What we lost the last time code got cheap
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What we lost the last time code got cheap
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Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#2Personally I've found one of the biggest gains with coding agents is in helping me read code. Actually - that's a lie. I don't read the code. Mostly (unless my spidey-sense goes off) I ask the LLM to read the code and tell me what it does.
And then I make a decision based on that.
I guess I'm wondering if the article is missing half the picture. Yes - AI is wrong some of the time (and that % varies based on a host of variables). But it can read code as well as just write it. And that does matter as it changes the trade-offs this article is weighing up.
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#3I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out.
I know nothing about AI code generation (or about AI in general), but I wonder if you could include in your prompt a request that the AI describe the reasons for its choices and actually include those reasons as comments in the code.
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#4I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
Isn't one of the common criticisms of AI code that it's a bit too keen to write extensive comments - even when they probably aren't needed?
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#5I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
Isn't one of the common criticisms of AI code that it's a bit too keen to write extensive comments - even when they probably aren't needed?
IME the comments are not useful though. I'm not the biggest fan of AI code, but the codes still way higher quality than the "this is what this does" comments
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#6I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
The AI can't really describe its reasoning, though. It can only look at its context history and find a justification (which it will then present as reasoning). In my experience asking the model "why did you do that" carries substantial hallucination risk.
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#7I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
Isn't one of the common criticisms of AI code that it's a bit too keen to write extensive comments - even when they probably aren't needed?
Well the comments tend to be superfluous "whats" (describing the code itself) instead of the more helpful "whys." And they're almost never the most useful "why nots".
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#8I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
The AI can't really describe its reasoning, though. It can only look at its context history and find a justification (which it will then present as reasoning). In my experience asking the model "why did you do that" carries substantial hallucination risk.
True, though I have found that forcing (I use an agent skill to do this) an LLM's agent to document the reasoning behind each "decision" it makes seems to lead to better decision-making. Or at least, more justifiable decisions (even if the justification is bad).
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#9I worried this blog post was going to pivot into a marketing pitch for some product, but no, it just describes the issue where the AI tool that generates your code probably won't document its reasons for the choices it makes. That documentation problem exists in the pre-AI era too, except that the reasons might exist in the heads of your co-workers and could possibly be teased out. I know nothing about AI code genera…
Perfectly possible IME, it just requires more time. Even if you understand all the (important) parts of your code and validate it, Ai still helps with productivity a lot. It's just not as fast as blindly vibe coding - not at first at least. Agents on their own without checks, and superficial prompts without understanding, result in agents either introducing bugs, or if you have an appropriate test harness, painfully slow, in my experience. It requires skill to use an agent effectively.
Re: What we lost the last time code got cheap
#10[deleted]