Ask HN: Do we need a support group for developers alienated by LLMs?
Surely I must not be the only one developer that doesn't recognize this field any more, and would rather do anything else than become a glorified code reviewer for machine generated code. Seeing my career crumble in front of my eyes, seeing my identity as software engineer questioned in the span of a few years has been, to me, traumatic, and utterly alienating because non-tech people are not unaware of how world-shattering this technology is to our niche, and many of our fellow peers either collectively shrug, or are ecstatic not to have to write code any more. I have been trying to reinvent myself, to set out on a path where I'm no longer a professional software engineer; where I will still enjoy coding software for myself, by hand, but the emotional turmoil at this radical change has not lessened, and I have been wondering if other people are feeling the same kind of alienation, and just feel lost and a bit aimless these days. (Please, this is meant to be a serious post about emotions some of us might be going through, and we could do without comments saying this is just an overreaction and to just embrace the future)
Discussion Highlights (12 comments)
ben_w
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of people in the same boat as you. I was already getting annoyed with the profession and its CV-driven development, and mostly saw code as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, but that only means I've not lost a sense of identity: I am absolutely also struggling to figure out what to do next.
luciana1u
the first rule of LLM support group is you do not ask the LLM to summarize the support group meeting
tomerlir
Why do you feel that way? I'm a SWE and LLMs have 10x me as a developer
hash0
Seems like the need for a support group depends on whether the recent advent of LLMs in your specific workplace has led you to become a Centaur ("I'm now a 10x SWE") or a Reverse Centaur ("this is rapidly sucking the joy this job once held for me"). So, yes, there is very definitely a need for this as there are definitely people seeing themselves cast as the latter.
khurs
1. Create a support group 2. Create agents to crawl the internet and invite anyone who has posted such sentiments 3. Best not to tell them that they were contacted via ai More seriously if you set one up, it will likely attract many people.
aykay76
I'm sure a lot of engineers feel the same way, especially those who love programming and aren't just in it for the money. I have mixed feelings on the topic - on the one hand i'm quite happy not to write boilerplate code again and again, AI is good at that especially with the right instructions/skills so i'm not mad. It means that I think more in systems than in low-level code, and my cognitive load is lighter not having to remember all the details of different packages and libraries etc. I still enjoy the process of creating software, i'm just not as involved in the coding step. AI has also opened up a lot of opportunities to create things that would have taken me months, in a matter of days. On the other hand I definitely feel like AI makes developers lazier, and if they're not properly reviewing the code it can have some disastrous consequences. It seems to have calmed down a bit but we went through a phase of swimming in a deluge of AI slop, I guess the temperature has been turned down a bit as I no longer get three emoji-filled documents for every change I introduce. It definitely feels like the last 30 years of my career have been swept away, but the past is gone and we can't get it back, and I have a wealth of experience that is still useful. I don't know about other companies and industries but certainly the message from our leadership is that AI is here, and it's staying, so it's either a case of get on board or look for another job. I'm currently building AI augmented tools to stay relevant and hopefully survive the next round of job cuts.
simgt
I have also lost all sense of pride in my work. As well as all interest in learning anything new related to software, knowing it'll be of zero value to me personally. For many of us our job has always been a craft, being able to perfect our skills while delivering a product was part of the deal when working on a hard problem. All skilled workers who saw their job moved by the side of a conveyor belt in the past two centuries were alienated in the same way.
aquatica
I'm feeling the same. I'm 21, basically just started my career. Nothing felt better than writing code, and feeling proud of what I had built. Now I am being forced at work to use AI/LLMs because "it's faster" and I feel like my whole life, the career I fought for, has been sucked away. Idk, might switch to driving trains, if they don't automate that too...
cliglot
I recall an HN post from some years back: Someone was describing their time in Navy around the 70s or 80s. They’re job was to perform maintenance on some sort of electronic system on ship. They mentioned the training in electronic design repair they were given in the Navy and how good it was, setting them up for an EE degree later in life quite well. They went on to describe that nowadays no one does that. That job now involves removing modular commercial off the shelf hardware components, sticking them on diagnostic machines and maybe ordering by a replacement or running a calibration. No useful technical skill or knowledge learned. LLM driven development feels like a rough analog in software. Sure, there’s going to be new jobs created, they’ll just be less valuable and worse across almost every factor. I could maybe be content with it if they didn’t just claw back remote work. Why the fuck should I still be sitting in an office hours a day when the agents do all the real work.
byronturncoat
This reflects many of the same things that I've been feeling. It's almost a feeling of grief at the lost of a career I really loved. Software engineering is starting to be unrecognizable to me. Even if you're a solid software engineer and do your best to keep up in an AI world, you have to deal with all the indirect impacts that AI has had on collaboration, code quality, management decisions, product decisions, etc. I don't have a solution and I'm really struggling to figure out what I want to do next. I've been unable to identify something that could provide me with income that hasn't been equally harmed by AI. I'm open to suggestions. All that being said, I'd join such a support group
DamnInteresting
I don't like generative AI/LLMs. They strip the enjoyable parts out of the work and leave only the tedium, and they cannot be relied upon. Never mind that they're essentially large-scale open source license violators. My employer has been encouraging us to use LLMs in our coding work, and I've been resisting, but their encouragement is rapidly converting into requirement. We have to start submitting reports from Claude showing how much we utilized it. I've been desperately wanting to return more of my time to writing, and this LLM push has been the last psychological shove I needed to start moving away from the industry[1]. I'm sure I'll still code for fun, and for my own projects, but I think I'm going to be done with day-job coding unless AI turns out to be a bubble and/or the upcoming unsubsidized price tags throw cold water on the whole enterprise. If I can't make a living with writing, I may have to open a Cajun food truck or something. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48847511
boogieknite
The feeling comes and goes. I'm a hands-on learner. Peers show me their agentic workflows. I'll nod and ask questions and tell them it's cool. But inside I'm spinning out fearing my future will look like these workflows. However, then time passes and that workflow or prototype amounts to nothing but spent credits and time. Then I relax. I'm still part of the problem. I use these tools as a "better google" and require reference links to all of it's assertions. I keep finding myself considering going into nursing or some other in-demand, well-paying job and wonder if I wait long enough the shift will be subsidized somehow.