Ai do 80 percentage of my daily job.
Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#12I have found it nice in the coding area to bang out snippets or auto complete the pattern for things like data structures and flow control. Sometimes even debugging but there is a large amount of oversight to massage the code to correctness. It saves me time on the meneal things but the higher level comprehension is nowhere near there yet. As far as getting through documentation, summarizing, and interrogating, it can be much better, especially if you put all the documents in the chat scope so it can use it.
My take is that it won't replace us but our roles will evolve to leverage these tools more and more to achieve human ends. There are so many considerations to take into account like production stance, fallback, data integrity, mitigation, privacy, security. I think we are a ways from that. When AI can start solving production issues post mortem and requirements implementation, then I would say we have hit a milestone. With that said, new engineers should still need to understand the fundamentals of CS, systems and how to properly use a language.
My main gripe is this push of AI in everything without fully understanding the value proposition and if it would be useful in the given case. I mostly ascribe this to leadership who don't really understand it and think it will just solve all of their problems and vastly increase productivity. What's worse is when it gets passed down the chain from C-suite and ends up being a hot mess by the time you get a project because there is no true direction of how it will apply to your product. It takes good leadership and identifying genuine usefulness for certain products.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#13I don’t do social media so I have nothing for you to follow.
AI is just the current tip of the spear. AI is most appealing to people looking for ever more convenient social exchanges, social gravities. While this is somewhat apparent in reality it is intentionally the focus around marketing of AI products and services.
There appears to be a clear and growing trajectory towards “tell me what I want to hear” in combination with “I’m not qualified to participate but can with just a bit of help” mentality. This thinking is driven by personality irrespective of education or intelligence, but those appear to be strong indicators as well. The personality types in question tend to be high agreeability and high neuroticism, which results in preferences towards social gravities versus individualism/originality. Historically this mode of thinking was considered to be more feminine but over the last few decades there been has a gradual erosion of masculine social identity in the west resulting in males adopting this more traditionally feminine social conduct.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#14I don't need to take a single stance on it.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#15I guess “thoughtful” and “well-balanced” are subjective, but here’s some content and a few “influencers” that I personally find more realistic and balanced:
- Simon Wardley (of Wardley maps fame) on Software Engineering vs Vibe Coding: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simonwardley_x-why-are-you-so...
- Gergely Orosz from https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/. I find myself agreeing with takes like this one: https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1912135400480526366
- Maybe a bit too optimistic, but I agree with the overall picture presented in https://sourcegraph.com/blog/revenge-of-the-junior-developer
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#16I will never use AI to any degree. Human minds are more than complex machines. We are creative in a way that can only be replicated by making more humans. Only a long enough time line will vindicate me.
You will never use AI that you know of..
I will also never willingly use slave labor that I know of, yet I have no idea where any of the parts of my computer or phone came from. We do our best.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineers to follow who have a healthy skepticism of AI
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
You will never use AI that you know of..
I will also never willingly use slave labor that I know of , yet I have no idea where any of the parts of my computer or phone came from. We do our best.
Within the next few years, you will be using AI knowingly and constantly if you use modern computers or the internet.