Also didn't Microsoft (the owner of GitHub) got access to Claude Mythos in order to "seCuRe cRitiCal SoftWaRe InfRasTructUre FoR teh AI eRa"? Hows securing GitHub Action going for them?

Then I sold it, because I ran out of 64GB space. If I could add an sd card, I would probably use this phone longer, instead of contributing to consumerism and creating more e-waste.

I wish that people would think about sustainability and using their devices for longer rather than chasing “new and shiny” every year Apple releases the “best iPhone we ever made”

What’s the F is going on? Is the world gone mad or something?

I understand that I’m in a privileged position as a SWE, and that maybe I have been overpaid for the majority of my career, but the swing is so sharp that it really hits me in the gut badly.

So advice like "use your network to find freelance / contracting" is not helpful to me. So there are two options for me: either find a way to make it work now, or accept the fact that I fucked up my life and I just need to wait for the inevitable replacement by AI. I doubt that every successful entrepreneur started to build a professional circle at the age of 21. But I might be wrong.

I tried to build, calibrate, engage in SEO, talk to customers, but I can't seem to find traction. On one hand, people say that you need to build to solve a problem. You find a problem in a niche, say accounting for plumbers, and build for that, then you just go and market to these people. On the other hand, I see people who advocate for "I just built something that I needed, and it got traction". There are multiple examples for both camps, but the problem is that they contradict each other.

This leads me to believe that most people either get lucky and then apply a framework in retrospect to justify their luck, or they simply don't tell the whole truth.

I want to escape a salaried coder job, more so with the "push" of vibe coding across the board. But I have no idea how to approach a business. I refuse to believe that everyone who succeeded with a side project and replaced their job - is a liar, but maybe the truth is that it does not take 7 months, but 7 years?

Anyone got something helpful to share in that regard?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803524

Points: 74

# Comments: 97

I really doubt that people who can’t install an ssh key should be able to practice software engineering. Sometimes, I think that software engineering should be a protected profession like other types of engineering. At least it will filter out the people who can’t keep their OS up to date.

Is the quality of software engineers really dropped that low that people get excited when they move off from "heavy bloated" frameworks to lighter alternatives? Or is this just SEO farming garbage to position the company higher in search results?

So yeah, good code might win among small group of principled people, but the majority will not care. And more importantly, management won't care. And as long as management don't care, you have two choices: "embrace" slop, or risk staying jobless in a though market.

Edit: Also, good code = expensive code. In an economy where people struggle to afford a living, nobody is going to pay for good code when they can get "good enough" code for 200$ a month with Claude.

Over the years, I've learned that coding is not the ultimate goal. People who get rewarded the most are not doing coding at all but doing aRcHiTecTure and DeSigN dOcuMents. Or better, manage the ones who write code. Purely writing code is seen as an intermediary step into something "real" - the true profession of being a good ~bullshitter~ communicator in a corporate environment.

But I kept going. I could be the corporate worm at my day-to-day job - it pays well in the end - while messing with writing my own stuff and trying to build a business in my free time. But then, the final nail on the coffin came in - LLMs.

I thought I could avoid it, but it seems like every company just mandates It's because pRodUctiVity!!!!111 So at first I resisted, then I was hinted that if I won't catch up, my job could be at risk. The market is shit, I am an adult now so I have adult responsibilities, and changing jobs is no longer that easy. Plus, nobody guarantees that the next job won't jump on the AI bandwagon. So I swallowed the pill, and started to use, and embrace, AI, hoping, once again, to reuse my old pattern - be who they want me to be at work, and enjoy the "craft" in my free time.

But AI has sucked the joy of the craft even in my free time. If I don't use AI to build my own SaaS / business - then others will "get to market" faster. If I do, then I will create a slopware for which I don't care.

I started to imagine dropping it all and doing woodworking or something, while trying to slowly grind through my day-to-day job until AI will inevitably replace me (either by itself, or because of an influx of young people who are born into that world, will just become more capable than me).

And I no longer know what to do. My day-to-day job has an expiration date. It could be 5 years, it could be 15. I was hoping to build a tech business and escape the "rat race", but I am no longer able to find any motivation or desire to do so, as AI basically remove any barrier to entry. My decades of experience vanished basically overnight, and I am competing with everyone who has access to a Claude account. Or maybe I'm just a bad businessman. Anyway, I feel trapped. I no longer get enjoyment from a thing that was, and is, my identity that I have crafted almost 20 years.

So dear HN, what's next?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47591929

Points: 13

# Comments: 12