Developers Joke About 'Coding Like Cavemen' As AI Service Suffers Major Outage (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0179144284
- News link: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/09/10/2039218/developers-joke-about-coding-like-cavemen-as-ai-service-suffers-major-outage
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/developers-joke-about-coding-like-cavemen-as-ai-service-suffers-major-outage/
> On Wednesday afternoon, Anthropic [1]experienced a brief but [2]complete service outage that took down its AI infrastructure , leaving developers unable to access Claude.ai, the API, Claude Code, or the management console for around half an hour. The outage affected all three of Anthropic's main services simultaneously, with the company posting at 12:28 pm Eastern that "APIs, Console, and Claude.ai are down. Services will be restored as soon as possible." As of press time, the services appear to be restored. The disruption, though lasting only about 30 minutes, quickly took the top spot on tech link-sharing site Hacker News for a short time and inspired immediate reactions from developers who have become increasingly reliant on AI coding tools for their daily work. "Everyone will just have to learn how to do it like we did in the old days, and blindly copy and paste from Stack Overflow," [3]joked one Hacker News commenter. Another user [4]recalled a joke from a previous AI outage: "Nooooo I'm going to have to use my brain again and write 100% of my code like a caveman from December 2024."
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> The most recent outage came at an inopportune time, affecting developers across the US who have integrated Claude into their workflows. One Hacker News user [5]observed : "It's like every other day, the moment US working hours start, AI (in my case I mostly use Anthropic, others may be better) starts dying or at least getting intermittent errors. In EU working hours there's rarely any outages." Another user also [6]noted this pattern, saying that "early morning here in the UK everything is fine, as soon as most of the US is up and at it, then it slowly turns to treacle." While some users criticized Anthropic for reliability issues in recent months, the company's status page acknowledged the issue within 39 minutes of the initial reports, and by 12:55 pm Eastern announced that a fix had been implemented and that the company's teams were monitoring the results.
[1] https://status.anthropic.com/incidents/k6gkm2b8cjk9
[2] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/developers-joke-about-coding-like-cavemen-as-ai-service-suffers-major-outage/
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45200522
[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45200398
[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45200333
[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45200449
So... (Score:2)
> Developers Joke About 'Coding Like Cavemen' As AI Service Suffers Major Outage
So "coding" then?
So am I a cave man ? (Score:3)
I have never used an AI to write code. The code that I write I understand and am able to document.
Re:So am I a cave man ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot is owned by people who boost the most ridiculous shit. If it isn't AI, it's cryptocurrencies. And they persist in doing so to the actual people who know it's a con. It's so pathetic.
Hey, Slashdot, ACTUAL DEVELOPERS were not making jokes about coding like cavemen. We were doing our work and didn't notice any outages. "Vibe coders", maybe, but vibe coders aren't actual developers, they're con-artists.
Re: (Score:2)
> The code that I write I understand and am able to document.
We recently had a new round of replacement hiring; and among the candidates, we had two people who used AI to implement the small required proof-of-knowledge project. They both used ChatGPT to help with the project. One of them could explain what the code was doing, and indicate what was needed to modify the code to do something else, and one of them has no idea. We immediately shit-canned the latter, and the former moved forward. Personally, I think they should have both been shit-canned immediately; but I
Re: (Score:2)
In short, yes.
And it's going to be an entire age before people realize that was actually a better way to be in many regards, and learn something from it.
There are undeniable and dramatic benefits to technological improvement, but trying to throw every technological advance at every problem is the kind of stupid that can only be fostered by capitalism, where anything that doesn't make money is a waste of time that leaves you falling behind in income, and then you get walked on by someone with more capital. H
The sad truth behind the jokes... (Score:5, Insightful)
... is that indeed, people relying on LLMs for coding, _very_ quickly unlearn to use their own brain. I have seen this happening to colleagues within months. Almost like when a healthy person for no particular reason decides to use a wheelchair, and after 3 months attempts to stand up and walk on their own again.
Re: (Score:2)
True but not sad. Forget AI, if you switch from coding in C++ to Python, within months you will start to lose fluency with C++. Whatever you do stops you from doing almost infinitely many other things.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed.
In the 1980s I had to write some code in assembly language. I've mostly forgotten how to do that, but I have no desire to go back to those days.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably because the CPU was shit? Intel?
By contrast, I'd love to have the excuse to immerge myself back into 68k assembly. Attached to an ATARI ST or AMIGA would be cherry on top. Or learn ATARI Transputer. Or learn original ARM Archimedes.
Re: (Score:2)
> By contrast, I'd love to have the excuse to immerge myself back into 68k assembly.
I never got the opportunity to learn 68k assembly, but my first assembly was on the 6809. Motorola assembly language was a joy. When I had to move to Intel assembly language on the 8088, I immediately discovered how badly it was designed and how absolutely painful it was to use.
Like you, I would welcome the opportunity to re-immerse myself in Motorola assembly language, while I would dread the necessity, should it ever arise, to have to re-immerse myself in Intel assembly language.
Re: (Score:2)
Most of my assembly experience was on a Commodore 64 on their MOS 6510 chip. Very primitive, but for the time, very advanced. I'm glad I learned out to do it, but I don't like making my own nails from scratch, in order to build a building. These days, I love C# / .NET because it has utility classes for literally everything. I can spend my time focusing on what I want the software to do, not on making components to build the software.
Re: (Score:2)
No, my assembly was mostly on Commodore 64. Its 6510 processor was made by MOS Technology, a Commodore subsidiary.
I also did some assembly on a Wang minicomputer in the 1980s, and later, a bit of x86 assembly in the early 90's.
I don't care to go back to any of them.
Re: (Score:3)
I have seen similar behavioral changes with cocaine. LLM: the 70s disco era of claimed artificial intelligence.
Apocolypse Meh? (Score:2)
Perhaps AI doesn't need to plot to kill us all. We'll just become so dependent on it that one system crash will end civilization.
Too much cloud dependence (Score:2)
Having an up-to-date local machine running a code LLM should be the goal for any org that's that dependent on AI to get work done.
Its so damn useful (Score:2)
Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 is the premium coding engine in my experience. They charge extra for it and for good reason. I use other cheaper models if I am running low on credits but Claude 4 definitely rules if you value your time.
Oddly enough.. (Score:5, Insightful)
productivity actually went up.