Writing code by hand is something from the past, but not everything is lost
illustration of code in a dark screen
I know. Sometimes I miss it too. The struggle of solving a problem we've never seen before. The feeling of accomplishment for shipping something that we built ourselves and not having anyone asking, “Did you vibe code this?”
Back then there were only two ways of building software: either we wrote the code ourselves or asked someone to write it for us; there was no third option.
Now everything changed. Everyone writes code. Nobody is praised anymore for "vibe coding" a feature, and the glamour of being a programmer is gone.
Of course, one can always open their editor and start writing line by line his code like the old days; nobody will stop you, but on the job, for the company that pays your salary, that is not an option anymore. Why? Because it is prohibitively slow.
Needless to say, this is not the case for every company or every product. Depending on what type of software you build, writing the code yourself is nonnegotiable. But for most companies that build web applications that serve customers directly, asking their engineers to use their brains and typing skills is a waste of money and resources. I don't blame them. No one to blame here. This is just how things are now.
I've seen more and more product and business folks using code to create a prototype for the first time, and this is new.
Before 2022 was hard for everyone who was not an engineer to grasp the complexity of a codebase and, therefore, stipulate how long it would take to ship a new feature. This was a job for the engineers; they would say how long and what effort the endeavor would take, and everyone else had to accept and move on.
No more.
Now that everyone can write code, anyone can stipulate a deadline as well. The reasoning is simple: if I built this prototype in a couple of hours, you can build it faster and better. In this context, unless you can write code faster than a machine, you have no choice.
I've seen many people lamenting the new situation, feeling sad and unmotivated, and being afraid of being replaced at any time. I have no idea what to say for those who feel this way, but one thing I know: the time has changed and there is no return. The era of code crafted solely by man is gone.
This is our first time in this situation; other folks have gone through similar moments in their careers and survived. We will survive as well.
Meanwhile, learn to write beautiful and meaningful sentences that a machine can understand. English is a beautiful language. Who knows you might find out there was a writer inside you all this time and you never gave it a chance?
By Roge
I know. Sometimes I miss it too. The struggle of solving a problem we've never seen before. The feeling of accomplishment for shipping something that we built ourselves and not having anyone asking, “Did you vibe code this?”
Back then there were only two ways of building software: either we wrote the code ourselves or asked someone to write it for us; there was no third option.
Now everything changed. Everyone writes code. Nobody is praised anymore for "vibe coding" a feature, and the glamour of being a programmer is gone.
Of course, one can always open their editor and start writing line by line his code like the old days; nobody will stop you, but on the job, for the company that pays your salary, that is not an option anymore. Why? Because it is prohibitively slow.
Needless to say, this is not the case for every company or every product. Depending on what type of software you build, writing the code yourself is nonnegotiable. But for most companies that build web applications that serve customers directly, asking their engineers to use their brains and typing skills is a waste of money and resources. I don't blame them. No one to blame here. This is just how things are now.
I've seen more and more product and business folks using code to create a prototype for the first time, and this is new.
Before 2022 was hard for everyone who was not an engineer to grasp the complexity of a codebase and, therefore, stipulate how long it would take to ship a new feature. This was a job for the engineers; they would say how long and what effort the endeavor would take, and everyone else had to accept and move on.
No more.
Now that everyone can write code, anyone can stipulate a deadline as well. The reasoning is simple: if I built this prototype in a couple of hours, you can build it faster and better. In this context, unless you can write code faster than a machine, you have no choice.
I've seen many people lamenting the new situation, feeling sad and unmotivated, and being afraid of being replaced at any time. I have no idea what to say for those who feel this way, but one thing I know: the time has changed and there is no return. The era of code crafted solely by man is gone.
This is our first time in this situation; other folks have gone through similar moments in their careers and survived. We will survive as well.
Meanwhile, learn to write beautiful and meaningful sentences that a machine can understand. English is a beautiful language. Who knows you might find out there was a writer inside you all this time and you never gave it a chance?