The Seven Voyages Of Steve3d ago

I don’t want to describe what I want to a computer in plain English. I want to express it in a formalised language more akin to mathematics than prose. Unambiguous. Logical. Deterministic.

Even if describing it in English worked perfectly, and had no other downsides, I’d still hate it. Because I wouldn’t be making it, I’d be product managing it, & I *never* wanted to be a PM.

The whole point was to directly make things. To feel the digital clay in my hands. Being a supervisor is not enough.

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of Steve3d ago
Some people say it’s just like moving from assembly to a higher level language, like the LLM is a compiler. But it’s absolutely not - compilers are still formal language and completely deterministic: you can trust them to produce a known output for a given input, every single time. With such a guarantee, it truly is just an abstraction, a productivity tool with directly analogous characteristics to the thing it is building on top of. You’re still in control, every action has a traceable outcome
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of Steve3d ago
LLMs are deliberately non-deterministic. So in that regard they are more like humans I suppose; semi-random and in need of coaxing. If you like a supervising role in conditions like that I guess you’re fine, but I don’t. I like to make things with tools that do exactly what I say, every time, like clockwork. Even if it takes longer than asking someone / something else to do it for me. Because the making was the point.
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of Steve
I guess the signs have been there for years that I was done with the “industry” part of tech, or it was done with me. It’s been pivoting to things I don’t like for a while: web tech for everything, dependence on big cloud services, gobs of micro dependencies hand-waved through with automation. Even desktop apps have succumbed to it. Gamedev has been a my bolt hole, a niche that still works how I like. I guess I’ve been hiding here from the truth of where the broader tech industry has been headed
Mar 28 at 11:03amWeb
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of Steve3d ago
Ah well, I started out as a hobbyist - my first 7-8 years out of school I did other jobs and wrote code in my spare time. I guess I will leave the workplace as sort of a hobbyist as well. I’m lucky that I’m older, and eking out a living until retirement is doable, if unglamorous. It’s not a fancy lifestyle but I’m very lucky I can do that. Ultimately I’d rather use my finite remaining time down this path than others. And who knows, maybe the game will sell enough to pay wages one day. Ha