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Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

blog.miguelgrinberg.com

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Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#31

Post by dingnuts »

waprin wrote: post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> You might prefer manual coding, but you might just be bad at AI coding and you might prefer it if you improved at it.

ok but how much am I supposed to spend before I supposedly just "get good"? Because based on the free trials and the pocket change I've spent, I don't consider the ROI worth it.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#32

Post by hooverd »

strangescript wrote: post #9

Everyone is still thinking about this problem the wrong way. If you are still running one agent, on one project at a time, yes, its not going to be all that helpful if you are already a fast, solid coder. Run three, run five. Prompt with voice annotation. Run them when normally you need a cognitive break. Run them while you watch netflix on another screen. Have them do TDD. Use an orchestrator. So many more options.…

Sounds like a way to blast your focus into a thousand pieces

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#33

Post by goalieca »

dingnuts wrote: post #31
waprin wrote: post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> You might prefer manual coding, but you might just be bad at AI coding and you might prefer it if you improved at it. ok but how much am I supposed to spend before I supposedly just "get good"? Because based on the free trials and the pocket change I've spent, I don't consider the ROI worth it.

And how often do your prompting skills change as the models evolve.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#34

Post by mleonhard »

jumploops wrote: post #2

> It takes me at least the same amount of time to review code not written by me than it would take me to write the code myself, if not more. As someone who uses Claude Code heavily, this is spot on. LLMs are great, but I find the more I cede control to them, the longer it takes to actually ship the code. I’ve found that the main benefit for me so far is the reduction of RSI symptoms, whereas the actual time savings a…

I solved my RSI symptoms by keeping my arms warm all the time, while awake or asleep. Maybe that will work for you, too?

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#35

Post by skydhash »

waprin wrote: post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher skill ceiling than many people realize

No, it's not. It's something you can pick in a few minutes (or an hour if you're using more advanced tooling, mostly spending it setting things up). But it's not like GDB or using UNIX as a IDE where you need a whole book to just get started.

> It's a tiny bit like drawing vs photography and if you look through that lens it's obvious that many drawers might not like photography.

While they share a lot of principles (around composition, poses,...), they are different activities with different output. No one conflates the two. You don't draw and think you're going to capture a moment in time. The intent is to share an observation with the world.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#36

Post by [deleted] »

mleonhard wrote: post #34
jumploops wrote: post #2

> It takes me at least the same amount of time to review code not written by me than it would take me to write the code myself, if not more. As someone who uses Claude Code heavily, this is spot on. LLMs are great, but I find the more I cede control to them, the longer it takes to actually ship the code. I’ve found that the main benefit for me so far is the reduction of RSI symptoms, whereas the actual time savings a…

I solved my RSI symptoms by keeping my arms warm all the time, while awake or asleep. Maybe that will work for you, too?

[deleted]

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#38

Post by stray »

dingnuts wrote: post #31
waprin wrote: post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> You might prefer manual coding, but you might just be bad at AI coding and you might prefer it if you improved at it. ok but how much am I supposed to spend before I supposedly just "get good"? Because based on the free trials and the pocket change I've spent, I don't consider the ROI worth it.

You're going to spend a little over $1k to ramp up your skills with AI-aided coding. It's dirt cheap in the grand scheme of things.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#40

Post by __loam »

ed_mercer wrote: post #23

> It takes me at least the same amount of time to review code not written by me than it would take me to write the code myself, if not more. Hard disagree. It's still way faster to review code than to manually write it. Also the speed at which agents can find files and the right places to add/edit stuff alone is a game changer.

You are probably not being thorough enough.
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