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AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

praf.me

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Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#81

Post by tomjakubowski »

hn_throw2025 wrote: post #60
bravetraveler wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I reject every Teams call

I use Zoom rather than Teams, but have no problems playing background music with Spotify. Just have to make sure that “share computer audio” is not enabled when sharing your screen. Also, when I was using the mic of my bluetooth headphones, any music played would be mono and lower quality due to bluetooth bandwidth. Since moving to using a dedicated mic on my desk, the bluetooth headphones are output only and back to…

Not too long ago, I installed a system mixer/EQ on my work computer so I could mix ambient-ish music with Zoom calls while giving space to the (meeting room's) vocals. It works great.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#82

Post by theshrike79 »

rimunroe wrote: post #75
theshrike79 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! 90% of what the average (or median) coder does isn't in any way novel or innovative. It's just API Glue in one form or another. The AI knows the patterns and can replicate the same endpoints and simple queries easily. Now you have more time to focus on the 10% that isn't just rehashing the same CRUD pattern.

> 90% of what the average (or median) coder does isn't in any way novel or innovative. It's just API Glue in one form or another. I hear this from people extolling the virtue of AI a lot, but I have a very hard time believing it. I certainly wouldn't describe 90% of my coding work as boilerplate or API glue. If you're dealing with that volume of boilerplate/glue, isn't it incumbent upon you to try and find a way to r…

To be more exact, 90% of the _code_ I write is mostly just different types of API glue. Get data from this system, process it and put it in another system.

It's the connectors that are 90-95% AI chow, just set it to task with a few examples and it'll have a full CRUD interface for your data done while you get more snacks.

Then you can spend _more_ of your limited time on the 10% of code that matters.

That said, less than 50% of my actual time spent on the clock is spent writing code. That's the easiest part of the job. The rest is coordinating and planning and designing.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#84

Post by randcraw »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #25

He’s talking about being in a state of flow - it’s a lovely feeling when you can get into it.

CAN you get into a state of flow when directing an LLM? I don't have a lot of experience using LLMs to code, but it always feels like I'm coaching a junior staff member. No way to flow that, IMHO.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#85

Post by rimunroe »

theshrike79 wrote: post #82
rimunroe wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 90% of what the average (or median) coder does isn't in any way novel or innovative. It's just API Glue in one form or another. I hear this from people extolling the virtue of AI a lot, but I have a very hard time believing it. I certainly wouldn't describe 90% of my coding work as boilerplate or API glue. If you're dealing with that volume of boilerplate/glue, isn't it incumbent upon you to try and find a way to r…

To be more exact, 90% of the _code_ I write is mostly just different types of API glue. Get data from this system, process it and put it in another system. It's the connectors that are 90-95% AI chow, just set it to task with a few examples and it'll have a full CRUD interface for your data done while you get more snacks. Then you can spend _more_ of your limited time on the 10% of code that matters. That said, less…

> To be more exact, 90% of the _code_ I write is mostly just different types of API glue

I assumed you were only talking about the actual code. It still seems really odd. Why is there so much unavoidable boilerplate?

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#86

Post by theshrike79 »

rimunroe wrote: post #85
theshrike79 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be more exact, 90% of the _code_ I write is mostly just different types of API glue. Get data from this system, process it and put it in another system. It's the connectors that are 90-95% AI chow, just set it to task with a few examples and it'll have a full CRUD interface for your data done while you get more snacks. Then you can spend _more_ of your limited time on the 10% of code that matters. That said, less…

> To be more exact, 90% of the _code_ I write is mostly just different types of API glue I assumed you were only talking about the actual code. It still seems really odd. Why is there so much unavoidable boilerplate?

Because I need to have a controller that does CRUD operations.

It has a specific amount of code I need to write just to add the basic boilerplate of receiving the data and returning a result from the endpoint before I can get to the meat of it.

IIRC there are no languages where I can just open an empty file and write "put: " and it magically knows how to handle everything correctly.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#87

Post by leptons »

jwr wrote: post #49

In my experience, listening to music engages the creative part of your brain and severely limits what you can do, but this is not readily apparent. If I listen to music, I can spend an hour CODING YEAH! and be all smug and satisfied, until I turn the music off and discover that everything I've coded is unnecessary and there is an easier way to achieve the same goal. I just didn't see it, because the creative part of…

I'm sorry but that's nonsense. Listening to music is not a creative process, it does not at all take away creativity from somewhere else.

I've never, ever, ever once in 40 years of coding listened to music while coding and later found the code "unnecessary" or anything of the sort.

I engage in many creative pursuits outside of coding, always while listening to music, and I can confidently say that music has never once interfered in the process or limited the result in any way.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#88

Post by ai_assisted_dev »

AaronAPU wrote: post #68
ai_assisted_dev wrote: post #17

It definitely changed how I get into flow state for me. But music still works, if not even better when coding with AI (listening to: techno, electro, edm). Generally my flow is to sit down, make a small plan of what I will work on, fire off 2 agents to work on different parts of the code that are lower hanging fruits (takes 2-10 mins for them to complete). Then while this is busy, map out some bigger tasks. Agents fi…

I did that for 2 hours yesterday and then scrapped everything the agents did because it didn’t work and left everything in disarray.

It takes quite the practice. At least I have been shipping stuff to users like this for the entire year.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#90

Post by furyofantares »

latexr wrote: post #36
foo42 wrote: post #30

The tradeoff of higher velocity for less enjoyment may feel less welcome when it becomes the new baseline and the expectation of employers / customers. The excitement of getting a day's work done in an hour* (for example) is likely to fade once the expectation is to produce 8 of such old-days output per day. I suspect it doesn't matter how we feel about it mind you. If it's going to happen it will, whether we enjoy t…

> The excitement of getting a day's work done in an hour* (for example) is likely to fade once the expectation is to produce 8 of such old-days output per day. That dumb attitude (which I understand you’re criticising) of “more more more” always reminds me of Lenny from the Simpsons moving fast through the yellow light, with nowhere to go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR10t-B9nYY > I suspect it doesn't matter how…

> That is quite the defeatist attitude. Society becoming shittier isn’t inevitable, though inaction and giving up certainly helps that along.

The hypothetical that we're 8x as productive but the work isn't as fun isn't "society becoming shittier".

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