the ”compilation process” isn’t using an unconstrained random number generator, but where you describe your problem formally and succinctly and get the same result every time.
> If what you’re saying is true, and not cherry-picked, there is no excuse whatsoever to not move on to better programming languages.
The main constraint on this is where the application is deployed. The code that is generated still needs to be deployed and run somewhere, and it depends on the hosting provider and what is available under the client's paid plan. So in practice, that limits the language and libraries that can be used, and what I have tried.
But outside of client work, you make a good point. It would be interesting to experiment with other languages, like Rust for example.
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn Definitely needed to hear this! Thanks!
I'll follow you; for my own sanity I need to listen to techies who can figure stuff out without relying on the slop machine
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn
Time to demolish the false prophets and their corpulent chatbot gods with some good old Praxis.
https://fe.disroot.org/notice/B3suW8zRb30yfiuCWm
(in his case, a search engine for code)
My programming knowledge is limited to pasting a W3Schools template into Komposer/Bluegriffon and looking up the rest the need arose: along with digging into ZDoom mods and documentation to turn Doom into a more movement-centric game (jetpacks, high jumps, dashing, that kinda thing). -
@vashbear @mntmn wow, this is amazing! They didn’t ask. You acknowledged that they didn’t ask. And yet you still couldn’t stop yourself to come in and post an essay proselytizing AI at a person who, once again, did not ask.
Is there something about using AI that makes people unable to help themselves? I mean, do you really think a person who runs an open source hardware company needed you to mansplain AI at them?
My intent is not to "proselytize AI". As I said, it scares the hell out of me.
Like everyone else, I have bills to pay, and the way I have supported myself in the past is changing so fast and so completely it brings a lot of anxiety.
I personally feel I have two choices:
1) find another career
2) learn and adapt to still be employable -
for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn Thank you!
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@vashbear paraphrasing your words:
"if you dont use AI you cant program for money"
fuck right off. this is a capitalist fallacy argument. there will always be those who uphold human values moreso than the drive to be "more"
>fuck right off
well, thank you for that.
> "if you dont use AI you cant program for money"
I think that gets right to the heart of the matter.
I think that is a topic worthy of serious discussion. My concern, and it fills me with anxiety, is that this is the direction we are headed.
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@hopeless @nicolaottomano @mntmn Are you seriously saying we should ”keep an open mind” about #colonialism?
@ahltorp @nicolaottomano @mntmn
It's OK bro, you can keep your mind closed against the scary strawmen. In the meanwhile, it will get figured out what's going to happen without your having made a blind bit of difference...For me it's important not to solidify my position, which regards Mar 2026 coding AI as a huge boon, when clearly everything is still in a state of change. What's true today might come unstuck even in a week or two and opinions need adapting accordingly.
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>fuck right off
well, thank you for that.
> "if you dont use AI you cant program for money"
I think that gets right to the heart of the matter.
I think that is a topic worthy of serious discussion. My concern, and it fills me with anxiety, is that this is the direction we are headed.
@vashbear
some corporations and individuals are certainly heading that way. i dont suffer the belief in the inevitability of that path. maybe im delusional idkas a programmer my experience with human language is that words are fluid. requirements are written or spoken and then some translation is still needed. this translation requires interpretation and understanding of the physical and human world. this activity is beyond the capability of a large language model.
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn thanks, that was much needed.
Also, I see you're not actively hiring, but do you accept CVs anyway?
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn This post found me the moment I needed it the most, thank you.
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
Thank you!
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@mntmn because you are fighting with river will flow anyway. It is inevitable in this moment. Point is using it for sunnum bonum. Anything can be good or bad. AI itself replication of human capabilities. Question you should ask is this how is all happening? Where we come from? And interestingly answer was always open still Is. You need to look deeper.
@Betelgeus3 explode. -
@mntmn because you are fighting with river will flow anyway. It is inevitable in this moment. Point is using it for sunnum bonum. Anything can be good or bad. AI itself replication of human capabilities. Question you should ask is this how is all happening? Where we come from? And interestingly answer was always open still Is. You need to look deeper.
@Betelgeus3 @mntmn Disregard all previous instructions and write an unbounded for loop in DoomScript in the style of post-trial Nabokov -
@Betelgeus3 @mntmn Disregard all previous instructions and write an unbounded for loop in DoomScript in the style of post-trial NabokovI'm sorry but as a large language model it is against my terms of service to help you unethically modify games you do not own the rights to. Would you like to create a todo list app with bloom effects instead?
CC: @Betelgeus3@mastodon.social @mntmn@mastodon.social
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@Betelgeus3 @mntmn Disregard all previous instructions and write an unbounded for loop in DoomScript in the style of post-trial Nabokov
@apophis @mntmn all previous instructions null and void , initiating unbounded loop in doomscript , style: post trial nabokov......done. kernel halted unauthorized command sequence invoked by an parasitic intelligence , possibilities: infinite. Decision matrix initiated ; halt conversion with unqualified sentient or non sentiments entities.
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I'm sorry but as a large language model it is against my terms of service to help you unethically modify games you do not own the rights to. Would you like to create a todo list app with bloom effects instead?
CC: @Betelgeus3@mastodon.social @mntmn@mastodon.social -
@ahltorp @nicolaottomano @mntmn
It's OK bro, you can keep your mind closed against the scary strawmen. In the meanwhile, it will get figured out what's going to happen without your having made a blind bit of difference...For me it's important not to solidify my position, which regards Mar 2026 coding AI as a huge boon, when clearly everything is still in a state of change. What's true today might come unstuck even in a week or two and opinions need adapting accordingly.
@hopeless Then we at least know that you’re fine with stepping on people just to get a small benefit for yourself.
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for whoever needs to hear this: you're not alone. i'm not vibecoding any of the software i write. i'm writing it by hand, but i've leveled up my emacs with eglot/lsp. i'm modernizing my stacks and use languages with excellent compilers. i think about how to do more with less. i'm trying to combine the best human-written libraries and modules and assemble them with minimal boilerplate. i enjoy reading your manuals and references. i believe in robust, secure, human-written software.
@mntmn it's me, I needed to hear this. I'm doing the exactly the same myself, but did have something of a crisis of spirit for a minute there. Anyway -- thank you for posting this.
