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noduermelast Sunday at 10:13 AM2 repliesview on HN

You're not crazy at all. I engineer pretty-big full stack systems for a living, as a lone coder. I relish when I actually sit down and write the code. To turn a customer concept into animated UI functionality. To write a cron task that auto-generates a weekly prize contest. To hand-craft SQL and add a new feature that lets people see 10 years of data in a new way, on an old codebase.

I've let Claude run around my code and asked it for help, etc. Once in awhile it's able to diagnose some weird issues - like last month, it actually helped me figure out why PixiJS was creating undefined behavior after textures were destroyed on the GPU, in a very specific case. But the truth is, I wouldn't hire an intern or an employee to write my code because they won't be able to execute exactly what I have in mind.

Ironically, in my line of work, I spend 5x as many hours thinking about what to build and how to build it as I do coding it. The fun part is coding it. And, that's the only time I charge for. I may spend 10 hours thinking about how to do something, drawing diagrams, making phone calls to managers and CEOs, and I won't charge any of that time. When I'm ready to sit down and write the code:

I go to a bar.

I turn my phone off.

I work for 6 hours, have 4 drinks, and bill $300 per hour.

I don't suspect that the kind of coding I'm doing, which includes all the preparation and thought that went into it, and having considered all edge cases in advance, is going to be replaced by LLMs. Or by the children who use LLMs. They didn't have much of a purchase on taking my job before, anyway... but sadly the ones who are using this technology now have almost no hope of ever becoming proficient at their profession.


Replies

kaffekakalast Sunday at 2:08 PM

What you describe sounds very pleasant and I am sure it leads to great results. I kind of envy you.

However, these two things are different: the kind of work that feels fulfilling, meaningful and even beautiful, versus: delivering the needed/wanted product.

A vibe coded solution that basically works, for a quarter of the cost, has advantages.

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spockzlast Sunday at 10:44 AM

I like how you work! To be fair though, all of that quality and the other work of thinking is probably already included in the €|$300/hour rate.

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