This is well written so if AI wrote some of it I can't tell, but there is an advantage in not using AI at all to write. It makes you think better, and carefully craft sentences. It is also more respectful to the audience.
dedicate · 38m ago
So we're basically prompt engineering... for our prompt engineering? Feels a bit like 'Inception,' lol.
jansan · 58m ago
The first example about writing a Linkedin article. Yes, that is exactly where I would expect the AI generated flood of articles to be published, and I pity those who actually read them and think they have any kind of relevance. That of course will not keep me from flooding my own Linkedin account with AI generated irrelevant articles, because that's what Linkedin users crave.
ivape · 2h ago
I'm on hot-take fire today, so may as well keep it going. I'm of the opinion this is the new field of programming. Think of it like Game Engine scripting. The engine is made, but all the level design is going to have to be done with scripting. People that know how to design innovative and practical prompt solutions are going to be quite valuable. In fact, Prompt Engineering is all that's left. Don't even try to out-hot-take me on this one.
Doches · 1h ago
I'll take that challenge.
Even if you're 100% accurate that the advent of LLMs means that the field of software engineering has effectively devolved into prompt engineering and AI-wrangling, that is a change that we should fight with full-throated, actual-Luddite levels of defense. Your own analogy – the way a tiny, tiny core of 'real' engineers develop game engines, and then the entire field of game development just 'scripts' those engines – sends up a ton of red flags for me.
(Aside: as an erstwhile game developer 'just scripting game engines' is...underselling the craft of programming in game development, but whatever).
For a long time game development has been a weird shadow version of the rest of the tech industry. We're influenced by the same macro trends (e.g. ZIRP, VC fads) and the mood and zeitgeist generally rhyme as a result. But if you look at the drive to unionise game developers vs. same impulse in the mainstream tech industry the feeling is COMPLETELY different.
What's the incentive to unionise if you're a SWE at Meta, Palantir, or Google? Your job is pretty great, your work-life balance is at least not fundamentally out of control, and your STARTING salary puts you in the top 10% of US households. It is probably the last remaining holdout of the 1970s upper-middle-class dream jobs.
And if you're the equivalent engineer at EA, Activision, or Ubisoft? You can expect seasonal layoffs, a good work-life balance means you sleep at home instead of under your desk at least once a week, and your take-home pay is just sufficient to let you split the rent on an outer LA apartment that's just inside tolerable commuting range. Equity? What's that? Management treats you like a disposable cog AND BRAGS ABOUT IT, like they have for the last thirty years.
This is what we want to become? This is the future we're embracing?
empiko · 12m ago
My hot take on meta prompting is that it is mostly not needed. Most workflows people want to build have only one or two trivial steps. You can usually get pretty close with just playing around with the prompt for a bit.
pmg101 · 2h ago
I'd like to think that posters to HN are good wranglers of prose.
It'll be fortunate if that turns out to be a major industry skill!
Even if you're 100% accurate that the advent of LLMs means that the field of software engineering has effectively devolved into prompt engineering and AI-wrangling, that is a change that we should fight with full-throated, actual-Luddite levels of defense. Your own analogy – the way a tiny, tiny core of 'real' engineers develop game engines, and then the entire field of game development just 'scripts' those engines – sends up a ton of red flags for me.
(Aside: as an erstwhile game developer 'just scripting game engines' is...underselling the craft of programming in game development, but whatever).
For a long time game development has been a weird shadow version of the rest of the tech industry. We're influenced by the same macro trends (e.g. ZIRP, VC fads) and the mood and zeitgeist generally rhyme as a result. But if you look at the drive to unionise game developers vs. same impulse in the mainstream tech industry the feeling is COMPLETELY different.
What's the incentive to unionise if you're a SWE at Meta, Palantir, or Google? Your job is pretty great, your work-life balance is at least not fundamentally out of control, and your STARTING salary puts you in the top 10% of US households. It is probably the last remaining holdout of the 1970s upper-middle-class dream jobs.
And if you're the equivalent engineer at EA, Activision, or Ubisoft? You can expect seasonal layoffs, a good work-life balance means you sleep at home instead of under your desk at least once a week, and your take-home pay is just sufficient to let you split the rent on an outer LA apartment that's just inside tolerable commuting range. Equity? What's that? Management treats you like a disposable cog AND BRAGS ABOUT IT, like they have for the last thirty years.
This is what we want to become? This is the future we're embracing?
It'll be fortunate if that turns out to be a major industry skill!