191
Code Is Cheap Now. Software Isn’t
(chrisgregori.dev)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
191 points (94.8% liked)
Programming
24410 readers
361 users here now
Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!
Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.
Hope you enjoy the instance!
Rules
Rules
- Follow the programming.dev instance rules
- Keep content related to programming in some way
- If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos
Wormhole
Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Hate or rage? That's absolutely silly. I'm a computer scientist and I value actual skill.
I mean do a little thought experiment. If there was a dude who followed me around everywhere and I could always ask him for code-based solutions to things, and he gives them to me, am I coding? Have I actually done anything?
You could argue that the system of he and I were accomplishing something together but the problem with that logic is that if you removed me from the system, as a middleman, you're left with someone who still did the work. In that particular system I add absolutely nothing, therefor I'm not actually a part that is of any real use.
If the box is handing you the answers to things you don't know how to do then guess what - you still don't know how to do those things. Eventually you get into a position where you have a product that you can no longer properly understand, debug, or make any real use out of.
I think the real tell here is how sensitive you are if anybody calls you out on your b******* and even the smallest way. Have a nice day :-).
If you use a sewing machine to fix your clothes, did you even do anything? That is the level of argument we are at here. Absolutely ridiculous. It saved me so much time already. Sure I can also digest a datasheet, put all the registers down, glue logic, bla bla bla, but instead of wasting 10 hours I am already done with everything an hour later.
Well you've picked an absolutely terrible analogy, which makes sense given how sensitive you are about it.
If you were able to talk to the sewing machine and tell it exactly what to do with the fabrics what patterns to follow and so forth--then no you haven't done s***.
I sew my own clothes and costumes so I know this to be true. Sewing using a machine is no trivial thing. You have to understand the mechanics of the machine the patterns etc. You have to understand how to read a pattern or come up with one yourself and you have to implement it with the correct stitching the correct fabric and so forth.
If you wanted to pick apart my analogy in an actual careful sense, you would have a situation where you have a person who understands how to use the sewing machine and you give them instructions. But again, in terms of the system you aren't providing any value. The person doing the sewing is. You would still be superfluous and you still wouldn't understand what's actually going on. Call yourself a manager, but don't call yourself a tailor or seamstress.
But what you did is pick an object That is a regular tool and claim that it's doing the same job, which is preposterous.
Our compilers already do massive amounts of syntax and semantic checking. Our linyers do the same. There's a ton of tools that don't involve articulating at a high level what you want and magically getting back your entire process.
Sure, you're done an hour later. And you have no idea what the limitations of your system are. You have no idea what sort of bugs are hidden from your test. You have zero ability to comprehend what's actually going on inside if you don't actually understand the domain.
What you are is a vibe code or by the sounds of it. Honestly I prefer the old school script kiddies because at least they were doing something themselves.
Basically what you're doing is the same thing as me opening up CAD and then pretending that I'm an engineer. I'm not a f****** engineer. I didn't take the right training. I'm not licensed in the area. I can create a 3D model all day long. But that's literally all I can do.
I think you need to understand your limitations the same way the rest of the world does.