Programming is an art. It’s less like fine art or music and closer to architecture or carpentry – combining form and function – but it is an art. If you don’t believe me, consider code …
What’s with all these articles assuming some fictional reality that coding is replaced by LLMs now? Find me a tool that can build any software anyone wants to build, then ask yourself if you trust that tool to do your taxes for you (if you’re in the US anyway), book an entire 3 week $10k vacation for you, manage your finances and set budgets for you, and so on.
What software does the author think people will build with these tools that’s “fast fashion” style slop? Even assuming a non-coder wants some random one-off software for something, in what world would they ask a LLM to write it for them rather than look for an existing program that does what they want?
In the dev world, LLMs have proven that they cannot build production-quality software by themselves. They can build pretty demos maybe, but everything from Amazon’s tool recreating prod to whatever the fuck the Windows devs are doing shows that trusting an LLM to work on real software will eventually backfire.
My work has been pushing BMAD method hard on us software engineers and while I do agree using those prompts, scaffolding, and alot of babysitting, you can get fairly good results - it takes more effort than actually just writing the code.
Devs are going to get lazy and stop handholding and steering the LLMs, and since we’re now looping LLMs into code review, it’s going to miss stuff as well.
Sounds worse than I expected, the name is just a cherry on top:
The BMad Method (Build More Architect Dreams) is an AI-driven development framework module within the BMad Method Ecosystem that helps you build software through the whole process from ideation and planning all the way through agentic implementation
I don’t specifically seek them out. I follow quite a few different programming blogs, and I am just sharing what people are posting about, and it just so happens a lot of people are posting about this topic.
A lot of marketers are hyping their product by making these outlandish claims that it’s better than it is and will drive so many costly developers out of work
I’m not gonna assume a motivation, but yes I have noticed that whenever I wonder “Wow, this reads like the author got oneshotted. Who posted this?” it is codeinabox.
Thank you for not assuming my motivations. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by “oneshotted”? I share a lot of articles, so I’m not surprised you recognise my username.
Maybe they are trying to manifest its death by arranging its funeral over and over. Programming as an art form isn’t more dead than painting as an art form, as long as people want to do it. However, as the blog post hints at, what you produce for work wasn’t perhaps ever meant to be a work of art. You aren’t necessarily going to be able to write code in your favorite style for work anyway, unless you can influence it and decide the conventions. That has been true since forever in larger organisations.
Props to the blog author for seeking out new experiences in their free time but what they are mourning is either still there (just write your art code) or they have just had to adjust to their new trade-off. Don’t be surprised when it doesn’t feel artistic if you don’t spend any effort on the process.
What’s with all these articles assuming some fictional reality that coding is replaced by LLMs now? Find me a tool that can build any software anyone wants to build, then ask yourself if you trust that tool to do your taxes for you (if you’re in the US anyway), book an entire 3 week $10k vacation for you, manage your finances and set budgets for you, and so on.
What software does the author think people will build with these tools that’s “fast fashion” style slop? Even assuming a non-coder wants some random one-off software for something, in what world would they ask a LLM to write it for them rather than look for an existing program that does what they want?
In the dev world, LLMs have proven that they cannot build production-quality software by themselves. They can build pretty demos maybe, but everything from Amazon’s tool recreating prod to whatever the fuck the Windows devs are doing shows that trusting an LLM to work on real software will eventually backfire.
My work has been pushing BMAD method hard on us software engineers and while I do agree using those prompts, scaffolding, and alot of babysitting, you can get fairly good results - it takes more effort than actually just writing the code.
Devs are going to get lazy and stop handholding and steering the LLMs, and since we’re now looping LLMs into code review, it’s going to miss stuff as well.
BMAD? Be Mad? Bet my ass on drugs? Bro Man App Dawg? Business Minded AIDs Design?
Sounds worse than I expected, the name is just a cherry on top:
Source: https://docs.bmad-method.org/
Codeinabox specifically seeks them out to post them here to push their narrative.
I don’t specifically seek them out. I follow quite a few different programming blogs, and I am just sharing what people are posting about, and it just so happens a lot of people are posting about this topic.
A lot of marketers are hyping their product by making these outlandish claims that it’s better than it is and will drive so many costly developers out of work
I’m not gonna assume a motivation, but yes I have noticed that whenever I wonder “Wow, this reads like the author got oneshotted. Who posted this?” it is codeinabox.
Thank you for not assuming my motivations. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by “oneshotted”? I share a lot of articles, so I’m not surprised you recognise my username.
Yeah, the unfortunate reality is that nobody ever remembers your name on the good posts.
“Oneshotted” apparently originated from hallucinogens — the rare but sad occurrence where people try them once and then completely lose their minds.
But I’ve mostly seen it in the context of LLMs, where it means basically the same thing.
(Also: why did someone downvote your reply?)
The author’s own work has transitioned to mostly directing LLMs now - see their earlier posts.
(They’re fairly prolific too - used to run PouchDB IIRC, and the Pinafore Mastodon client.)
Maybe they are trying to manifest its death by arranging its funeral over and over. Programming as an art form isn’t more dead than painting as an art form, as long as people want to do it. However, as the blog post hints at, what you produce for work wasn’t perhaps ever meant to be a work of art. You aren’t necessarily going to be able to write code in your favorite style for work anyway, unless you can influence it and decide the conventions. That has been true since forever in larger organisations.
Props to the blog author for seeking out new experiences in their free time but what they are mourning is either still there (just write your art code) or they have just had to adjust to their new trade-off. Don’t be surprised when it doesn’t feel artistic if you don’t spend any effort on the process.