Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 209 posts

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#121

Post by revskill »

ath3nd wrote: post #119
revskill wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's just logical, LLM is a useful tool, those experienced are just code monkeys that whey they got stuck.

> No, it's just logical, LLM is a useful tool How open are you to the possibility that it's the other way around? Because the study suggests that it's actually junior code monkeys that benefit from LLMs, and experienced software engineers don't instead get a decline of their productivity. At least that's what the only available study so far shows. That's corroborated with my experience mentoring juniors, the more the…

Those "experienced" actually are just senior code monkeys if u ask me, it's trivial right ? I don't assume the reason why, but it's just illogical for a junior to get benefits and the seniors don't. The wrong ones here is the "experienced".

I know how to use the AI tools for my purpose (that's why i use them), and of course, to make the impossible possible. Even if i failed to do so, it's not the decrease in productivity because without them, i don't think i can do better than the LLM.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#122

Post by grim_io »

ponector wrote: post #103
beambot wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't use any AI - drafting documentation, write boilerplate code, transcribing meetings, simplifying team communications, searching product documentation, alternative to Google or StackOverflow, creating presentations, as a brainstorming partner? I would consider all of these "work". If you say AI does 0% of your work, I'd say you're either a genius, behind the curve or being disingenuous.

How can AI search into documentation, if the documentation is a thousands of obsolete and contradicting Jira tickets, few outdated Confluence pages with mail attachments and handful of excel files on SharePoint?

Using AI to distill all of that sprawling and contradicting documentation is a great use case.

Grounding it in the reality of the current implementation for the extra cherry on top.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#123

Post by hn_throw2025 »

000ooo000 wrote: post #109
hn_throw2025 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course there’s a push for it with the intent to replace us. Why else would it be forced down our throats? I still don’t see this, if only for the Managerial instinct for ass-covering. If something really matters and a prod showstopper emerges, can those non-technical supervisory managers be completely, absolutely, 100% sure the AI can fix the code and bring everything back up? If not, the buck would surely stop…

Savvy management know how to insulate themselves from such accountability. I've never seen anyone held accountable for large-scale f-ups.

How, exactly? If a production showstopper needs to be worked on immediately.

If the development is between non-technical management and some AI tool they have been using, how do they insulate themselves from being accountable to their superiors? Who is responsible, and who gets to fix it?

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#124

Post by ath3nd »

revskill wrote: post #121
ath3nd wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, it's just logical, LLM is a useful tool How open are you to the possibility that it's the other way around? Because the study suggests that it's actually junior code monkeys that benefit from LLMs, and experienced software engineers don't instead get a decline of their productivity. At least that's what the only available study so far shows. That's corroborated with my experience mentoring juniors, the more the…

Those "experienced" actually are just senior code monkeys if u ask me, it's trivial right ? I don't assume the reason why, but it's just illogical for a junior to get benefits and the seniors don't. The wrong ones here is the "experienced". I know how to use the AI tools for my purpose (that's why i use them), and of course, to make the impossible possible. Even if i failed to do so, it's not the decrease in producti…

> Those "experienced" actually are just senior code monkeys if u ask me, it's trivial right

Well, it seems you are not open for discussion. There is no reason to disparage the senior devs that participated in the study just because you don't like the results of the study. But the study happened, and it is clear: experienced developers are the ones that suffered from using LLMs.

> but it's just illogical for a junior to get benefits and the seniors don't

Experienced car drivers won't benefit from a youtube tutorial how to drive, junior car drivers might. That's similar to junior developers being potentially the ones who can benefit from the basic things that an LLM can help you with, e.g helping you with syntax and structure your thoughts and write a scaffold to get you started. Those are concerns that experienced developers don't need help with, similarly how experienced drivers don't need youtube tutorials how to shift a gear. There is nothing illogical in that premise. Do you agree?

> i don't think i can do better than the LLM

I most certainly can tell you that there are 1000s of developers that can do infinitely better than any of the current LLMs, and those developers are fairly often senior. It seems like a skill issue you mentioned in the beginning of your post might actually be on your side.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#125

Post by prakashn27 »

I feel it is hyped product oversold to people who cannot told. When we developers tell them that it cannot do as much as you expect, they think that we are afraid of loosing our job and downplaying the AI.

Like everyone said, my productivity boost is in 1-4% range and not more than that.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#126

Post by benterix »

prakashn27 wrote: post #125

I feel it is hyped product oversold to people who cannot told. When we developers tell them that it cannot do as much as you expect, they think that we are afraid of loosing our job and downplaying the AI. Like everyone said, my productivity boost is in 1-4% range and not more than that.

