Post B5Q3DeXWwUdGsFHSpE by skyfaller@jawns.club
(DIR) More posts by skyfaller@jawns.club
(DIR) Post #B5PxsiJFETliiGnKwi by zzt@mas.to
1 likes, 1 repeats
as much as I hate the industry surrounding it, I cannot imagine hating my own craft so much that I’d ever reduce it to thisit feels unfair that I know so many people who agonize over beautiful code and suffer from imposter syndrome but this little fucker from nvidia can argue against the existence of beauty in what we do because capital demands it and his disdain for what he does reinforces itcode is art, and LLM code is ugly, regardless of what capital wants https://nondeterministic.computer/@mjg59/116424732252818630
(DIR) Post #B5PxsiYqIUFHUe5nG4 by tarmil@mastodon.tarmil.fr
1 likes, 0 repeats
@zzt Sometimes I'm afraid I've become too jaded and cynical about my craft, and then I read a comment like that and I realize that you know what, I'm fine actually. The world may have taken some of my soul, but I've still got more than that.
(DIR) Post #B5PxsigdpUU3spk1Pk by zzt@mas.to
1 likes, 1 repeats
like, it’s actively depressing to me that there are people who program who have never looked at code and found it aesthetically pleasingwe really shouldn’t let anyone like that dictate what code is, because it’s clear they don’t understand. I don’t let a finance bro choose what I read (they’d tell me to ingest some airport lounge cult self-help nonsense) or what art hangs on my walls (“I don’t know, what’s expensive?”), why would I let the computer equivalent tell me about beautiful code?
(DIR) Post #B5Pxsj1uYPUuwnh0ZE by zzt@mas.to
0 likes, 0 repeats
we exist in a world with poetrywhere the way words are organized is part of the beautyhow can the same not apply to code?do you not have eyes?
(DIR) Post #B5PxsjMpIeEBzfTiAS by zzt@mas.to
0 likes, 0 repeats
I’m very curiouswhen a mathematician calls an equation or a method to solve it beautiful, what do you think they’re referring to?when I doodle lambda calculus in my little notebook and line up all the transformations just so, do you imagine I’m doing it for any reason other than because it looks and feels aesthetically nice? my brain likes it even though it’s not useful.when I write my Haskell like an equation on a whiteboard and my lisp like a sentence, what do you imagine I’m doing?
(DIR) Post #B5PxsjinyvoD5plGQS by zzt@mas.to
0 likes, 0 repeats
every long-running personal project I’ve ever done has been built on code I consider beautifulI design fucking languages and frameworks on the basis that I’ve found a more aesthetically pleasing way to do something, because if I find it beautiful then it’s probably worth doingthe only time I write ugly code is when I’m forced to by my employer or when I’m solving a problem that shouldn’t existwhat does that tell you about your code, asshole?
(DIR) Post #B5PxtCz7BN5PqocCNE by Kiloku@burnthis.town
1 likes, 0 repeats
@zzt I agree with you, but as an aside, I also find his thread really weird because he's arguing against a position that at least from what I've seen is pretty low on the list of reasons to be against LLM generated code...
(DIR) Post #B5PxyL58VMqwPZsUuO by hipsterelectron@circumstances.run
1 likes, 0 repeats
@Kiloku @zzt one of the many individuals i have a grudge against
(DIR) Post #B5Q3De7IW1eHYt0Vw8 by kalviter@hol.ogra.ph
0 likes, 0 repeats
@zzt@mas.to sorry i keep sending you blog links but this relates to a thing I said a year ago! https://rustredriver.com/blog/20250310-cyberia-source-code-as-narrative.htmlthe programmers refusal to engage with their identity as a writer renders it impossible to see their own use of language as artistic. It can only exist as assembly-line machine-like production, because all you can do is "make more words" to accomplish any of your goals
(DIR) Post #B5Q3DeXWwUdGsFHSpE by skyfaller@jawns.club
1 likes, 0 repeats
@kalviter @zzt Code is a form of communication that must both deliver clear instructions to the computer *and* explain itself to other humans, so that the software can be understood, maintained and improved. (And help programmers learn, ideally.)LLMs are an assault on not just art, but all communication. (Art to me is about communicating the ineffable / indescribable, like sharing feelings themselves instead of just a discussion about feelings.)Alternately, communication is an art.
(DIR) Post #B5Q3FGWbCVJ0yJc8G0 by navi@social.vlhl.dev
2 likes, 0 repeats
@zzt > Every line of code I write is a copy of another line of code I've read somewhere before, lightly modified to meet my needsand dozen of art pieces are inspired by the art that came before, to varying degrees -- basically no one is out there inventing brand new, never seen before, painting techniquesas creative en-devours go, coding ain't that far from other forms of such -- it just happens to often have more focus on the "functional"(and you can even compare corpo shitty code to peak of capitalism art like mass produced tv shows of awful quality, imo)llms aren't special when it comes to code vs art, it's the same shit, awful on both ends (and lovely how those people always ignore the ethical problems w/ llms)
(DIR) Post #B5Q3MOmqsew2cicLxI by zzt@mas.to
1 likes, 0 repeats
please, computer touchers, sneak into art school and befriend even a single artistart and the process that goes into making it isn’t at all like what you think it isif you think art can’t serve a function or that it doesn’t take a fuckton of planning and work, you’ll be fucking shocked by what you’ll learn working alongside artists what you learn will make you a better person
(DIR) Post #B5Q9vw37nqA3e5Ycl6 by moses_izumi@fe.disroot.org
1 likes, 0 repeats
@kalviter @zzt i know @toast has acknowledged software engineering as a form of writing
(DIR) Post #B5RYr17kCUtbwqQhMG by newt@stereophonic.space
0 likes, 0 repeats
@zzt >code is artmy code is shitpost, usually published under wtfpl.
(DIR) Post #B5RZvKxeUK6MaJKhW4 by sun@shitposter.world
0 likes, 0 repeats
@toast @moses_izumi @zzt is writing a beautiful letter on the same tier as writing a short story, they’re both artful but I don’t think so