Just to preface, this isn't the typical "Am I being replaced by vibe coding" post.
I just had a talk with one of my first ongoing clients, who sort of helped me kickstart my freelancing "career". He is one of those people who has a broad understanding of the tech out there, and what its capabilities are, but is not a programmer. He wanted to show me, and get my opinion on a restaurant management app that he's been using Lovable to develop. Admittedly, a lot of it is very impressive, and he has obviously become very good at using these tools. Part of that scares me, but I've largely accepted the reality that my skillset has to expand beyond being a React code monkey (wish is not what I am, but you get the point). I've always been a curious generalist, so picking up new stuff comes easily, and I'll manage.
Anyways, here's the part that feels really gross. He's working on a feature that does some automated marketing using Higgsfield, so automated slop posting. Also a feature that consumes reviews from vendors, and he intends to use agents to post reviews as well.
I'm 43, I managed to convince my parents to get AOL when I was 12. I made a Geocities site at 14. I've been obsessed with computers and the internet for my entire life. I'm also an artist who had a somewhat successful run as a touring musician, much to the detriment of my career growth (not much money in Punk).
I feel the hobbies that I've been nurturing for my entire life are being destroyed by people who have finally found an entry point that requires the smallest amount of effort. We are literally watching the dead internet happen in real time, social media turning into a AI slop gallery, AI music topping the charts, and I just had a one-on-one conversation with someone that just doesn't care, because they get to feel creative for possibly the first time ever.
I am dealing with it by walking away from the internet and connected technology as much as possible.
Unfortunately, generally if people can do something, they will. And with AI systems they have been given one of the largest short cuts possible, thus they take it relentlessly. There is no concern for quality so long as it is good enough to benefit them.
They will try to rationalize it but it typically ends up in moral corruption of "If I don't, they will."
It saddens me because I saw the vision of what computers and connected technology could be in the 90's and 2000's, only to see it turn bitter.
I remember reading an essay by Richard Stallman calling all this kind of stuff out in the late 1980's and I kind of hate that he got it so right. In assuming that many will take the power play and the convenience means that this is the path we take.
The more you can walk away form this stuff the better even if you don't want to.
I've read similar sentiments over the past year, it seems to be a recurring theme.
It's been amazing to participate in a hobby-turned-profession for the last two decades or so. But did we get into it because it was easy? No. Technology, computers, Internet, was a new world, full of excitement, mystery, and exploration. There may have been no immediate ROI in learning how to set up a Geocities site, but it was the gateway to HTML, programming, and eventually led to, what I hope has been, a rewarding career.
The industry isn't being "destroyed" by AI, that started happening with PE and MBAs long before, or maybe it was fucked from the get-go, and we've been very lucky to have had well-paying jobs for typing strange things into a computer. But now that it's easy for the non-tech commoner to do it, we're upset? Fishy NIMBYism something something.
I went through a similar disillusionment phase for a few months as I tried to apply my old thinking to this new era. I had to just let the AI agents own the line-level, function-level, and even class-level responsibilities, while I focused on the file names and writing good prompts. Naming is everything in computer science, as they say.
On personal projects, I'm executing on things that were out of reach before (or required extensive research), like (re)learning hardware, writing RTOS firmware, PCB design, etc. It's my learning PHP3/VB phase, and I love it. What matters now, more than ever, is to have good taste.
Give it time for the mindset shift to happen. Take a break, if you can. You won't miss anything anyway, a few new models, harnesses, and workflows will have appeared, and they take about 5 minutes to understand. So the differentiating factors between you and the next pleb are your fundamentals, good taste, and creativity.
I just had a talk with one of my first ongoing clients, who sort of helped me kickstart my freelancing "career". He is one of those people who has a broad understanding of the tech out there, and what its capabilities are, but is not a programmer. He wanted to show me, and get my opinion on a restaurant management app that he's been using Lovable to develop. Admittedly, a lot of it is very impressive, and he has obviously become very good at using these tools. Part of that scares me, but I've largely accepted the reality that my skillset has to expand beyond being a React code monkey (wish is not what I am, but you get the point). I've always been a curious generalist, so picking up new stuff comes easily, and I'll manage.
Anyways, here's the part that feels really gross. He's working on a feature that does some automated marketing using Higgsfield, so automated slop posting. Also a feature that consumes reviews from vendors, and he intends to use agents to post reviews as well.
I'm 43, I managed to convince my parents to get AOL when I was 12. I made a Geocities site at 14. I've been obsessed with computers and the internet for my entire life. I'm also an artist who had a somewhat successful run as a touring musician, much to the detriment of my career growth (not much money in Punk).
I feel the hobbies that I've been nurturing for my entire life are being destroyed by people who have finally found an entry point that requires the smallest amount of effort. We are literally watching the dead internet happen in real time, social media turning into a AI slop gallery, AI music topping the charts, and I just had a one-on-one conversation with someone that just doesn't care, because they get to feel creative for possibly the first time ever.
How are you all dealing with this?
I am dealing with it by walking away from the internet and connected technology as much as possible.
Unfortunately, generally if people can do something, they will. And with AI systems they have been given one of the largest short cuts possible, thus they take it relentlessly. There is no concern for quality so long as it is good enough to benefit them.
They will try to rationalize it but it typically ends up in moral corruption of "If I don't, they will."
It saddens me because I saw the vision of what computers and connected technology could be in the 90's and 2000's, only to see it turn bitter.
I remember reading an essay by Richard Stallman calling all this kind of stuff out in the late 1980's and I kind of hate that he got it so right. In assuming that many will take the power play and the convenience means that this is the path we take.
The more you can walk away form this stuff the better even if you don't want to.
one of my first ongoing clients, who sort of helped me kickstart my freelancing "career".
When you are starting out, you will tend not to get the best clients.
It’s ok to outgrow a client.
I've read similar sentiments over the past year, it seems to be a recurring theme.
It's been amazing to participate in a hobby-turned-profession for the last two decades or so. But did we get into it because it was easy? No. Technology, computers, Internet, was a new world, full of excitement, mystery, and exploration. There may have been no immediate ROI in learning how to set up a Geocities site, but it was the gateway to HTML, programming, and eventually led to, what I hope has been, a rewarding career.
The industry isn't being "destroyed" by AI, that started happening with PE and MBAs long before, or maybe it was fucked from the get-go, and we've been very lucky to have had well-paying jobs for typing strange things into a computer. But now that it's easy for the non-tech commoner to do it, we're upset? Fishy NIMBYism something something.
I went through a similar disillusionment phase for a few months as I tried to apply my old thinking to this new era. I had to just let the AI agents own the line-level, function-level, and even class-level responsibilities, while I focused on the file names and writing good prompts. Naming is everything in computer science, as they say.
On personal projects, I'm executing on things that were out of reach before (or required extensive research), like (re)learning hardware, writing RTOS firmware, PCB design, etc. It's my learning PHP3/VB phase, and I love it. What matters now, more than ever, is to have good taste.
Give it time for the mindset shift to happen. Take a break, if you can. You won't miss anything anyway, a few new models, harnesses, and workflows will have appeared, and they take about 5 minutes to understand. So the differentiating factors between you and the next pleb are your fundamentals, good taste, and creativity.
Be like water, etc.