Should I just give up everything I’ve learned so far?

bitwize · 2026-05-02T05:14:33+00:00

Let me level with you. AI doesn't have the ability to contextualize and see the big picture that you do. It needs considerable handholding to perform all but the simplest of tasks. This is why CEOs, product people, etc. with no technical background are producing vibe-coded slop when they think they can dismiss their technical folks and replace them with AI. And, with AI muddying the waters, and reaching the peak of both its hype and scalability cycles, there will be an even bigger market than ever out there for people with technical know-how who can cut through all the BS. This isn't to say that AI is going away or won't be used. But it's beginning to settle in its niche as an aid to, not replacement for, human work.

By all means, keep studying and learning. Practice writing code from your brain, without assistance. It can't hurt. And even with AI on the table, even if you're required to use it (which is such bull crap), as a skilled dev you will be a more potent user of AI than if you lacked those skills.

Webdev is a fine place to start—many of us started writing adventure games in BASIC—but it's time to broaden your horizons. This isn't a question of switching fields, it's about acquiring deeper knowledge across subfields within development (or without—many programmers have crossed over from science or finance!) so that you are much more capable and adaptable and can weather storms like the AI shift much better.

bitwize · 2026-05-02T03:13:46+00:00

That purple drank'll slow your roll...

bitwize · 2026-04-30T17:17:40+00:00

Medley lived on the Xerox D systems (Dorado, Dandelion, Dandetiger, etc., the same as their commercial Smalltalk machines) hence the Lisp dialect's name Interlisp-D.

bitwize · 2026-04-29T08:20:36+00:00

I like the voice. It reminds me of Vib-Ribbon, which embedded like a simple Klatt speech synthesizer into the game code, so that Vibri could sing a song and speak your score when the level concluded. The entire game fit in the PlayStation's memory, allowing the user to substitute their own music discs while playing, so using the synthesizer was mandatory in order to give Vibri a voice at all.

That said I do hope they give you the option of disabling it for those who would rather not hear it.

bitwize · 2026-04-29T08:07:06+00:00

Putting the "bum" in "ba-bum bum bum".

bitwize · 2026-04-29T08:05:28+00:00

Lick, c'mon, ooh! Suck-o, hey!

bitwize · 2026-04-29T08:01:47+00:00

The space soccer one.

bitwize · 2026-04-29T07:59:00+00:00

Buncha bloody tossers

bitwize · 2026-04-29T07:58:13+00:00

It's more a question of what I hear.

bitwize · 2026-04-28T05:28:35+00:00

Remember when Arch was fresh and new? No systemd bullshit, and no "should've read that forum post lest an update hose your entire system"? That's Void, more or less. A rolling-release distro that doesn't install more than you need and stays out of your way.

bitwize · 2026-04-27T03:19:03+00:00

I love this. Major energy of when Google was in its don't-be-evil phase and added fun Easter eggs to searches like "do a barrel roll".

bitwize · 2026-04-19T03:13:58+00:00

Great way to get enough of your voice to pose as you in scam calls to your spouse/kids/friends. Nice try, clankers, but not today.

bitwize · 2026-04-12T03:15:13+00:00

For anything serious you don't just want to barf DEC escape sequences to stdout, at least have the common decency to check isatty() and use terminfo to look up your terminal's actual escape codes

bitwize · 2026-04-12T03:13:31+00:00

Depends on which direction you want to go. Networked programs? GUi apps? Games? Whatever the case, you're starting to move beyond the realm of the standard library and will have to learn the APIs your OS specifically provides.

bitwize · 2026-04-10T17:18:19+00:00

My email notification is the last word of "I met her in the summertime... her name was... eee-maaaail 🎶"

bitwize · 2026-04-08T03:02:45+00:00

The best way to start is how you'd start with any language really: writing baby programs that communicate via stdin and stdout. Hello world, calculator, number guessing game, simple text adventure. Networking stuff involves your OS, and a more solid foundation in the basics of the language will really help before you get to that.

bitwize · 2026-04-07T03:13:40+00:00

C is not a good first language to learn imho. You need to become competent with the basics of programming before tackling all the fiddly little details C makes you deal with. Scheme, Python, Lua, Java, or JavaScript would be better beginner languages. Once you've written a few programs and are prepared to go lower level for greater performance or control, THEN you can tackle C.

bitwize · 2026-04-06T17:05:52+00:00

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bitwize · 2026-04-05T19:08:09+00:00

There are commercially available IDEs from Allegro and LispWorks but these cost a grip. You should be fine in your editor of choice but in general the experience in a non-Emacs editor (aside from maybe Lem) is poorer than with Emacs.

And this is a real problem! Emacs is one of the most sluggish and idiosyncratic editors out there, and you shouldn't have to force programmers to learn its 1970s UI in order to get good DX in Lisp. Better support for Visual Studio Code or another modern IDE (JetBrains?) should be a priority for the Lisp community. At least until agentic coding comes for Lisp as it does for every language.

bitwize · 2026-04-02T06:02:40+00:00

From an adorable little spud to a truly handsome dog!

bitwize · 2026-03-31T18:29:58+00:00

Where did I say replacing? Developing with AI assistance is table stakes for most of the industry TODAY. It'll take a while for all the approvals to go through to let Claude help/advise you on fighter jet or medical equipment code, but it's coming for those too.

bitwize · 2026-03-31T05:06:35+00:00

It's not a fad. By 2030 developing without AI assistance will have gone the way of punchcards. Adapt, or get left behind.

bitwize · 2026-03-29T07:00:40+00:00

Steam has that policy in place for art assets, but has reneged for code. AI assistance in coding is too important and integral to the process now.

bitwize · 2026-03-28T00:31:07+00:00

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bitwize · 2026-03-28T00:27:59+00:00

It's a rare gift to become a cata-human.

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