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Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#71

Post by pockybum522 »

Decabytes wrote: post #60

One think I think is strange about the m programming world we live in now is the mythologization of pre llm code. As if people weren’t copying code from stack overflow, auto completing their way through APIs using intellisense, intellicode, tab nine, or checking in code there didn’t properly test or understand

There is a big difference between intellisense and LLMs. I've never used intellisense to input something I wasn't already looking for/about to type out. It just saved me remembering the exact wording and/or keystrokes.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#72

Post by adamtaylor_13 »

flohofwoe wrote: post #59
adamtaylor_13 wrote: post #8

In what context would generating code faster not be a desired outcome? Assuming of course everything else stays the same (quality, etc.)

Shitting out lots of code faster was already possible before (just hire more interns who do it for free heh) the question is at what quality and is more code in less time really the biggest problem in professional software development that had to be solved? LLMs can be very useful for all sorts of things, but large scale code generation is IMHO the least interesting use case. And even when LLMs are successfully used…

It's fascinating how people jump straight into their biases, making all sorts of inferences that were never mentioned.

Where did anyone advocate for "large scale code generation"? LLMs are a fantastic way to go from, "We thought this this feature" to "It's shipped and in people's hands". That could've been 100 lines or 1,000 lines but that's not the point.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#73

Post by rpdillon »

gilrain wrote: post #9
gamerDude wrote: post #6

In my startup, I am currently in consideration for doing this exact thing. The interesting part is it's not really the AI that's causing the issue. It's the ease of my developer to make a mess, either with messy code or feature bloat. After figuring out the exact product we need with some very quick development cycles with AI, we now have some problems that I can't keep under control because of AI. So, currently unde…

> I am currently in consideration for doing this Try “I am considering”.

In a situation where you are an editor and focusing on the clarity and the brevity of the writing, I think this is a fantastic suggestion.

Hacker News has long ago decided that making comments on the quality of the writing in the comments is not welcome. Correcting spelling, correcting word usage, changing phrasing, and making other suggestions to improve the grammar of a post is not something that Hacker News readers want to encounter in the comments section.

It bothers me every day because there are gobs of cases where the writing is horrible, but I understand why the rule exists. It would make the comments section insufferable if everybody were just correcting each other's grammar the whole time.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#74

Post by sajithdilshan »

quaintdev wrote: post #63
sajithdilshan wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original question was about developers going back to manually coding without using AI. The link you posted is not about it. IBM replaced its Human Resources team with AI and hired them back. They didn’t remove AI usage in development and went back to manual coding. Please read your sources completely before posting them only reading the title

I was surprised to see IBM on that list

me too, till I read the article linked. As far as I know IBM actually encourages using AI, they have a really good youtube channel (ibmtechnology) that explains AI concepts and usages

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#75

Post by i2km »

quantumwoke wrote: post #50

Not for code, but my wife is a doctor and has gone from using AI scribes back to manually typing out notes and has multiple friends who've done the same. Turns out the gains were eroded by having to check the work and turn verbose prose into an actual note.

Exactly. It fascinates me when I'm emailed long AI transcripts of meetings with the disclaimer "generated by AI. Be sure to check for accuracy".

Like, did somebody seriously think through the meaning and implication of that disclaimer and still write it?

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#76

Post by jbs789 »

gamerDude wrote: post #6

In my startup, I am currently in consideration for doing this exact thing. The interesting part is it's not really the AI that's causing the issue. It's the ease of my developer to make a mess, either with messy code or feature bloat. After figuring out the exact product we need with some very quick development cycles with AI, we now have some problems that I can't keep under control because of AI. So, currently unde…

Yeah I see the same thing. Also shows up when people produce an “analysis” largely driven by AI and they haven’t really thought it through. They/we are outsourcing their thinking.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#77

Post by Cameri »

gamerDude wrote: post #6

In my startup, I am currently in consideration for doing this exact thing. The interesting part is it's not really the AI that's causing the issue. It's the ease of my developer to make a mess, either with messy code or feature bloat. After figuring out the exact product we need with some very quick development cycles with AI, we now have some problems that I can't keep under control because of AI. So, currently unde…

Check out AI-DLC or another structured development workflow for your team and stick to it. If you’ve got devs: not using any structured workflow, or using a variety (speckit, openspec, superpowers, their own) it’s going to be hard to control the quality of the development process itself and its outputs: you are just producing slop.

What many businesses are going through is the industrialization of software development.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#78

Post by thunky »

quantumwoke wrote: post #50

Not for code, but my wife is a doctor and has gone from using AI scribes back to manually typing out notes and has multiple friends who've done the same. Turns out the gains were eroded by having to check the work and turn verbose prose into an actual note.

> Turns out the gains were eroded by having to check the work and turn verbose prose into an actual note.

LLMs are great at this. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't possible to improve the actionable notes.

Most human-made doctor notes I've seen have not been comprehensive, anyway, and the doctor has had to spend a good chunk of a rushed appointment scribbling notes rather than interacting with the patient.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#79

Post by flohofwoe »

conartist6 wrote: post #68
flohofwoe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's obviously exactly what the employer expects, I don't see the problem tbh ;)

I'm with you except that the economy will crash when it turns out everyone stopped creating real value. ...and in the mean time every real product I have to use is getting worse.

I think we're way past this point tbh, software development is just the latest area that's being "bullshittified" ;)

(also let's be honest, building yet another CRUD app - eg what 99% of software devs actually do, is not "creating value" - with or without AI)

Re: Ask HN: Do you know of any company that went back to hand-written code?

#80

Post by thunky »

i2km wrote: post #21

I'm running a startup and we deliberately don't use AI for development. We only use it for review. We're working in a really deep area where having full understanding of our code is more important than speed. Besides, in this area, clients getting one whiff of AI code would be an immediate deal-killer

> Besides, in this area, clients getting one whiff of AI code would be an immediate deal-killer

If you implement AI code review suggestions then you're using AI code, just the hard way.

Also I don't see why your clients would be ok with having AI review and influence your code. Seems hypocritical, or like you're trying to cheat them.

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