Item — HN Reader

Hi, I'm David and I run the "What are you working on?" posts. I hear what you're saying and yet I think it's just the new reality. There will be more projects and some of those will be quickly-made vibe-coded projects. I'm not against it.

In Moveable Feast, Hemingway talks about being opposed to ski lifts (which were probably fairly new at the time). He thought, if you're fit enough to hike up the mountain, you're going to be fit enough to ski down without getting injured; it opens skiing up to people who maybe shouldn't be skiing. I deeply prefer ski lifts. :-) And I love agentic AI coding.

I guess what I'm saying is that we shouldn't compare it to the past, because that's gone. And yet, each month the number of comments breaks 1000, so "drowning" is a fair word for just number of projects alone. And I don't have any answers.

Anyway, you (and anyone reading this) can feel free to email me. My email in my profile.

3 comments

It doesn't seem like you hear what they're saying at all.

Writing code to coax computers into doing specific things in specific ways is a craft, trade, and art form older than pretty much anybody alive today.

Writing prose instructions to direct LLM's to generate that code also produces software, but it's essentially a different craft/trade/art altogether.

Whatever success the latter claims in commerce or mindshare, both of these arts will coexist for longer than anybody will be around.

It's completely natural to carve out spaces where people who appreciate the process or character of hand-crafted projects can discuss those projects without people talking about a whole different thing crowding out their conversations.

I heard what they're saying, and while I don't personally agree with it, I can see it's shared by a lot of people.

Personally, I'm not sure a separate thread makes sense. What if people mark their project as "[ARTISAN]" like they do with [Remote] in Who's Hiring? Any other ideas?

I would also prefer it to be on the same thread. I think "[Non-AI]" or "[NO-AI]" might be more obvious, though.

I had only ever known ski lifts.

One day, way before the lifts had started, I hiked up the mountain, snowboard under my arm. Trudging, my breath heavy, lungs filling, oxygen, snow, blue sky, cold but my body warmed. There was not one track in the fresh powder. My snowboard was slower in the powder, and I felt safe in the knowledge. I had to work a little harder. Carving.

The analogy would be would I rather watch someone ski at the winter olympics or tear around in a snowmobile.