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Colin McMillenSide effects of #MLL coding include amassing expertise, and pride in your work.
thezerobit@colin_mcmillen
The craft of writing code and building quality software isn't going anywhere. I expect that in a few years people who have been continuing to sharpen their skills will be wildly more valuable to companies looking to wrangle whatever mess they've put themselves in.
The craft of writing code and building quality software isn't going anywhere. I expect that in a few years people who have been continuing to sharpen their skills will be wildly more valuable to companies looking to wrangle whatever mess they've put themselves in.
Lykso@colin_mcmillen The Wendell Berry school of programming!
Fritz Adalis@colin_mcmillen @aburka
> 100% understood code
I've pulled plenty of code out of my brain where I have 0% idea how it works.
ache
Stefan Scholl@colin_mcmillen https://programming-motherfucker.com/ needs an update.
ʙᴇɴ ᴄᴏᴛᴛᴇяɪʟʟ@colin_mcmillen @Binder I’m re-learning how to code after about 20 years. Going right back to basics, even touch typing. This is part of the joy.
Seen loads of courses on how to vibe code. Don’t want that, “make pong in 30 seconds” NO!
Have seen tech bros argue that it’s the same as compiling stuff. Again no!
One is a direct conversion, the other is throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
What happened to the fun of making sprites bounce around the screen?
Seen loads of courses on how to vibe code. Don’t want that, “make pong in 30 seconds” NO!
Have seen tech bros argue that it’s the same as compiling stuff. Again no!
One is a direct conversion, the other is throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
What happened to the fun of making sprites bounce around the screen?
Mason Loring Bliss@colin_mcmillen I like that you're calling it a labour of love. There was a time just before the dot-com crash when EVERYONE was getting into programming because it was big money. Those of us in it for love looked on, aghast, as our field was overridden by people who only cared about money, making it all the harder to find work.
This feels like the next iteration of that time, only people learning how to program didn't cause them cognitive harm.
And that suggests that this might be cyclic. I wonder what the next one will be. If it's a quarter of a century away I plan to still be working in the industry. It's what I love.
Jen@mason @colin_mcmillen a quarter-century cycle sounds about right.
Wasn't it around the 70s that people realised there was a future in computers, men moved in, wages went up, and women (the original programmers because "it's like knitting patterns") were pushed out?
Wasn't it around the 70s that people realised there was a future in computers, men moved in, wages went up, and women (the original programmers because "it's like knitting patterns") were pushed out?
Cap Ybarra@colin_mcmillen holy shit, i'd better learn this or i'll get left behind. time to make it my entire personality
Dauphin1@colin_mcmillen I don't get why people militantly fight against llms and vibecoding.
Besides when was the last time anything manual won against automation?
Besides when was the last time anything manual won against automation?
VoquiLeibbrandt pas un pseudo@dauphin1 @colin_mcmillen Last time was last art auction ?
@VoquiLeibbrandt @colin_mcmillen
Not on that scale.
But OK, I guess you heard about it on you handwritten newspaper.
Not on that scale.
But OK, I guess you heard about it on you handwritten newspaper.
@dauphin1 @colin_mcmillen Sorry, my answer was generated by neuralink on top of an oyster
RokosunI don't think you understand what labor of love means, not everything is a competition which has to be won.
@dauphin1 @colin_mcmillen there are a lot of reasons, none of which have anything to do with opposing automation. It’s more about making automations that are usable, intelligible, maintainable, efficient, and so on, along with limiting resource consumption of development to the use of a single computer, and maintaining at least the possibility of respecting the rights of programmers as workers. Doing the opposite of any of those things is harmful; LLMs do the opposite of all of them
Loïs@dauphin1 @colin_mcmillen 1. dependency to external service (at least for the moment)
2. understanding of all your code base
3. "vibecoding" is really a shitty term, especially when we expect sofwares to give exact results - not "viby" results
2. understanding of all your code base
3. "vibecoding" is really a shitty term, especially when we expect sofwares to give exact results - not "viby" results
Frank Barton@colin_mcmillen as someone with ties to K12 education… MLL : Multi Language Learner
I guess that works too
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑@colin_mcmillen
Well, not quite always 100%.
Well, not quite always 100%.
