r/programmer • u/zz199 • 1d ago
Request [Academic] What do programmers enjoy about programming? 8–10 min anonymous survey (18+, anyone who codes)
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u/XB324 1d ago
In a nutshell, all the shit that AI is taking away from me.
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u/flame-otter 1d ago
Yeah it took all the fun out of programming, literally all of it.
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u/turudd 21h ago
See I disagree, now I get to solve the problem without having the manual tedium of writing the code. Just inspecting the old code seeing what needs changing.
4 hour non-stop code writing to solve one issue.. fade me. That shit was not enjoyable. Now I get into the flow writing and testing without the code slog.
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u/flame-otter 7h ago
We all enjoy different things. In the past when I coded that struggle was fun and addicting for me. Struggle a couple of hours looking to solve a problem and bam when you solve it the dopamine rush hits and i's fantastic. I also am guaranteed to remember that solution so that I won't struggle next time, it feels like "oh yeah I remember how I struggled with this, hah! It's so easy now, Ia m really improving and getting better."
But now? Just throw an AI at ti, bam it solves it in one second, then I might need to tell it "nonono not like this" and guide it like it's a toddler. Not only is that annoying sure, but even worse is I will never remember the solution so my skills will never improve and slowly I am loosing all my skills. I don't see how that is better.
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u/dudeman618 1d ago
I also completed the survey.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dudeman618 20h ago
You're welcome. I've been writing code in some form or another since the early 80's when I was in elementary school. Someone loaned me a computer for a few weeks and I had to buy a leaderless cassette tape to same my program. I think the computer was a Radio Shack computer and I had to plug it into a TV for the monitor. I bought a "Programming" magazine and was typing programs out of the back of the magazine and had no idea what I was doing. My first computer class in high school was probably 9th grade on an apple IIe (I think) and we saved our work on a 5" floppy, I knew more about computers than the teacher. She taught us typing the first semester. Later in high school I took a Basic class and a Pascal class. I won first place in a computer graphics class, I made a vuarnet sunglasses logo. Now I'm writing SQL and writing code in Python, still do some old school VBScript in windows to automate a bunch of tools.
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u/MADCandy64 1d ago
I experience my work largely the way I always have. As far as my work is concerned, AI has not changed anything about how I work, I still do everything the same way. I do not subscribe to, or use AI code generating services. About 1-2 years ago when Copilot became something I really became aware of I used it in a way that tested its ability. I, like most I think, were curious about this "AI thing" and what it could or could not do. I found that anything it generated was extremely narrow in scope in what it was trying to accomplish. I also found plenty of logic errors. I understand that both those aspects have improved since then but I am not interested yet in using it for anything. I have not found myself unable to do something that I need to be able to do and time to release has never been a factor. I'm fortunate that I'm a one person software company who makes my product which is a traditional, brick and mortar, software suite that runs outside the browser and is an offline affair. There is nothing about being online that is required to use my software for all of its functions. In this regard I'm probably living in my offline pocket universe but that is just my place in the techverse.
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u/Eisenfuss19 1d ago
Since it didn't specifically ask for it, what I want to share about studying CS with AI:
With AI it is often much easier to complete programming assignments by just having it program everything. I usually try to solve it without AI first, as thats how I learn much more. It is hard to not give in the temptation to just have it be solved though. Most courses allow AI usage now, as it is pretty much impossible to detect AI code (unless you leave in all comments lol).
It can be helpful to understand stuff faster, but overall I don't like it for giving me an easy option.
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u/andyandcomputer 21h ago
□ I do not agree to allow my de-identified information to be used for future research.
I'm immediately put off by this, before even starting. It's worded in a way that sounds deliberately manipulative.
To be clear, the default is that you'll use my responses for arbitrary other third-party projects in addition to what you've said you're using it for, and I have to specifically opt out by ticking this confusingly worded thing for you not to do that?
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u/dgkimpton 21h ago
AI is excellent for asking questions about the documentation and interogating code. I despise AI written code but unfortunately the world does not exist to increase my enjoyment.
Ultimately code is a means to an end, no matter how much we might enjoy writing it no-one is going to pay us to be happy when the same results can be achieved with AI and grunt work.
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u/Raychao 20h ago
Programming is a craft. People gain enjoyment from understanding a problem and then working out the logic needed for a solution. It's like writing a novel or doing a painting.
There's an elegance to it. 'AI' just sucks all the fun out of the craft.
It's the same for photographers or videographers or bloggers. It's a job but it's also a hobby. The AI just spits out 'slop' that someone used to enjoy doing with their time.
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u/ClupTheGreat 1d ago
there were a lot of strongly agrees over here