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Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

That said, I think people really under appreciate how diverse programmers actually are

… That said, I think people really under appreciate how diverse programmers actually are. I started in physics and came over when I went to grad school. While I wouldn't expect a physicist to do super well on leetcode problems I've seen those same people write incredible code that's optimized for HPC systems and they're really good at tracing bottlenecks (it's a skill that translates from physics really really well). Hell, the best programmer I've ever met got that way because he was doing his PhD in mechanical engineering. He's practically the leading expert in data streaming for HPC systems and gained this skill because he needed more performance for his other work. There's a lot of different types of programmers out there but I think it's too easy to think the field is narrow.

Original discussionIf you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?612 source comments · at import
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OM

> Software development jobs must be very diverse if even this anti-vibe-coding guy thinks AI coding definitely makes developers more productive. As a Professor of English who teaches programming to humanities students, the writer has had an extremely interesting and unusual academic career [1]. He sounds awesome, but I think it's fair to suggest he may not have much experience of large scale commercial software development or be particularly well placed to predict what will or will not work in that environment. (Not that he necessarily claims to, but it's implicit in strong predictions about what the "future of programming" will be.) [1] https://stephenramsay.net/about/

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MI

>I'm considered old here, in my mid 30's I'm 62, and I'm not old yet, you're just a kid. ;-) Seriously, there are some folks here who started on punch cards and/or paper tape in the 1960s.

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AN

38 there. If you didn't suffer Win9x's 'stability', then editing X11 config files by hand, getting mad with ALSA/Dmix, writing new ad-hoc drivers for weird BTTV tuners reusing old known ones for $WEIRDBRAND, you didn't live.

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PJ

My first home computer was bought in 1986, before that the only electronics at home were Game & Watch handhelds, like Manhole. I guess I am reaching Gandalf status then. :)

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TE

> I'm considered old here, in my mid 30's, The 30s is the first decade of life that people experience where there are adults younger than them. This inevitably leads people in their 30s to start saying that they are "old" even though they generally have decades of vigor ahead of them.

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XX

> I'm considered old here, in my mid 30 That's absolutely not true. It was awkwardly funny to read that.

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AS

Good news for you: average age on HN is 42 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33480849

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