AI doesn't automatically make us better human beings, but they only expose our worst parts. Most people are not born great leaders and managers (need rigorous training and experience), and empowering them with AI kind of pushes them into a spot where they suddenly need to "lead". To fight brainrot from AI overuse, we must try harder to maintain that developer's priority list.
Agentic Coding Is a Trap
81–90 of 403 posts
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#82I've come to the conclusion that if AI can do it, its not hard. None of the complicated software i work on can be reliably written by ai yet
Yeah this is the same conclusion I have. I primarily use AI for UI code, and guess what, it's all basically mechanical drudgery anyways. Put a div here, or put a Box here, apply some style rules, etc. This shit should have been automated decades ago yet for some reason we're still writing the same stuff with a different "twist" today.
Now if your career is built on writing out the same boilerplate code in its infinite slight variations every day, congrats, you've been automated. Thank god we can free up our intellects to focus on the actual hard problems, the ones that are somewhat cutting edge, the ones that actually push our field and humanity forward.
Literally every example of AI generated code (without significant human input) is just basic stuff that is wholly unimpressive. Oh wow, you had an AI generate a Next.js app? It's writing HTML for you? It made a generic SAAS? Guess I'll become a farmer now.
Or, wait, I'll continue to write my multithreaded real-time multiplayer network for a MMO, since the AI currently generates something that would get me fired 10 seconds ago if I tried to push it to production.
It's amazing how you introduce just the slightest difficulty or novelty to an AI and it just craps the bed. And then you go online and apparently we're gonna be replaced -6 months ago or something.
People need a reality check.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#83> only a skilled developer who's thinking critically, and comfortable operating at the architectural level, can spot issues in the thousands of lines of generated code, before they become a problem.
An additional factor: to find issues in generated code, the developer has to care. Many developers (especially at big firms) are already profoundly checked out from their work and are just looking for a way to close their tickets and pass the buck with the minimum possible effort. Those developers - even the capable ones - aren't going to put in the effort to understand their generated code well enough to find issues that the agents missed. Especially during the current AI-driven speed mania.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
"How can we solve this at a more fundamental level?" Stop using AI for coding. Period...there is no other solution. You can't make it work, nobody else can either. Without determinism, the entire process is useless. We need to stop trying to act like we all know that this isn't true. We have given it a chance, it failed, time to move on to something else no matter how much the VCs and execs don't want to. Those that…
I agree with what you are saying, but if I cannot get work, I may literally have nothing to eat tomorrow. So while I agree with your point, it does not feel like a practical answer for my situation. For someone who is already well known and has enough reputation, refusing to use AI may be a matter of principle. But I am dealing with survival. I do not think your answer is bad. But because this is a survival problem,…
I'm not being idealistic. I'm being very practical. You have the survival problem exactly backwards. Continuing to use it, that's the real danger in a practical sense. That only leads one direction and that direction isn't in your best interest.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#85>and then pulls the slot machine lever over and over
Does anyone really do this? You want verification and self-correction in a loop, not rerolling and cherrypicking. The non-determinism point is really tiresome to hear over and over.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#86As a senior developer, 25+ years, I have been thrown recently into a meeting "hey can you join in for 5 mins". I really don't like these meetings where you're dragged in in the middle of them without any clue. The questions came flying in fast, without any introduction, and this was about an external integration out of a dozen. They have their own lingo, different from ours, to make the situation worse. I had a _very…
What kind of place do you work where you get dragged into a meeting halfway through and then are peppered with technical questions without context, that you're expected to answer on the spot? Please let us know because I'm sure a lot of us want to avoid such a place.
"I'll need to study the docs and code to answer these questions properly" is a perfectly fine (and very diplomatic) response to treatment like that.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
"How can we solve this at a more fundamental level?" Stop using AI for coding. Period...there is no other solution. You can't make it work, nobody else can either. Without determinism, the entire process is useless. We need to stop trying to act like we all know that this isn't true. We have given it a chance, it failed, time to move on to something else no matter how much the VCs and execs don't want to. Those that…
The issue is that you will end up without a job if the trend continues. It's similar to many cases of technical innovation - you can still have a few workers who do handcrafted works, but most of them have to use the machines, that may produce work of inferior quality but at much higher speed. The market realigns, and unless you handwrite the highest possible quality at a quick pace, you won't be competitive with the…
"unless you handwrite the highest possible quality at a quick pace"
That's exactly what I do. I know I am lucky to be gifted in this skillset. But that's not a good reason to excuse people destroying the market for everyone.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#88Interestingly I’ve learned more about languages and systems and tools I use in the last few years working with agentic coding than I did in 35 years of artisanal programming. I am still vastly superior at making decisions about systems and techniques and approaches than the agentic tools, but they are like a really really well read intern who knows a great deal of detail about errata but have very little experience.…
I have also seen the learning acceleration, there's a significantly increased set of techniques and technologies I have learned how to apply.
From a person perspective though, I'm apprehensive about the effect AI will have on the human "very well read intern." People who know a lot very deeply about specific areas are fascinating to talk to, but now almost everyone is able to at least emulate deep knowledge about an area through the use of AI. The productivity is there, but the human connection is missing.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#89Interestingly I’ve learned more about languages and systems and tools I use in the last few years working with agentic coding than I did in 35 years of artisanal programming. I am still vastly superior at making decisions about systems and techniques and approaches than the agentic tools, but they are like a really really well read intern who knows a great deal of detail about errata but have very little experience.…
> The claim you should know everything about everything you work on is an intensely naive one
Nothing in the article made that claim.
Re: Agentic Coding Is a Trap
#90>and then pulls the slot machine lever over and over Does anyone really do this? You want verification and self-correction in a loop, not rerolling and cherrypicking. The non-determinism point is really tiresome to hear over and over.
> Does anyone really do this
Yes, lots of people. It’s a whole issue.