HN is such a negative and cynical place these days that it's just not worth it. I just don't have the patience to hear yet another anti-AI rant, or have someone who is ideologically opposed to AI nitpick its output. Like you, I've found AI to be a huge help for my work, and I'm happy to keep outcompeting the people who are too stubborn to approach it with an open mind.
I think HN might be one of the few communities where people have been running extensive experiments with LLMs since their inception. Most here take a realistic view of their capabilities. There are certainly proven use cases where LLMs provide clear productivity gains—for example, copying an error message and retrieving potential solutions. At the same time, many recognize that marketing fantasies, such as the idea of having a "PhD in your pocket," are far beyond what this technology can deliver.
To me, it really depends if the post is a well reasoned criticism with something unique to add to the conversation or the standard, completely pointless, anti-AI rant that I have already read a 1000 times.
What is "flamebait"? Unpopular beliefs I genuinely hold? I looked it up and the definition seems to include being disingenuous, which I am not. Claiming I am is annoying and feels like it is a personal attack.
It doesn't include being disingenuous. We can't know what your intent is (<-- I don't mean you personally, but any commenter, of course), and can only moderate based on effects, not intent: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
OK. Well, I've been doing this the hard way for about twenty years, and now with AI in the mix my little solo SaaS has gone from nothing to $5k MRR in six weeks. Guess I'm not holding it completely wrong?
You are making assumptions about someone you have never talked to in the past, and don't know anything about.
Of the two of you, I know which one I'd bet on being "right". (Hint: It's the one talking about their own experience, not the one supplanting theirs onto someone else)
What assumptions am I making? Aren't you making assumptions about what I'm saying? It appears your assumptions are extremely egregious because they're blatantly and even comically hypocritical.
To that poster:
Literally everyone in development is using AI.
The difference is "negative" people can clearly see that it's on a trajectory in the NEAR, not even distant, future to completely eat your earnings, so they're not thrilled.
You're in the forest and you're going "Wow, look at all these trees! Cool!"
The hubris is thinking that you're a permanent indispensable part of the loop.
> The difference is "negative" people can clearly see that it's on a trajectory in the NEAR, not even distant, future to completely eat your earnings, so they're not thrilled.
We birthed a level of cognition out of silicon that nobody would imagine even just four years ago. Sorry, but some brogrammers being worried about making ends meet is making me laugh - it's all the same people who have been automating everyone else's jobs for the past two decades (and getting paid extremely fat salaries for it), and you're telling me now we're all supposed to be worried because it's going to affect our salaries?
Come on. You think everyone who's "vibe coding" doesn't understand the pointlessness of 90% of codemonkey work? Hell, most smart engineers understood that pointlessness years ago. Most coders work on boring CRUD apps and REST APIs to make revenue go up 0.02%. And those that aren't, are probably working on ads.
It's a fraction of a fraction that is at all working on interesting things.
Personally, yeah, I saw it coming and instead of "accepting fate", I created an AI research lab. And I diversified the hell out of my skillset as well - started working way out of my comfort zone. If you want to keep up with changing times, start challenging.
That's just... not true? There are many, many people who sincerely believe (sometimes from real experience, sometimes because they want it to be true) that AI absolutely cannot do whatever they are trying to do, and so they don't use it.
all major nation state intelligence services have an incentive to spread negative sentiment and reduce developer adoption of ai technology as they race to catch up with the united states.
GP is right, though. Many programming communities, including (in some threads, but not all) HN, have become ridiculous anti-AI bubbles - what's the point of trying to have a discussion if you're going to get systematically shut down by people whose entire premise is that they don't use it? It's like trying to explain color to the blind.
What "discussion" do you want to have? Another round of "LLMs are terrible at embedded hardware programming ergo they're useless"? Maybe with a dash of "LLMs don't write bug-free software [but I do]" to close it off?
The discussions that are at all advancing the state of the art are happening on forums that accept reality as a matter of fact, without people constantly trying to constantly pretend things because they're worried they'll lose their job if they don't.
No? I really don't give a crap what people criticize. It doesn't change anything in my life - I have plenty going on and nothing you or anyone says here will alter that. It's just sad to see a community I like (and which I've been a part of for longer than you've been programming) factually shut itself down to reality...
