Maybe I've always been a terrible engineer but I'm humble enough to admit the way I code has always been exactly like the LLM. If it's something brand new I'm googling it and pattern matching how to write it. If it's based on existing functionality I'm doing ctrl + f and pattern matching based on that and how to insert the minimal code changes to accomplish the task
Engineers who dismiss AI
11–20 of 256 posts
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#12> if you haven’t tried modern AI coding tools recently, try one this week.
I don’t think I will. I am glad I have made the radical decision, for myself, to wilfully remain strict in my stance against generative AI, especially for coding. It doesn’t have to be rational, there is good in believing in something and taking it to its extreme. Some avoid proprietary software, others avoid eating sentient beings, I avoid generative AI on pure principle.
This way I don’t have to suffer from these articles that want to make you feel bad, and become almost pleading, “please use AI, it’s good now, I promise” which I find frankly pathetic. Why do people care so much about it to have to convince others in this sad routine? It honestly feels like some kind of inferiority complex, as if it is so unbearable that other people might dislike your favourite tool, that you desperately need them to reconsider.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#13> The engineers refusing to try aren’t protecting themselves; quite the opposite, they’re falling behind. The gap is widening between engineers who’ve integrated these tools and engineers who haven’t. For me, however, there is one issue: how can I utilize AI without degenerating my own abilities? I use AI sparingly because, to be honest, every time I use AI, I feel like I'm getting a little dumber. I fear that excess…
You can’t and that’s the new normal. We’re probably the only generation which was given an opportunity to get properly good at coding. No such luxury will be available in a few years optimistically; pessimistically it’s been taken away with GPT 5.2 and Opus 4.5.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#14What I want to see is a Destroy All Software style screencast where somebody actually demonstrates their AI workflow on legacy code.
That would be fantastic. I’ve seen so many claims like the author’s
> [Claude Code and Cursor] can now work across entire codebases, understand project context, refactor multiple files at once, and iterate until it’s really done.
But I haven’t seen anyone doing this on e.g. YouTube? Maybe that kind of content isn’t easy to monetize, but if it’s as easy to use AI as everyone says surely someone would try.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#15Ha! I just saw one of these this morning on LinkedIn, an engineer complaining about AI / Vibecoding and thought exactly the same. I find these overreactions amusing.
I don’t know why this is so controversial it’s just a tool, you should learn to use it otherwise as the author of this post said you will get left behind but don’t cut yourself on the new tool (lots of people are doing this).
I personally love it because it allows me to create personal tools on the side that I just wouldn’t have had time for in the past. The quality doesn’t matter so much for my personal projects and I am so much more effective with the additional tools I’m able to create.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#16AI is a tool. As every other tool under the sun, it has strengths and weaknesses, it's our job, as software engineers to try it out and understand when/how to use it on our workflows, or if if fits our use cases at all.
If you disagree with the above statement, try replacing "AI" with "Docker", "Kubernetes", "Microservices architecture", "NoSQL", or any other tool/language/paradigm that was widely adopted in the software development industry until people realized it's awesome for some scenarios but not a be-all and end-all solution.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#17It's good to be skeptical of new ideas as long as you don't box yourself in with dogmatism. If you're young you do this by looking at the world with fresh eyes. If you are experienced you do it by identifying assumptions and testing them.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#18I wonder how many of us are like me: Just waiting for AI to get Good Enough (TM). The skill required to use AI is probably decreasing, and the AI getting better, so why not just wait? Time will tell.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#19Yeah it boggles my mind all the people on here constantly dismissing LLMs.
It's very clearly getting better and better rapidly. I don't think this train is stopping even if this bubble bursts.
The cold ass reality is: We're going to need a lot less software engineers moving forward. Just like agriculture now needs way less humans to do the same work than in the past.
I hate to be blunt but if you're in the bottom half of the developer skill bell curve, you're cooked.
Re: Engineers who dismiss AI
#20Well said!