Baldur BjarnasonMar 4

(Following thread was prompted by people pointing out that the Bluesky dev team seems heavily into vibe-coding now and originally posted on said vibe-coded Bluesky platform that is now constantly failing.)

Over the past year, every single time one of the apps or services I use suddenly became less reliable and more buggy, I never have to look far for the "Claude is amazing and now writes most of my code" post for the devs involved.

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonMar 4

Best part? It's always somebody with years of experience. Exactly the demographic that is supposedly able to use this shit safely, but my impression is they're just as bad as the novices

This is happening IMO because of one of the fundamental issues with software dev (and this predates "AI" and was one of the themes of my first book):

Most software projects fail and most of what gets shipped doesn't work. The way the industry is set up means there is little downside to shipping broken software

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonMar 4

Few devs have a reference point for genuinely working software. Usability labs were disbanded over 20 years ago. Very few companies do actual user research, so their designs are based on fiction. Bugs are the norm

Alienation is also the norm for devs, both socially and organisationally. Whether it works for the end user doesn't cross their mind. Whether the design fulfils business needs is not their problem. Bugs are a future problem. Ship insecure software and patch it as user data gets stolen

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonMar 4

Devs are so disconnected from the output of their work that many of the norms of the industry are outright illegal: there's a good chance that if you follow popular practices for a React project, for example, you'll end up with a site or product that violates accessibility law in several countries

Few devs would even know where to begin to look to answer the question "does my software work for the people forced to use it?"

Show threadAlda VigdísMar 5
@baldur The disconnect (or alienation) is so baked into the industry that you'll get flagged as "potentially problematic" if you express field experience in the industry the software you interview for working on is aimed at.
Show threadEnola KnezevicMar 5

@alda @baldur In my previous workplace, e-health, I pointed out that certain corner-cutting would cause patients to die.

My team lead: "You should come to the office to get COVID, so that you think less."

Show threadAlda VigdísMar 5
@rhelune @baldur Yup. People like that are so used to business software being shit that even if healthcare should be considered life critical, stuff like this isn't considered to be "real engineering" anyway.
Show threadEnola KnezevicMar 5
@alda @baldur It seems to me that the field (management positions in any case) is attracting people without conscience.
Show threadAlda VigdísMar 5
@rhelune @baldur The game is about hiding your incompetence while pleasing those above you long enough to get promoted.
Show threadThe Witch of Crow Briar
@alda @rhelune @baldur oh, so much this. I would not have wanted to play that game even if I could, but not realizing the others around me were playing it really fucked me over.
Mar 5 at 3:42pmWeb
Show threadAlda VigdísMar 5
@crowbriarhexe @rhelune @baldur This is basically the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear or read something akin to "autistic people have a difficult time getting promoted in the workplace".