Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

news.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 102 posts

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#81
post #79

Several people would have their incompetence more visible.

God yes.

I'm finding there is now a 5 minute delay whenever I'm chatting with someone who doesn't know what the f** they are talking about thanks to AI.

Then when you get the reply at a surface level it appears very insightful to others who don't know what the f** we're talking about either – 99% of management. But obviously it's just AI slop which sounds over confident without good reason.

I'm personally trying to be more deliberate about not doing that, but I suspect the AI-induced self-confidence is actually a better way to communicate if you want people to think you're smart. There is ultimately a reason behind why LLMs get reinforced in that direction, and we all know over confident people tend to portray an unreasonable level of trust.

It's annoying though because those people previously would have shut up because and moved out of the way because they wouldn't want to make themselves look like morons. Now I have to debate with them and try to explain that they don't know what they're talking about which ultimately makes me look unreasonable – especially when I refuse to communicate in a similar overly confident way back.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#82
We'd just go back to business as usual: Slow change on a stupidly old tech stack that we keep getting blocked from actually moving away from due to higher-ups getting a bee in their bonnet about the latest great idea they have. As long as my check cashes I DGAF, but having the AI has made it nice.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#83
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this conversation recently. Not only are search engines and comment threads getting filled with AI responses, but people are increasingly sounding like AI themselves. This makes it even harder to distinguish. Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. If any used paths in their b…

> Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. Huh. I've been using that convention for ages, but I have to remind Claude on new projects to actually use git in the first place, and then also specifically tell it to use branches. Then again, I was using em-dashes before they got un-cool.

I'm not sure why you're arguing that when it's not the point of the statement. YOU have been using that convention. Now do an analysis of the people at your company.

Regex the pattern over time if you want to make an argument against my supporting example.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this conversation recently. Not only are search engines and comment threads getting filled with AI responses, but people are increasingly sounding like AI themselves. This makes it even harder to distinguish. Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. If any used paths in their b…

I think this comes from Conventional Branching, https://conventionalbranch.org , inspired by conventional commits (e.g. https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/ )

And my point is that this pattern is now more popular than it was 3 years ago. Similar to people using the phrase "load bearing".

For me, this popularity is graphable. Telling me it's a convention doesn't change that fact. I'm sorry.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this conversation recently. Not only are search engines and comment threads getting filled with AI responses, but people are increasingly sounding like AI themselves. This makes it even harder to distinguish. Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. If any used paths in their b…

Feat/ or dev-initials/ or fix/ all very common pre-ai in my companies

If you use "Feat/" at my company you will get called out. No abbreviations allowed. Capitalization matters.

But that doesn't change my argument. For me, this popularity is graphable. Telling me it's a convention doesn't change that fact. I'm sorry.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed the convention came from somewhere before AI and maybe one of the new devs brought it in from there. We also have an analyst who used em-dashes before AI ruined them, and who justifiably complains about that every so often. I'm not sure that's a trend anyone wants to pick up on. But for branches in addition to Feature/, we're seeing Hotfix/, Modernization/, you name it. If you're parking branches for a long…

The original git flow suggestion [0] was posted more than 15 years ago (date on the post is 2010). It didn't entirely invent the branch names/conventions from whole cloth, it was based on plenty of prior history in SVN spaces especially, which it picked up from CVS. (Personally, for long term parked branches I prefer `{username/dev name}/` branches because then you know who the owner is without having to look at the…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this conversation recently. Not only are search engines and comment threads getting filled with AI responses, but people are increasingly sounding like AI themselves. This makes it even harder to distinguish. Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. If any used paths in their b…

> Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. People have been doing this for years.

> People have been doing this for years.

Tell me something I don't know. My point is that it's usage has seen a _measurable_ increase where I work over the last two years.

I don't think I have a single "feature/*" branch before 2024. Developer names, feature names, sure. But specifically feature/, no.

Re: Ask HN: What would happen if your company stopped using all AI tomorrow?

#88
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Related to code quality, I've noticed developers picking up tricks from AI. Like using feature/xxxxx as the branch name. Last year exactly zero developers used this convention. Huh. I've been using that convention for ages, but I have to remind Claude on new projects to actually use git in the first place, and then also specifically tell it to use branches. Then again, I was using em-dashes before they got un-cool.

I'm not sure why you're arguing that when it's not the point of the statement. YOU have been using that convention. Now do an analysis of the people at your company. Regex the pattern over time if you want to make an argument against my supporting example.

> I'm not sure why you're arguing that when it's not the point of the statement.

'twas an expression of surprise, not an argument.

Surprise in both directions, 'cause what you like about Claude is one of the ways it fails for me.

> Now do an analysis of the people at your company.

It was mandatory at several of them.

> Regex the pattern over time if you want to make an argument against my supporting example.

I wonder which of the various employers I've had in the last decade would consider me regexing commits to be an NDA violation?

I choose not to discover.

Post reply on HN