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If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#81

Post by soco »

stackskipton wrote: post #48
mu53 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am leaning towards fewer developers. There is a crunch in the job market and companies are finding rate of progress as being similar before, so don't feel inclined to hire more

Most companies I know are turning out less features, they are just more tuned features towards what they believe will provide value and less "moon shots".

To me it looks like "usability" never gets on top of that value list. Yet the seminars and courses and LinkedIn posts season everything with that word.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#84

Post by TechRemarker »

AI is helping more people code problems they might not be able to on their own or help people do it more quickly for a particular issue but don’t think that in general is making people better coders just like Google auto correct isn’t making people better spellers.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#85

Post by faangguyindia »

foobarqux wrote: post #31
shepherdjerred wrote: post #14

Why would there be a correlation between how fast something is developed and its quality? Assuming that AI is helping developers to write more code, it could mean: * there are fewer developers * developers are working less * the efficiency gains are resulting in more products being created rather than existing products being improved * AI isn't widely enough adopted or used to make enough of a difference * the benefi…

Is there any evidence for any of those hypotheses? More apps in app stores? Mass layoffs? How could the "benefits be too recent to be measured" if everyone is arguing that they are already 10x more productive? If you accept that premise the only conclusion left is that it has made developer's work much less but their bosses haven't noticed yet. But you would still expect that some people are working for themselves an…

Yes jobs cut will be secondary market first.

India have had massive layoffs in tech sector.

Europe and US will follow suit once companies layoff dead weight in outsourcing locations first.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#86

Post by black_13 »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #14

Why would there be a correlation between how fast something is developed and its quality? Assuming that AI is helping developers to write more code, it could mean: * there are fewer developers * developers are working less * the efficiency gains are resulting in more products being created rather than existing products being improved * AI isn't widely enough adopted or used to make enough of a difference * the benefi…

And does it matter? The broader economy is whats is killing me and everyone one else. Healthcare and education are luxuries i dump tons of money into providing healthcare and education for my kid. Healthcare for myself.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#88

Post by bamboozled »

csomar wrote: post #75
ado__dev wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since gpt came out I have built tons of throwaway apps, plenty of specialized apps for side projects, and experimented with tons of ideas that I likely wouldn’t have if I didn’t have access to a tool to build it for me from just asking it to do it and explain what it did. Claude artifacts has been awesome for this. Cody when I actually want to build it out. I recommend trying it before you knock it.

So you can give us a couple examples of apps you built with AI that are actually useful?

Since gpt came out I have built tons of throwaway apps,

Throw away apps are the easiest to make. No scaling, no bug fixing, no long term maintenance considerations, no consequences for poor architecture, no need to consider data models, you just write some shit. Bravo.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#89

Post by al_borland »

chthonicdaemon wrote: post #77
shepherdjerred wrote: post #14

Why would there be a correlation between how fast something is developed and its quality? Assuming that AI is helping developers to write more code, it could mean: * there are fewer developers * developers are working less * the efficiency gains are resulting in more products being created rather than existing products being improved * AI isn't widely enough adopted or used to make enough of a difference * the benefi…

I can think of several ways in which faster development could lead to better quality. Let's say you have a fixed time to come up with a solution to a problem. If you are able to come up with one candidate and evaluate it in that time, you have to live with what you get. If you do two candidates, you can select the one that is better. Another aspect of quality is "polish". A team that can get a UI in front of QA twice…

Parkinson's law tells us that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

I think the more likely outcome would either be it still taking the same time to deliver, with extra fluff in the middle, or the time simply shrinks. One thing is still evaluated and shipped, but slight faster.

Re: If AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better?

#90

Post by DrillShopper »

ado__dev wrote: post #60
bamboozled wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding value in a product does make development go from months to days , which is the unsubstantiated claim. Even your customers can talk shit to sometimes in order to curry favour for a discount.

Since gpt came out I have built tons of throwaway apps, plenty of specialized apps for side projects, and experimented with tons of ideas that I likely wouldn’t have if I didn’t have access to a tool to build it for me from just asking it to do it and explain what it did. Claude artifacts has been awesome for this. Cody when I actually want to build it out. I recommend trying it before you knock it.

Cool, so we're re-visiting the 90s with RAD tools, just this time charged with AI.

Everything old is new again

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