psu_13That was a great blog post, good read 🙂 The idea of manual labor of love and slow code reminds me of the trade-free movement. When everything's made for profit then it will naturally lead to a place where all they care about is that, to make a profit. There are still some good trade-free projects out there, like the ones listed here - https://www.directory.trade-free.org/
We should understand that trade is an overall negative influence on our society, and promote trade-free projects
Trade-Free Directory
These goods and services are submitted and reviewed by people like you. We cannot guarantee that all of what you see here is trade-free, since at times it is very difficult to review them all and do so properly. This is why we need your help! Submit and Review! Let’s create a wonderful directory of trade-free stuff! Because we are trying to be 100% transparent, we are making public all of the submissions that were rejected. You can find the list here where you can also object to that decision. Alexandria.org Alexandria.org is a non-profit, ad free search engine. Our goal is to provide the best… read more Webbkoll This tool helps you check what data-protecting measures a site has taken to help you… read more SOS Children’s Villages SOS Children’s Villages also known as Save Our Soul is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit international… read more AntennaPod AntennaPod is a podcast player that is completely open. The app is open-source and you… read more Equal Rights Beyond Borders Equal Rights Beyond Borders is a charitable organization, founded in 2016, headquartered in Berlin, Germany,… read more World Food Programme The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations and the… read more Back In Time Back In Time – A simple backup tool for Linux read more Mixxx Mixxx is free and open-source software for DJing. It is cross-platform and supports most common… read more php-proxy-app Web Proxy Application built on php-proxy library ready to be installed on your server. Keep… read more 2048 Play the highly addictive 2048 game. GNOME 2048 is a clone of the popular single-player… read more QOwnNotes QOwnNotes is a free open source (GPL) plain-text notepad. The program has support for markdown,… read more Dentists for Africa Dentists for Africa is a humanitarian aid organization that strengthens and promotes the local population… read more MapYourGrid We empower individuals, communities and nations around the world to map the electrical grid. read more Pacemaker Pacemaker is an open-source high availability resource manager software used on computer clusters since 2004…. read more KgoldRunner KGoldrunner is an action game where the hero runs through a maze, climbs stairs, dig… read more Furiousfive Furiousfive is website app delivering you HIIT workouts. No ads, no registration. They have app… read more Easystroke Easystroke is a gesture-recognition application for X11. Gestures or strokes are movements that you make… read more Peekier Peekier (pronounced /’pi·ki·er/) is a new way to search the web. Peek through search results… read more endoflife.date End-of-life (EOL) and support information is often hard to track, or very badly presented. endoflife.date… read more SOS Humanity SOS Humanity is a search and rescue organisation working to ensure that no one dies… read more what are they offering? audio player bittorrent client books browser calendar cloud storage cursor data desktop theme documentaries education Etherpad Instance feed file hosting file sharing games humanitarian aid icon theme Jitsi Meet Instance maps media player medical care messaging messenger microblogging mobile operating system movies Mumble Instance music music player operating system p2p password manager privatebin instance puzzle game rss search engine sharing platform social network software text editor torrents video editor videos web browser Search Search latest reviews No Title 14/03/2026 Review of Find Your Love Private Service well, what to say about this “service” – seems to be a trade-free “dating plattform”? there seem to be really no ads on the website, but everyone should be aware about “finding the love of your life online”. They also don’t provide any warranty for this service: “This service is provided without any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. The service is provided on an “as is” basis, and we do not guarantee that it will be error-free, completely secure, or uninterrupted.” (https://fml.srht.site/terms.html) No Title 14/03/2026 Review of wanderer Wanderer is an exciting decentralised project and can be listed in this directory, as it is freely available and does not ask anything of its users (the community). There is no data trading, no premium or pro features, etc. No Title 14/03/2026 Review of The Apple Wiki except a cloudflare tracker, this wiki seems trade-free which is why 4/5 blocks may be given. No Title 28/01/2026 Review of Invidious Instances List This is a good alternative for YouTube, I really like it. No Title 20/12/2025 Review of waterwaymap a super cool map that shows waterflows and rivers all around the world. When I looked closely, I could see via the browser extension privacy badger (https://privacybadger.org/) that there is a tracker (analytics.ahrefs.com) on the website which is unnecessary I think. Also ublock origin (https://ublockorigin.com/) blocked gc.zgo.at which seems to be a open source web analytics platform (https://pkg.go.dev/zgo.at/goatcounter/v2#section-readme). Maybe 3/5 blocks because of that.
BTW, if anyone is interested in learning more about the trade-free movement then I recommend watching the TROM II documentary here - https://www.tromsite.com/documentaries/trom2/
Or on the #peertube page directly - https://videos.trom.tf/w/p/fVpfZ9VfWrWawHkggKi7Wz
I feel like this documentary is now more important than ever, looking at the current state of our world.
TROM 2
TROM II: A Message to the Aliens Year: 2023 / Duration: 4 parts, 5 hours We live in a world where everyone is busy, everyone is consumed, everyone seems confused. Money, social credits, ads, data collection, prices and billionaires. Climate change? Who cares! A one-marble world, floating in a giant soup of stars and planets, …
Tristan Colgate-McFarlane@colin_mcmillen 1"00% understood" feels like a direct attack on the perl community! (How long do we have to understand it for?)
GlitchyXP@colin_mcmillen sure it'll be harder, but it will also be better, faster and stronger!
SecondUniverse (she/her/they)@colin_mcmillen MLL! Love it!
rina@colin_mcmillen i "only" need to find a job in MLL 
@rina that might be the hardest part in 2026, yes 🥲
Iron Bug@colin_mcmillen I'm full time practicing MLL programmer. I do this for decades and I enjoy the process.