So much of my professional SWE jobs isn't even programming - I feel like this is a detail missed by so many. Generally people just stereotype SWE as a programmer, but being an engineer (in any discipline) is so much more than that. You solve problems. AI will speed up the programming work-streams, but there is so much more to our jobs than that.

Agreed.

Most of the work brought to me gets done before I even think about sitting down to type.

And it's interesting to see the divide here between "pure coder" and "coder + more". A lot of people seem to be in the job to just do what the PM, designer and business people ask. A lot of work is pushing back against some of those requests. In conversations here in HN about "essential complexity" I even see commenters arguing that the spec brought to you is entirely essential. It's not.

^This 100%. Junior SWE here. Agentic coding has kinda felt like a promotion for me. I code less by hand and spend more time on the actual engineering side of things. There’s hype in both directions though. I don’t AI is replacing me anytime soon(fingers crossed), but it’s already way more useful than the skeptics give it credit for. Like most things the truth’s somewhere in the middle.

There is also so much more you can automate and use AI agents for than "programming". It's the world's best rubber duck, for one. It also can dig through code bases and compile information on data flows, data models and so on. Hell, it can automate effectively any task you do on the terminal.

Thanks for the article - that was an interesting read. A creative take that I see some merit in

is this just a purchasable version of Borg? kubernetes on steroids?

Is there a way to instantly, quickly prompt it in the terminal, without loading the full UI? Just to get a short response without filling the terminal page.

like to just get a short response - for simple things like "what's a nm and grep command to find this symbol in these 3 folders". I use gemini alot for this type of thing already

Or would that have to be a custom prompt I write?

I use `mods` for this https://github.com/charmbracelet/mods

other people use simon willison's `llm` tool https://github.com/simonw/llm

Both allow you to switch between models, send short prompts from a CLI, optionally attach some context. I prefer mods because it's an easier install and I never need to worry about Python envs and other insanity.

Didn't know about mods, looks awesome.

-p is your friend

And if prompt is too long for -p due to shell arg limits, pipe into stdio instead

If you uv install llm Then grab my shelllm scripts github.com/irthomasthomas/shelllm and source them in your terminal then you can use premade prompt functions like shelp "what's a nm and grep command to find this symbol in these 3 folders" -m gemini-pro

There's also wrappers that place the command directly in your terminal prompt if you run shelp-c

The link you have posted 404’s and I could seem to find a command like that in your repos. Can you be more specific?

Sorry, the function is in here and it's called shelp https://github.com/irthomasthomas/shelllm.sh/blob/main/shell...

I wonder what the incentives are here. I am a FAANG engineer with a clearance - but would gladly serve my country in a role if the pay cut wasn't so severe

Today? In this current version of America? You like the idea of being deployed internally against protestors? Or maybe, Greenland sounds like a nice holiday spot?

Exactly. Let's not forget the real attempts at the government's internet censorship of previous administrations. Nobody seemed to care about that then.

Like give me a break. The previous admin took steps towards censoring real information that would be politically harmful to them, and now we're supposed to feel bad about the current admin who is taking productive steps against antagonist agents within our country?

I get that the law in this country is pliable and a nuanced subject but I'd rather deal with the latter issue - where our government is challenging the boundaries of the 1st amendment against our own enemies rather than their own people lol

Let me get this straight what the previous government did was wrong but what they now do is right because it’s against antagonist agents?

Sorry but that sounds like out of the fascist playbook.

They all just fought against „enemies“, but they decided who was declared an enemy.

In the end everybody who said anything against them was declared an enemy.

+1

Or put a few 6 axis arms on a track that goes throughout a home and have an instant home assistants

Those tracks could be at the ceiling. Imagine a robot arm in a kitchen that is dangling from the ceiling. It could be helping when needed and disappear in a cupboard after that.

exactly exactly - I already want to buy one lol.

A message on LinkedIn or email never hurt!

A previous company I worked at was using mixed reality years ago (>4) to train manufacturing operators on manufacturing processes.

It ended up looking like a simulated workbench with low-detail models of CAD parts that needed to be assembled - it was pretty cool. Engineering companies are very ready for this technology.

A local school here trains nurses in a VR environment that is situated inside a fully built out wing of a hospital. The headsets come down from the ceiling, all the equipment is real, but there are dummies in the beds, and some observation screens for others who supervise.