Proton's AI manifesto for software engineering

Posted by jonbaer 12 hours ago

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Comments

Comment by reconvene1290 3 hours ago

> This is not the death of expertise. The LLM is fast. You are slow, but you carry with you a lifetime of experience

How do you think one gains “experience”?! If humans can’t identify bad code then how useful is the AI really being?

They’re going too hard in the wrong direction here. AI as a recommender and reviewer _is_ the correct path; it should enhance not replace.

Proton’s secure promise is going to be broken soon, and we (the non-customers) are all going to be warming our hands on the flames.

Comment by JonChesterfield 6 hours ago

Pretty torn on this. One the one hand he's not wrong. On the other, it probably means proton are going to leak everyone's email to the world and cease trading shortly afterwards.

Since I'm a customer and don't care _at all_ about any "feature work" that might be being done on email at this point, this isn't great. Leave the damn thing totally alone would seem much better.

Comment by umutsevdi 10 hours ago

With all their social media pages on fire and all, posting this is certainly quite the ... choice.

Comment by verdverm 8 hours ago

the question is, was a human involved in the ... choice

Comment by gnabgib 12 hours ago

Discussion (237 points, 3 days ago, 96 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50289692

Or later (121 points, 127 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296602

Comment by ares623 9 hours ago

This is new information. Those other two threads were from leaks reported by 404media and/or one of their engineers being called a "loser".

This is an official blog post, and it looks like they're doubling down.

Comment by gnabgib 9 hours ago

That's not going to lead to a different discussion (the initiating memo is not doubling down), and skips:

Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews' (296 points, 255 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307183

Petition for Proton's CEO Andy Yen to step down reaches 1500 votes (9 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50314952

It wasn't AI that flipped Proton's charge (141 points, 81 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50328488

Comment by lioeters 3 hours ago

Hilariously self-unaware and slop-brained manifesto, doubling-down on the "loser thinking" CEO. I pity the people who have to work under this nonsense leadership.

> This is not about chasing trends — we are being left behind here.. This is not the death of expertise. The LLM is fast. You are slow, but you carry with you a lifetime of experience

> Your job is to help the LLM write better code faster.. Your job is to identify problems that the LLM cannot solve.. Your job is to push the limits of what the LLM can do

> “Programming” is dead. Engineering is not, nor is expertise. Your old job is gone.

"Thinking" is dead. Machine-generated code is not, nor is hype-chasing C-suite arrogance. All that Harvard and Stanford for nothing.

Comment by ares623 9 hours ago

> The memo is not an in-depth engineering document. It does not delve into the specifics of security, reliability, or infrastructure.

Amazing. I think South Park did it first.

> Your new job as a builder will let you do more and have more impact than you ever have, if you seize the opportunity.

Will the compensation match this amazing outcome?