Managing AI Coding Costs at Scale

Post by lilbigdoot » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:22 AM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #128

nujabe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I work at a small startup How does a “small startup” end up with a multi million line “legacy” codebase? Something not mathing

You'd be surprised. I met a guy last week who was proud to tell me he had vibe coded an almost 2 million line code base. The app did not sound that complicated, so I'm assuming it's full of copy-pasta flavored slop.

Post by eru » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 6:11 AM UTC

extr wrote: post #16

I would be really curious to hear from devs at Databricks what the experience of development is like internally. I work at a small startup with essentially unlimited AI spend budget - the entire point is that I should be turning to it at every opportunity since our human labor is so expensive relative to tokens. So generally it's like: - Spend most time prioritizing/discussing what to do. - Once that's agreed, use Fa…

Post by delusional » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 7:07 AM UTC

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #175

sashank_1509 wrote: post #173

I suspect that when it comes to hard complex software products, you’re better off ignoring agents and doing “trad coding”. What you lose in short term speed you gain in manageable complex codebases. If you have a 500k line codebase and even > 50% is written by agents, you are in a world of pain that won’t justify the costs longer term. Now of course, there are products that just involve lots of code but are not actua…

> if you have a 500k line codebase and even > 50% is written by agents, you are in a world of pain that won’t justify the costs longer term A bold claim to make with little to no supporting evidence

Post by deadlast2 » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:29 AM UTC

extr wrote: post #16

I would be really curious to hear from devs at Databricks what the experience of development is like internally. I work at a small startup with essentially unlimited AI spend budget - the entire point is that I should be turning to it at every opportunity since our human labor is so expensive relative to tokens. So generally it's like: - Spend most time prioritizing/discussing what to do. - Once that's agreed, use Fa…

Post by thejazzman » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:36 AM UTC

GoofGarage wrote: post #164

dieselgate wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me a few seconds of deliberating if The Homer was a reference to baseball or "The Odyssey" and then realized there was a footnote > software production has become a mass-produced commodity in every sense - it's much more expensive to produce software manually, but the quality is not the same. Agreed.

I believe “The Homer” is a reference to Season 2, Episode 15 of The Simpsons, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” Homer reunites with his long lost brother, who runs car company Powell Motors. Homer is ultimately tasked by his brother with helping to design a car for the “average man” that ultimately bankrupts the company for being wildly overengineered and costing too much ($82,000 in 1991-money) . Here’s the car: https:/…