I actually have flashbacks from the crypto hype, with people coming up with exactly the same arguments: that we don't understand blockchain, that we don't get how web3 is revolutionary, that we don't grasp the consequences of the revolution and so on.

The difference here is that LLMs do have some genuine use cases, it's just they are far away from the hype.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#127

Post by rsynnott »

> I 'm just wondering what the morale is with AI doing 30-50% of your work?

You might want to be less credulous around LLM vendor marketing. Outside of possibly the blogspam/ultra-low-end journalism industry, and maybe low-end translation, LLMs aren’t doing 30-50% of anyone’s work.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#128

Post by ai_assisted_dev »

moltar wrote: post #66
ai_assisted_dev wrote: post #52

I have been in software for 20 years, and was just about to quit 2-3 years ago because of how mundane things became. And now I am actually loving it again because of AI. I'd say, AI writes 95% of my code, and I use it for 75% of the decisions during working on a project. I am under MUCH more pressure to deliver more in shorter periods of time, with just me involved in several layers of decision making, rather than ha…

I was thinking of doing something similar. I think I’m well positioned for this as I have a natural ability to juggle many contexts, I used to run a software agency, and I’m pretty good at architecture early on which means solutions come out more robust and flexible. I have had really good experience with AI tools and I’m constantly evolving my workflows. I’m wondering how did you land your current gigs? Thank you.

I land most of my clients by maintaining my blog and a github with open source projects. I have build a lot of general purpose MCPs and quite some tools, which are all written by Claude (3.5 and 4.0) and now GPT5. On my blog I just blog together with AI. It sounds silly, yes... I don't want to share it here publicly, but it looks good and it gets me people in my inbox (email/linkedin).

So I post on LinkedIn & Reddit, and I am not doing it in a spammy way. Do some outreach through LinkedIn and post on YCombinator on my personal account on the monthly who's hiring/freelancing posts. But a lot of the traffic I get comes from organic search and reddit -> clients. I had a client who told me they found me on Twitter; but I never even posted there, so someone reposted an article.

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#129

Post by ai_assisted_dev »

englishrookie wrote: post #59
ai_assisted_dev wrote: post #52

I have been in software for 20 years, and was just about to quit 2-3 years ago because of how mundane things became. And now I am actually loving it again because of AI. I'd say, AI writes 95% of my code, and I use it for 75% of the decisions during working on a project. I am under MUCH more pressure to deliver more in shorter periods of time, with just me involved in several layers of decision making, rather than ha…

Would you mind sharing your setup (LLM model, IDE, best practices)? Personally, I'm struggling to get value out of Continue.dev in VSCode (using Gemini 2.0 Flash by default, with the option to switch to more advanced models). I still revert to pasting code into ChatGPT chat window (using the website), frequently. Are you using agentic features, given that you have not just one but two PMs?

The biggest tip I can give you is to stay in the framework you are most convenient in, and have the most experience. Start building stuff the way you would by yourself, but then start delegating the repetitive tasks to an agent. My best recommendations would be using Cursor in Agent mode, and switching to VScode in Agent mode when your credits with Cursor run out. The reason why I like Cursor more is because of the Checkpoints. And VScode Copilot Agent checkpoints suck; but you can still use git to create your own checkpoints (git add / git stash, etc).

I don't even use completions, really just agent mode. I do planning, wireframing, creating specs all with agents. Even small MVPs created in 5 minutes, deployed in 10, during a meeting to just brainstorm. As for the models. Go with Claude 3.5 or 4.0, GPT5. Use sequentialthinking and Taskmaster MCP. I could write a book about it... but the best way to go about it is to dive into, get frustrated, push through and then learn it the hard way. I started delegating a lot of my programming work the day ChatGPT came out; just copy and pasting, and since that day, my reliance on AI has just been increasing, and I have been getting better at it (and now I am at this stage.. with 2 PMS).

Re: Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?

#130

Post by revskill »

ath3nd wrote: post #124
revskill wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those "experienced" actually are just senior code monkeys if u ask me, it's trivial right ? I don't assume the reason why, but it's just illogical for a junior to get benefits and the seniors don't. The wrong ones here is the "experienced". I know how to use the AI tools for my purpose (that's why i use them), and of course, to make the impossible possible. Even if i failed to do so, it's not the decrease in producti…

> Those "experienced" actually are just senior code monkeys if u ask me, it's trivial right Well, it seems you are not open for discussion. There is no reason to disparage the senior devs that participated in the study just because you don't like the results of the study. But the study happened, and it is clear: experienced developers are the ones that suffered from using LLMs. > but it's just illogical for a junior…

Productivity could just be simple automation. U just describe one part of the whole process. My point stands still. If u cannot get llm to benefit u, u are the problem.
Post reply on HN