Ianto Jones1h ago
Tilton Raccoon
This comment sums up why I’m so tired of programming in 2026 pretty well
Apr 5 at 2:41pmWeb
Show threadDelta Sierra1d ago

@tilton I get the sentiment, agree totally.

But, if someone slapped a circular saw out of your hands, I think they're going to say something like "Arghhhghgggg my fingers!" instead.

Show threadfraggle13h ago
@notthatdelta @tilton *slaps top of circular saw* this little baby can fi--OH MY GOD MY FINGERS ARGH
Show threadDelta Sierra1h ago
@fraggle @tilton it fits the analogy too! The people who are busy losing fingers to slapped circular saws (ie, AI boosters who try to offload their skills to a predective text generator) are going to have trouble holding any tools in the future (ie, actually doing real work).
Show threadXoa Gray1d ago
@tilton Absolutely everything in tech, 100% has been this now for years and it's so fucking old.
I'm kind of surprised even the jackasses that are huffing their own "AI" farts aren't tired of the stink at this point.
Show threadFoxVK1d ago
@tilton I think that is how being old feels like... 🤷‍♂️
Show threadThommy1d ago
@tilton yeah I fucking hate it. It’s so self-obsessed and backwards. We devs should be thinking about how best to serve end-users not fighting a holy war on behalf of dev tool vendors.
Show threadIsaac Ji Kuo21h ago

@thomasjwebb @tilton I am so so so tired of this, and it feels like it will never end, but also ...

I half live in SQL world, and it shows that there is a better way. For the most part, databases all speak one computer language SQL. Yeah, different SQL DBMS vendors have different products with different features, but for the most part you learn SQL once AND YOU ARE DONE.

No endless cycle of the next hot computer language, FOMO, lava layers, blech.

Just SQL.

Show threadThommy19h ago
@isaackuo @tilton probably one of the better use cases I've heard of Claude was someone using it to rewrite things that were written in some proprietary ORM DSL back into SQL. Using one shiny new thing to back out of a previous shiny new thing. I think a lot of Claude users are falling straight into the vendor lock-in trap making special tools for it instead of just making a damn script that they can run on their machine. And letting it make spaghetti code that humans can't understand.
Show threadMinotaurs at Work7h ago
@thomasjwebb @tilton Sorry if this is off-topic, but you just reminded me of something I need to get off my chest. Developer self-obsession is something I've been encountering in the wild since I decided to go full AGPL with everything and it's so frustrating. "Copyleft stifles other devs, use MIT!" My dear, you're not who I'm trying to help, I want my software to serve *end users!* And I'm trying to protect my end users *from other devs,* no less!
Show threadThommy2h ago
@minotaurs_at_work @tilton yeah, like sometimes other devs are my customer, like if I'm making an API, but what are we even doing if we're not trying to make everyone's lives better? It especially irks me to focus too much on programmers when we're often (not saying always!) paid better than most other professions. Like if I thought AI made software cheaper at the expense of revenue for the software industry, I'd be for it. Just that's not what it's doing at all.
Show threadjack the nonabrasive1d ago
@tilton Who wrote this? What's it a comment on? (I know it's about LLM's etc but what specific thing is it responding to?)
Show threadTilton Raccoon1d ago

@karabaic A comment on Reddit. Full context here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Common_Lisp/comments/1screye/comment/oedprrx/

Show threadpancakes🔜Bed1d ago
@tilton techbros:
Show threadBytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱21h ago
@tilton
It sounds like the old thing about "If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems start to look like nails" or similar.
The wheel turns, of course.
Show threadRealGene ☣️22m ago
@bytebro @tilton
"When all you have is a nail gun, you're going to need an air compressor."
Show threadslotos21h ago
@tilton Funny how this would be relevant 10 years ago too.
Show threadAlex Celeste, Princess Consort of Burnout4h ago

@slotos maybe

i don't remember a time when it was so explicit that actually building software didn't matter

a lot if management types are now actively arguing that the way to "achieve AI success" involves letting go of preconceptions about silly little things like shipping products, and at that point idk how to even argue with it because clearly none of the things i thought mattered were ever even goals

@tilton

Show threadslotos4h ago

@erisceleste @tilton

Almost universally:

- job adverts I had to sift through focused on tools and buzzwords, not the real goals
- interviewers couldn’t answer “what will make you consider this hire a success in half a year”, even when they were business owners
- coders focus on the next cool tool, not the thing that needs to be done
- words “verifying the outcome” make “engineers” scoff

I see clear evolution here.

Show threadWulfy—Speaker to the machines20h ago

@tilton

Nail gun's supergood tho!

CHUNK CHUNK
Yeah? You gotta admit!

CHUNK

Show threadMatthew 6h ago
@n_dimension The hashtag Blocked is sending me 💀
Show threadftg3h ago
@n_dimension @tilton
And them being a carpenter, it would very likely genuinely be so. Which sure does make it funnier.
Show threadmagic_smoke ✨🍃🏳️‍⚧️2h ago

@n_dimension @tilton

Naaaaiiilguuuun!

Show threadPaul Hutchings19h ago

@tilton waiting until we can talk about why trying to metaphorically cut lumber with a nail gun is the dumbest fucking thing ever.

