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My AI Adoption Journey

mitchellh.com

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Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#21

Post by fizx »

jplusequalt wrote: post #17
tux1968 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you disagree with it, but it seems like a pretty straightforward argument: A lot of us dismiss AI because "it can't be trusted to do as good a job as me". The OP is arguing that someone, who can do better than most of us, disagrees with this line of thinking. And if we have respect for his abilities, and recognize them as better than our own, we should perhaps re-assess our own rationale in dismissing the utili…

>A lot of us dismiss AI because "it can't be trusted to do as good a job as me" Some of us enjoy learning how systems work, and derive satisfaction from the feeling of doing something hard, and feel that AI removes that satisfaction. If I wanted to have something else write the code, I would focus on becoming a product manager, or a technical lead. But as is, this is a craft, and I very much enjoy the autonomy that c…

I enjoy Japanese joinery, but for some reason the housing market doesn't.

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#22

Post by z0r »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #3

For the AI skeptics reading this, there is an overwhelming probability that Mitchell is a better developer than you. If he gets value out of these tools you should think about why you can't.

I'm not as good as Fabrice Bellard either but I don't let that bother me as I go about my day.

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#23

Post by EastLondonCoder »

This matches my experience, especially "don’t draw the owl" and the harness-engineering idea.

The failure mode I kept hitting wasn’t just "it makes mistakes", it was drift: it can stay locally plausible while slowly walking away from the real constraints of the repo. The output still sounds confident, so you don’t notice until you run into reality (tests, runtime behaviour, perf, ops, UX).

What ended up working for me was treating chat as where I shape the plan (tradeoffs, invariants, failure modes) and treating the agent as something that does narrow, reviewable diffs against that plan. The human job stays very boring: run it, verify it, and decide what’s actually acceptable. That separation is what made it click for me.

Once I got that loop stable, it stopped being a toy and started being a lever. I’ve shipped real features this way across a few projects (a git like tool for heavy media projects, a ticketing/payment flow with real users, a local-first genealogy tool, and a small CMS/publishing pipeline). The common thread is the same: small diffs, fast verification, and continuously tightening the harness so the agent can’t drift unnoticed.

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#25

Post by jplusequalt »

mitchellh wrote: post #20
jplusequalt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A lot of us dismiss AI because "it can't be trusted to do as good a job as me" Some of us enjoy learning how systems work, and derive satisfaction from the feeling of doing something hard, and feel that AI removes that satisfaction. If I wanted to have something else write the code, I would focus on becoming a product manager, or a technical lead. But as is, this is a craft, and I very much enjoy the autonomy that c…

There is no dichotomy of craft and AI. I consider myself a craftsman as well. AI gives me the ability to focus on the parts I both enjoy working on and that demand the most craftsmanship. A lot of what I use AI for and show in the blog isn’t coding at all, but a way to allow me to spend more time coding. This reads like you maybe didn’t read the blog post, so I’ll mention there many examples there.

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Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#27

Post by jplusequalt »

tux1968 wrote: post #19
jplusequalt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A lot of us dismiss AI because "it can't be trusted to do as good a job as me" Some of us enjoy learning how systems work, and derive satisfaction from the feeling of doing something hard, and feel that AI removes that satisfaction. If I wanted to have something else write the code, I would focus on becoming a product manager, or a technical lead. But as is, this is a craft, and I very much enjoy the autonomy that c…

Nobody is trying to talk anyone out of their hobby or artisanal creativeness. A lot of people enjoy walking, even after the invention of the automobile. There's nothing wrong with that, there are even times when it's the much more efficient choice. But in the context of say transporting packages across the country... it's not really relevant how much you enjoy one or the other; only one of them can get the job done i…

>But in the context of say transporting packages across the country... it's not really relevant how much you enjoy one or the other; only one of them can get the job done in a reasonable amount of time.

I think one of the more frustrating aspects of this whole debate is this idea that software development pre-AI was too "slow", despite the fact that no other kind of engineering has nearly the same turn around time as software engineering does (nor does they have the same return on investment!).

I just end up rolling my eyes when people use this argument. To me it feels like favoring productivity over everything else.

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#28

Post by bdangubic »

EastLondonCoder wrote: post #23

This matches my experience, especially "don’t draw the owl" and the harness-engineering idea. The failure mode I kept hitting wasn’t just "it makes mistakes", it was drift: it can stay locally plausible while slowly walking away from the real constraints of the repo. The output still sounds confident, so you don’t notice until you run into reality (tests, runtime behaviour, perf, ops, UX). What ended up working for m…

This is the most common answer from people that are rocking and rolling with AI tools but I cannot help but wonder how is this different from how we should have built software all along. I know I have been (after 10+ years…)

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#29

Post by mold_aid »

tux1968 wrote: post #19
jplusequalt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A lot of us dismiss AI because "it can't be trusted to do as good a job as me" Some of us enjoy learning how systems work, and derive satisfaction from the feeling of doing something hard, and feel that AI removes that satisfaction. If I wanted to have something else write the code, I would focus on becoming a product manager, or a technical lead. But as is, this is a craft, and I very much enjoy the autonomy that c…

Nobody is trying to talk anyone out of their hobby or artisanal creativeness. A lot of people enjoy walking, even after the invention of the automobile. There's nothing wrong with that, there are even times when it's the much more efficient choice. But in the context of say transporting packages across the country... it's not really relevant how much you enjoy one or the other; only one of them can get the job done i…

>Nobody is trying to talk anyone out of their hobby or artisanal creativeness.

Well, yes, they are, some folks don't think "here's how I use AI" and "I'm a craftsman!" are consistent. Seems like maybe OP should consider whether "AI is a tool, why can't you use it right" isn't begging the question.

Is this going to be the new rhetorical trick, to say "oh hey surely we can all agree I have reasonable goals! And to the extent they're reasonable you are unreasonable for not adopting them"?

Re: My AI Adoption Journey

#30

Post by tux1968 »

jplusequalt wrote: post #27
tux1968 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is trying to talk anyone out of their hobby or artisanal creativeness. A lot of people enjoy walking, even after the invention of the automobile. There's nothing wrong with that, there are even times when it's the much more efficient choice. But in the context of say transporting packages across the country... it's not really relevant how much you enjoy one or the other; only one of them can get the job done i…

>But in the context of say transporting packages across the country... it's not really relevant how much you enjoy one or the other; only one of them can get the job done in a reasonable amount of time. I think one of the more frustrating aspects of this whole debate is this idea that software development pre-AI was too "slow", despite the fact that no other kind of engineering has nearly the same turn around time as…

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