Recently attended an in-person handheld game console hackathon. I wrote a raycaster by hand. Someone wearing a “I ❤️ slop” tshirt saw mine and said “oh I wrote a ray caster too!”. They showed me. It was a ray *tracer* and claude did all the work. The person didn’t... know basic graphics terms. They couldn’t answer basic questions about how it worked, could only talk about their prompting harness. Sad how AI is ruining the craft and community for people that actually like to program and have spent their lives getting good at it.show more

Sounds like you both had fun and were proud of something you made 🤷

Maybe you will understand how lame it was if I reframe it like this: Pretend I went to a "fun run/walk" to stay fit and interact with other people, but someone wearing a "I love being fat" shirt shows up and completes the route in a self driving car.

@AaronPresley where i see someone who was excited to connect with you, you seem to see someone who isn’t good enough to connect with you am i missing something in the gate keeping? imagine that person who was excited to be at the hackathon seeing your tweet

It was a programming event, not an AI event. Me and everyone else was there to enjoy and get better at programming. This person couldn't talk about programming, only AI. I *was* excited to talk to them, but we were literally talking about two different things. If you're a vibecode bro then it's understandable why you wouldn't understand my perspective. totally different things.

Literally showed up with a printed pic of monalisa to an artist convention lmao.

Is that what's really sad? Or is it that you don't feel as special anymore because just about anyone can do it all now? It's not taking away anything you've learnt, nor any joy you should be able to get from doing these things from memory. So what exactly has it "ruined"?

Yes, I cant still write things by hand, as I often do. But AI is changing the cultural landscape of software from one that values competence, understanding, and craftsmanship, to one valuing only output volume and cloning. If people won't even bother to develop their skills in a casual, non competitive context, humanity will lose those skills.

That is an amazing thing that should be embraced. I spent years learning how to write software, now a 5 year old can create something just by imagining it. So much more can be achieved now than mere bragging rights. It's like opening a factory for ideas

@DanielcHooper my claim is that vast majority of people think that incompetence is imagination ..

Of course it is, Franky 🙄

fully get where you are coming from and trying to figure out what all this means. here's a possible counter argument: this is 'hello world' now. you didn't know what the compiler did when you ran yours. if they ever try doing anything interesting they will learn how things work.

The problem is not that they used AI, or didn’t know things. The problem is they *liked* not knowing, AND that they didn’t use the in-person event the way it was intended: to exchange ideas with others. I would’ve been happy to teach, but they didn’t ask any questions and didn’t care to talk about anything but AI. They didn’t even *ask the AI* how their project worked. Willful Ignorance is not a virtue.

Have been noticing this phenomenon recently, it's weird to talk to someone who "made" something and have them be unable to answer basic questions about it :/

lmfao ending AI bros is a mercy kill and 100% legal btw

It's like a monk who spent a decade painstakingly copying manuscripts by hand, who sneers at the Gutenberg press because the printer "doesn't understand ink chemistry" - as if the goal was ever the calligraphy instead of actually spreading the damn ideas.

People like that should be banned from ever attending again.

It's sad but now is the time to move your goalposts to beyond where 'they' can go and you CAN.

Did you care to ask her what she did learn from her project, or are you focusing on yourself more than what hackathons are rrally about?

Why is what someone else is doing "ruining" something for you?

The tell is your last detail: they could only talk about the harness. Output isn't competence. Being able to explain why it works is. AI hides that gap at a demo and exposes it the first time something breaks. Your raycaster will age better than their tracer.

Premixed paint ruined painting. Cameras ruined portraiture. Calculators ruined mathematics. Compilers ruined programming. Power tools ruined carpentry. Every generation mistakes the labour removed by a new tool for the thing that gave the craft its value. That said, using a tool is not the same as having the expertise the tool replaces (and everyone uses a knife but nobody can sharpen one). Yet, though premixed paint ruined art and the camera finished it off, we're still making pictures.

Cant wait for ai to advance even more so anyone can create anything. Fucking retards like you have the ego of a fucking chimp, mad because ai can do it faster and better.

Programming professionally has been a painful experience lately, pushed to vibe code for maximum output; regardless of quality, makes the PM and CEO feel like they're getting the best bang for their bucks. No place for craftsmen anymore except in hobby :(

can't fault enthusiasm tho! i imagine there's a WILD mixing of communities happening right now exciting things spring forth from edges

so are you saying the slop coder didn’t understand the distinction? Ray tracing stands atop ray casting, so implicitly they also slopped a ray tracer into being.

I'm horrified by the vision of what the landscape is going to look like in 5 years.

It’s not ruining it - you saw the slop as the noise that it was.

That looks sick. Reminds me of something @beneater would probably do. I suppose that uncomfortable experience under your grilling might make that person reconsider how they approach these environments.

@beneater “That’s cool, how’d you make it run fast?” Is not grilling

I understand your pain. As a painter, getting work in film as a matte artist, where your name is known rather than just being an anonymous, uncredited painter, was a dream. In the 1980's, with the advent of digital effects, you didn't have to spend hours painting on glass. A guy could boot up his SGI Workstation and have a simple background done in a few days, or a moving one in a week or two - and no painting composite plates with moving cameras or any of that. All the techniques and skills you learned, gone. Personally, I grabbed 3D software and learned the new round of skills, while maintaining my previous ones as a personal, artistic endeavor - I retain the joy of creation, but am on-keel with other modern artists for FX.

lol you guys are fags

Cool stuff but other people doing “lesser” things in your view doesn’t take away anything away from you.

vibe coding is the only future for software development

People kept jogging after the invention of the bicycle. People kept playing chess and go even after computers completely outclassed even the best human players. Programmers will have to come to terms with the new reality.

AI is just a tool

Can I ask, what that is? Been thinking about tinkering with something like that.

It was the badge for the "Software you can love" conference. I don't think it can be bought. As an alternative, I recommend gameboy advance. Super fun to program: the "sdk" is just reading and writing to special memory addresses. Can buy used gba or any of several modern 3rd party remakes like the Analogue Pocket.

I do feel your sadness. Unfortunately the days of hand coding are numbered, I fear.

This is what it was like being a C programmer and talking to almost anyone else.

Yup. Now granted, if I'd have done something similar, I'd probably be in the same boat. I do know some graphics terms, and some approaches, but it's all very dated from when I did some graphics projects in the late 90s and early 00s... But get me talking about databases, I dare ya 🤣

And tet he wrote a ray tracer while you only wrote a ray caster. Get mogged

I don't understand how you equate someone with no skills doing an automation as "ruining" the craft. To me it seems like a pointless loss of time being angry at things that don't matter. His creations won't steal your capacity to do things. Nor will they be popular.