Don’t know about 2S, maybe it doesn’t have the problems that the 3s has. I’ve since sold the mouse and gotten a thinkpad laptop with a trackpoint. I’m loving it so far. I don’t do much mousing too, so those times when I open anything other than terminal like a web browser I finally don’t have to lift my hands off the keyboard! :)

Wow, thank you for sharing that perspective.

I never tried any coding agents, but I do use LLMs just like you said - as stack overflow and it helps a lot which is fine, but I remember a year ago or so, I needed a quick javascript script for one time use and I hate javascript. I made chatGPT write the entire thing from start to finish, I didn’t even look at it, it worked fine. I bet the code was probably garbage.

I would often see devs talking about using coding agents that make them more productive. I no longer feel that bad about it actually, because now I hear they’ve relied on it so much, that they’re no longer able to write code themselves, haha.

But initially, all the craze about it did make me feel frustrated and took all the joy out of it. I don’t feel that way anymore though, I am slow compared to someone who just used autocomplete, but I know I’ve written every single line myself while those who just review code that an LLM has written probably haven’t thought about the problem they’re solving as deep as I have, leading to worse decisions in code overall while the code may still technically work.

Basically handheld lasers are so good now, they can make full penetration while keeping a very small heat affected zone and with perfect consistency and very fast welding speed and make welds just as clean if not cleaner than TIG.

Right! Thanks for the reassurance! :)

Thank you! I’m determined to keep working hard on learning TIG. I just hope that if some day I decide to look for a new job, TIG is still in demand. From what I’ve read so far, it seems that laser equipment is not as portable which makes it good for manufacturing, but not for working on field. :)

Yes, thinking in a way that you describe does make it better, I should try to change my mindset, thank you! :)

Yes, I agree with you, it doesn’t matter, yet it still makes it less fulfilling knowing that someone else with a laser can do a better job with much less effort.

I’m actually a developer, I love writing code, it’s my greatest passion. When LLMs showed up and for devs writing code using copilot became a thing, I felt the same way. That was such a massive hit to my enjoyment of programming, because it was so much more accessible and people who don’t even understand what they’re doing that well could suddenly write code. Everyone that uses LLM assisted programming is much more productive. And I hate that it’s no longer as hard and challenging as it used to be. This is exactly how I’m feeling about welding now.

It’s the knowing that with my hard work I can achieve what others can’t and that’s what impacts my fulfilment of the work that I do. The harder it is, the more satisfaction I feel.