"We won't get to be real engineers": viral thread on AI coding dread and Jev demo skepticism
floguo · x · 2026-09-22
A three-layer thread centered on @tenobrus's critique of Jev and a deeper anxiety about the engineering profession:
- On Jev: every flashy demo is "an existing thing 10x faster and 10x cheaper — and not actually functional." Browser/computer use can't handle long-range actions, the Minecraft demo ran on a hardcoded seed, and the PR-review demo is a single forward pass with no reasoning that offers no real fixes.
- The existential worry: "We will not get to continue to be real engineers... before long we will not much get to understand the systems being built at all. Even if you choose otherwise, you will be outcompeted by those who don't."
- The poster floguo relates: she can accept English replacing syntax, but building things she doesn't understand fills her with dread.
The thread captures genuine unease among senior engineers about identity and system comprehensibility in the agent era.
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