@jeffey - i think you can also use the Request object to extract authenticated user instance there like this one: public function store(IdeaRequest $request) {

    $request->user()->ideas()->create([
        'description' => $request->description,
    ]);

    return redirect('/ideas');
} 

this would be cleaner and clearer

I'm bitter. I started when the goal was to make the whole site 64k or less uncompressed. Carefully crafting the site by hand to make the user experience excellent. Doing things close to the metal meant something. Handwritten HTML. Barely any javascript.

Using LLMs to create pages like this feels so far away from the metal. My goal was to use as few resources as possible to create a grand user experience, now I have the option to set my LLM to thrash servers overnight to do the same thing. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

On top of this I'm racked with the ethical concerns. Water and power usage. IP issues. GPU availability. I left Twitter because it was making me complicit in great injustices. What is the ethical weight of vibe coding? Creating on the web is a great power akin to publishing newspapers in the 1800s. This sort of power needs to be wielded with strong ethics. We've seen what happens when it's not.

Hi @larsb-dev,

I've been a developer since 2014. Your concerns pretty much mirror my own, even though we are at different stages. I have real doubts over whether I will continue in the industry. In December I left a job as a Senior Engineer at a health insurance company. I left on ethical grounds, due to the use of AI.

Beginning around October 2024 I had been working on a project that integrated an AI chat bot on the site. The bot would suggest relevant links to certain parts of the site based on the user's query. This was fine, no issues. The problem came when the company wanted to use the same bot to reply to emails. Initially this sounds fine, however when I dove into the emails that clients were sending I became deeply saddened. People were writing long emails describing cancer treatment, their sick children, and deaths of family members. The Health Insurance company wanted AI to reply to these heart renching emails and simply suggest a link to some part of the web site. They felt that paying a skilled human to reply was too much of a cost. The clients of the health insurance company paid thousands every year, they deserved better. As humans they deserve better.

I left the company after voicing these concerns. Needless to say, they will proceed.

There was a time when programming was exciting, creative, and skilled. A time when it had soul. AI is only a tool. But it's a tool that ensures big tech wins. In the coming years the companies that control the data will come to control the knowledge base. Developers who give over totally to generative tools will only be as good as the subscriptions they pay for.

I'm taking a year off. I'll take time to gather my thoughts and figure out what I want to do.

I can't predict the future for you @larsb-dev . But I can tell you that the analytical thought, logic, and dedication to lifelong learning will always be valuable.

Best of luck.

Brian