> Another way to look at this is that AI coding agents take the fun out of a software engineer's job.

Completely backwards - the fun in the job should be to solve problems and come up with solutions. The fun in the job is not knowing where to place a semicolon.

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palmotea 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>> Another way to look at this is that AI coding agents take the fun out of a software engineer's job.

> Completely backwards - the fun in the job should be to solve problems and come up with solutions.

Aren't the coding agents supposed to be doing that too? You give them the problem, they code up a solution, then the engineer is left with the review it to see if it's good enough.

> The fun in the job is not knowing where to place a semicolon.

That's like such a minor and easy-to-do thing that I'm surprised you're even bringing it up.

	▲	JohnMakin 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Eh, that’s not at all how I do it. I like to design the architecture and spec and let them implement the code. That is a fun skill to exercise. Sometimes I give a little more leeway in letting them decide how to implement, but that can go off the rails. imho “tell them what you want and let them come up with a solution” is a really naive way to use these tools nearly guaranteed to end up with slopware. the more up front design I’ve given thought to, they are usually very accurate in delivering to the point I dont need to spend very much time reviewing at all. and, this is a step I would have had to do anyway if doing it by hand, so it feels natural, and results in far more correct code more often than I could have on my own, and allows multitasking several projects at once, which would have been impossible before.

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dijksterhuis 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the fun in the job should be to

man... can we not just accept that individuals have their own motivations and maybe my reasons for wanting to do the job aren't the same as yours?

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gonzalohm 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The fun of the job is building a piece of software that's beautifully written. It's a way of expressing yourself

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oidar 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The fun in the job is not knowing where to place a semicolon.

If a person needs an LLM to figure where an semicolon goes, a LLM is not going to help them code.

	▲	kevinob11 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don't need one to know where it goes, but it certainly is better than I am at never missing one.

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lelanthran 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Completely backwards - the fun in the job should be to solve problems and come up with solutions.

You don't need to be a software engineer to do that.

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mark242 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Except you kind of do -- understanding data structures, understanding software engineering concepts, all of the things that you learn as a good engineer, those are ways that you help guide the LLM in its work.

	▲	lelanthran 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Except you kind of do -- understanding data structures, understanding software engineering concepts, all of the things that you learn as a good engineer, How do you learn that without programming?
	▲	irishcoffee 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't think kids are learning those things in 2026, they just ask an LLM. Someone posted on here the other day about how they were taking a non-credit writing class in college so as to improve their writing, that was the reason the course existed. 90% of the class was kicked out because they were using LLMs to write for them, when the entire purpose of the class was to improve ones own writing. Why do you think it will be any different with programming?

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theshackleford 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the fun in the job should be

I think i'm going to let people decide for themselves what they enjoy in their job rather than pretending I know better than they do what they should and should not enjoy.

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autoexec 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Companies aren't investing in AI because they want to solve the problem of semicolon placement. They want AI to solve problems and come up with solutions. Then they want to fire most of their programmers and force the rest to do nothing but check over and fix the slop their marketing departments are churning out.

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plagiarist 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't know why they'd stop at most programmers instead of all programmers. And the marketing department will also be AI. Companies want AI to remove the need for any labor so they can more directly gain money based on already having money.

	▲	autoexec 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They'll need at least a few programmers because AI doesn't actually work very well and fixes will be required. The marketing department may end up replaced by AI but so far marketers have convinced companies that they're so essential that even the most popular and well known brands in the world feel the need to spend billions on more and more marketing. If anyone can talk their way into staying employed it'll be marketers.
	▲	Avicebron 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> directly gain money based on already having money. I'm stealing this.

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jason-festa 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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chris_money202 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Exactly, the fun part is when the code works and does what you wanted it to do. Writing code itself is not fun. People forget this because they get small wins / dopamine hits along the way, a clever function, an elegant few lines of code, a bug fix, but the majority of that time coding is just a grind until the end where you get the big dopamine hit.

	▲	HendrikHensen 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Fun is not measured objectively. Different people find different things fun. I enjoy writing code very much (in addition to solving big problems; one can enjoy both).

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bluefirebrand 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> the fun in the job should be to solve problems and come up with solutions

Who are you to tell anyone what the fun "should" be?

Personally, I find writing code very fun, because building the solution is also very gratifying.

Besides which, in my experience until you actually write the code you haven't proven that you solved anything. It's so easy to think you have solved a problem when you haven't, but you won't figure that out until you actually try to apply your solution

> The fun in the job is not knowing where to place a semicolon.

This can be solved with simple linters, no need for LLMs