Comment by asadm

Comment by asadm 4 days ago

8 replies

> If these activities don't interest you, why are you in this field?

I am in this field to deliver shareholder value. Writing individual lines of code; unless absolutely required, is below me?

craftkiller 4 days ago

Ah well then, this is the cultural divide that has been forming since long before LLMs happened. Once software engineering became lucrative, people started entering the field not because they're passionate about computers or because they love the logic/problem solving but because it is a high paying, comfortable job.

There was once a time when only passionate people became programmers, before y'all ruined it.

  • asadm 4 days ago

    i think you are mis-categorizing me. i have been programming for fun since i was a kid. But that doesn't mean i solve mundane boring stuff even though i know i can get someone else or ai to figure those parts out so i can do the fun stuff.

    • craftkiller 4 days ago

      Ah perhaps. Then I think we had different understandings of my "why are you in this field?" question. I would say that my day job is to "deliver shareholder value"[0] but I'd never say that is why I am in this field, and it sounds like it isn't why you're in this field either since I doubt you were thinking about shareholders when you were programming as a kid.

      [0] Actually, I'd say it is "to make my immediate manager's job easier", but if you follow that up the org chart eventually it ends up with shareholders and their money.

      • asadm 4 days ago

        well sure i may have oversimplified it. the shareholder is usually me :)

barnabee 4 days ago

Every human who defines the purpose of their life's work as "to deliver shareholder value" is a failure of society.

How sad.

  • asadm 4 days ago

    as opposed to fluff like "make world a better place"?

    • barnabee 3 days ago

      Defining one's worth by shareholder value is pretty dystopian, so yeah, even "make the world a better place" is preferable, at least if whoever said it really means it…