Its the whole "when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail" except because it's a nail gun the misuses and mistakes happen at 10x the speed just like they are now

Show threadThe Blue Wizard17h ago
@tilton Put that nail gun against this dumb boss's forehead and squeeze the trigger. There. Problem solved. 😜
Show threadBaloo Uriza11h ago
@tilton It's honestly why I'm finding IT tedious. And all last decade people wouldn't shut the fuck up about blockchain.
Show threadTurre11h ago

@tilton
Totally. And it's not just talk, you're required to use it. That you're required to use the nail gun, regardless what it is you actually do. Even if you can't find anything else to nail than your own foot. They update your job description to state that.

And it's not just programming, it's everywhere.

Show threadKlaus Frank9h ago

@tilton
100% agree.

And then there is also the boss implementing KPIs that the one that uses more nailgun gets a payrise. Even though you're the one that needs to pull out all of these extra nails in order to put them in where they should have been placed in the first place...

Show threadAlex 6h ago
@agowa338 @tilton This is a great analogy.
Show threadVisibly Stupid Fucking Idiot8h ago
@tilton FUCK this is so accurate.
Show threadLonM8h ago
@tilton Not just that, but that the nail guns people are using will randomly fire a nail at a wonky angle about 20% of the time
Show threadLesley Lai8h ago

@tilton Yeah. I feel the same. Yesterday, I described this as DDOS on my brain.

Few people talk about actual work anymore (Maybe because many are not doing any actual work? It definitely feels like many boosters become "using nailgun to build more nailguns". It's kind of like how crypto bros changed their whole identity to revolve around crypto, but this is incredibly common now)

Show threadENIGMATICO  8h ago
@tilton Why arent you using a nail gun in 2026? Do you want to be left behind? Thats crazy!

And then the prices of everything that uses electric motors skyrocket and the stocks of electric motors plummet because they are allocating all of them for nail gun tools. Even if the company producing them fail to adquire a 40% if them.
Show threadHP van Braam8h ago
@tilton And now they are building entire houses out of nail guns. And telling people who get shot by nails from their walls that they are using their house wrong.
Show threadKevin Karhan7h ago
@tilton SO FECKING TRUE!
Show threadJames 🌈💜7h ago

@tilton

My work announced a competition, for people proposing new ideas of how to use the tool.

Less than 24 hours later we had a not-subtle country-wide meeting, about how people who work for the company need to "get on board" with the mission of the company.

Everyone is tired of this bullshit.

Show threadLuna Ruby Artemis 💛🤍💜🖤7h ago
@tilton TBH it's not really new. It's been the same when Node was made, or React, or MongoDB.
Show threadKrahabors7h ago
@tilton let's not forget that whole IT industry was meant to be just a tool to solve problems elsewhere.
Show threadKrahabors6h ago
@tilton Or let's say each industry tends to grow out of needs of another industry, often overgrowing the initial one.
I'm not a fan of AI in any way, but probably this is just another case of that happening; with a difference that it is happening in a catastrophical, artificially forced way, fed by unlimited resources of few billionaires who just want to take over everything.
Show threadRealGene ☣️17m ago
@krahabors @tilton
IT :: Nail gun Maintenance
Show threadMike Roach6h ago
@tilton This is great. Another one I saw and loved was the introduction of microwaves to restaurant kitchens. Wow, look how fast they cook food! Game changer! Microwaves are the future of cuisine! Replace the cooks with more microwaves!
Show threadRealGene ☣️8m ago

@mroach @tilton

Reminded me of when NY institution Mama Leone's opened in Boston.

The entrees were made and frozen in NY, then microwaved in Boston. It didn't take too many lasagnas served cold in the middle to end that little innovation.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/12/2/mama-leones-pbmbama-leones-restaurant-opened/

Mama Leone's | News | The Harvard Crimson

M AMA LEONE'S restaurant opened a month ago in a new building just off of Copley Square and within a

Show threadNicky Donna6h ago
@tilton “yes the nail gun sometimes puts a tomato on the wall, but imagine all the non-tomato things it can do”
Show threadbit1015h ago
@tilton
X1,000,000
Show threadZalasur 🐸🇺🇦5h ago
@tilton This sums it up so well. And yeah, it is exhausting. I was just thinking that thought this morning getting ready for work
Show threadNephrite3h ago
@tilton That's their whole marketing. They're trying their hardest to make it look like neural networks (and LLMs specifically) are super close to being turned into artificial general intelligence with just a little more investment. Personally I don't think that's gonna work. But then again fortunately I don't have billions of dollars of investments which will be worth far less if LLMs don't replace like 10% of all workers. :D
Show threadLeeloo1h ago
@tilton
Is this about Rust or AI?
Show threadIntaglio Whitegraven1h ago

@tilton On the one hand, I'd say it's fine (and understandable) to get excited about having a new tool to make one's job easier. On the other hand, tools are usually designed for one specific function. And the cost of those tools is usually prohibitive, unless one happens to have a job where one performs that function often enough to justify acquiring the tool.

New tools are almost never a panacea, and therefore should not be treated as such. Be wary of anyone who makes up reasons to use a new tool beyond what it was intended for. As the old saying goes, "if all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail."

Show threadK M Lawrence1h ago
@tilton you know what the techbros say: when all you have is a screwdriver, every problem looks like a nail.