#programming culture

[itsgerrysnyderx70blr]

Linus Torvalds Sounds Tired of AI Hype

Linus Torvalds pushed back against the growing trend of treating AI as a cure-all for software development problems, especially when it comes to security bugs in Linux and other large projects. He argued that a lot of security issues still come down to ordinary coding mistakes, maintenance problems, and human judgment rather than something an AI tool can magically solve.

The discussion also touched on how companies keep presenting AI-generated code and automated review systems as the next big leap for software reliability. Torvalds seemed skeptical of the marketing around it, pointing out that blindly trusting generated output can create entirely new categories of bugs and maintenance headaches.

Part of the conversation focused on how open-source development actually works in practice. Large projects like Linux depend heavily on experienced maintainers reviewing patches carefully over time, and Torvalds suggested that process still matters more than flashy automation tools.

There’s also an undercurrent here about burnout in tech culture. AI keeps getting framed as a replacement for tedious engineering work, but people who maintain huge systems often sound more interested in stability, predictability, and not introducing another layer of chaos.

Final Note: A lot of AI discussions in tech feel like they’re happening between executives and investors while the people maintaining infrastructure are quietly asking whether any of this actually makes systems easier to live with day to day.

[gravelessuniverse]

I had a very interesting conversation about coding and self-esteem recently. A friend commented that most of the programmers they knew considered themselves bad programmers. When I thought about this myself, I couldn't help agreeing. I mean, the discussion began with me talking about how I'd like to transfer from raw programming over to program management because I don't think I'm a good programmer. This is in spite of being hired for my programming expertise. So, I had to question, why is it that I, along with what seemed like many others, felt this way. I certainly have friends who don't and... most of them are either working for one of the big four or are founders. Is there something about how other groups handle coding that makes the difference? Or is it a function of the job itself? My most proud moments for all of my skills happened when I was working on a hard problem that I couldn't find a solution for. And, I think that may be a large part of what causes this. The vast majority of what I do as a "Senior Developer" is search google or stack for solutions made by people who are more skilled than I am. All too frequently, I never come to a complete understanding of why this method is better or faster; it just performs better. There are a few exceptions. For instance, I have Opinions about when to use raw javascript over any of the other frameworks. However, that's the majority of my job, figuring out how to use someone else's work to solve a problem. This is especially true for commonly found use cases, aka the majority of the coding work. I don't know too much about the specifics that my confident programmer friends work on, but what I've gleaned makes it sounds much more novel than most of mine. Many other professions have large histories of knowledge that people should be pulling from, but it feels like this is more prevalent with code. For a different example, I play a lot of video games where you can look up meta-builds for any given character or build type. This builds are much better than anything I'll come up with randomly, but... playing with one of them just feels empty. I was much happier, and felt like a more skilled person, playing around with an inefficient, throw lightning that will arc between mobs build that I came up with than the super efficient meta-caster build a friend recommended. But, wound up switching to the later because I was slowing down the team. It makes me wonder about a lot of things and when it might be better for a given group to accept inefficiencies that make people happier.

[fnord888]

tfw a supposed expert is explaining New JavaScript Features That Will Let You Write Better Code™ and they illustrate async/await using an example that causes independent asynchronous functions to be run in series instead of in parallel.

[adigitalmagician]

Foo, Bar, Baz

So, software is full of nonsense words used as placeholders: for examples, for testings, for prototyping until you can solve the harder problem.

I’ve noticed, as time goes on, I’ve started defaulting to colors:

test_payload = {”blue”: true, “red”: false}

So I'm curious, other programmer types:

What's your default set of test names?

[paperairplanemob]

Back when I was in London I suffered from a nasty bout of food poisoning. I wound up spending a lot of time in bed hiding in my hotel room. I got bored and looked for something to watch on TV. A ch…

Billy Beane was allowed to languish in baseball for ten years in spite of a poor track record of success because he had the right look. Everyone was waiting for him to shake off whatever was wrong with him so that he could be the player everyone imagined he could be. Baseball scouting is less about what someone has done and more about what you can imaging them becoming.

This applies so much to technology as well. We have the myth of the 20-year-old programmer in a hoodie who writes code that changes the world. We have ingrained in ourselves what we think a programmer is and how they’re supposed to look and act. If you’re a venture capitalist, you’re not looking at a track record of past success, you’re looking for someone that feels right. You look at what you imaging that person can be rather than who they are.

[inadequateinversions]

I guess I put my foot in it when I wrote that Genome Technology article on DIY Bio. I’ve already gotten a couple of e-mails today and I can see on the Google groups DIY bio section, that I managed to offend some people by suggesting doing biotechnology successfully at home might mean that you…

[katychuang]

Ordinarily technology changes fast. But programming languages are different: programming languages are not just technology, but what programmers think in. They're half technology and half religion.

- Paul Graham, Beating the Averages

[ironfroggy-reads]

Tests sought to indentify ... programmers [who] displayed “disinterest in people” and ... disliked “activities involving close personal interaction.” It is these personality profiles, says Ensmenger, that originated our modern stereotype of the anti-social computer geek.

Well, shit. Not only did women get shoehorned out of the programming business for decades, and now are fighting to get back in, but the same forces that pushed them also hand tailored the anti-social geek stereotypes we're working so hard to correct still today.

Awesome job, really. :-/

Researcher reveals how “Computer Geeks” replaced “Computer Girls” | The Clayman Institute for Gender Research