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Ask HN: I hate coding agents. Is this skill issue?

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Re: Ask HN: I hate coding agents. Is this skill issue?

#14

Post by cmar00 »

fsuts wrote: post #10

Coding agents are brilliant for the 9-5 it’s just a job type of coder as if it done quick and works (for now) the business leaders are happy. And brilliant for the expert in a particular language who can read the code very quickly But for everyone else, adds some anxiety as multiple files get changed, hundreds of code lines appear and so on. The decision is whether to go slower and be thorough or vibe code and trust…

Yep, I think right now one of the best use cases is one-off disposable code for things that I don't really care about and don't want to do. At least, that's what I'm mostly using them for

Re: Ask HN: I hate coding agents. Is this skill issue?

#15

Post by cmar00 »

nbaksalyar wrote: post #9
cmar00 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do read the commits and really try to understand what the model is trying to do. However, I think this conflicts against what we are really trying to do here: - We want to code faster so we use LLMs - We want to still be in charge, so we spend a lot of time reading and understanding every single commit and review PRs. Before, we used to build a mental model of the code with every new line of code we wrote. That too…

> Similar to how students who spend most of their time practicing what they are studying with actual exercises achieve higher grades This is spot on. > build a mental model of the code with every new line of code This idea has been explored in depth in the Peter Naur's excellent paper, "Programming as theory building" [1] (also extensively discussed on HN [2]). If you haven't read it yet, I bet you will enjoy it a lo…

Thank you so much for suggesting this, I will definitely enjoy reading it!

Re: Ask HN: I hate coding agents. Is this skill issue?

#18

Post by AnimalMuppet »

No, it's not a skill issue. It's a taste issue. You have some.

More seriously, you triggered a thought with your point 4. In prose, "editor" is a different skill from "author". It's a different career track.

AI is, essentially, taking coders from "author" to "editor". We don't feel nearly as comfortable there. It isn't what we do, or at least what we've been doing for our whole careers.

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