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Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#61

Post by jollyllama »

dd8601fn wrote: post #22

There are so, so many. You just generally won’t hear about it here. Where I work, I have chores than a claude subscription would knock out in minutes instead of months. But I don’t have permission to run something like that, so I don’t. Weirdly our contractors can. They wrote it into their contracts. It’s not even fair, really. They say they’re working on it, but some people might be pushing back.

> Weirdly our contractors can. They wrote it into their contracts. It’s not even fair, really.

Do you draw any other conclusion than that your management wants to replace you with the contractors?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#62

Post by guywithahat »

ActionHank wrote: post #4
guywithahat wrote: post #2

Dow/classified projects can still be pretty old school. Our company hasn’t really done much on the AI front yet although I’m pushing hard to change that.

I am deeply envious that you have dodged the slop trenches and get to walk into a somewhat cleaner solution. The rest of us have to clean up and maintain the slop and it's depressing as hell.

Ironic, I'm upset that I'm still writing code like it's 2016. I've been pushing hard for AI tools, and I've convinced management that it's a good idea but now they're playing "favorite company" and not actually delivering tools.

I do think it's more fun to write code, but this isn't about fun it's about delivering a high quality product and no one can do that anymore without AI tools. Knowing you're practicing obsolete skills is depressing

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#63

Post by coldpie »

shivapb80 wrote: post #5

I do not have an answer to your original question but I do have a comment that I have realized it myself quite recently. May be the analogy is not good enough but here it goes: no one would go back to punch cards etc, we have come a long way. And GenAI is such a tool - there is no going back.

I think that's a poor analogy. I think the better comparison is it's 50% of the quality for 20% of the cost. Is that a win? I dunno.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#64

Post by dada216 »

What kind of programming do you do? If it's enterprise programming and it's basically CRUDs all the way down, yeah, LLM are pretty good at it and you need to find a balance if you don't enjoy it anymore.

All this bitching does feel a little off to me though, I get it, but I don't think you guys get how bad it sounds from the outside.

LLMs are not perfect, even in enterprise programming. Even in my case, where a few CRUDs may manage 100s of millions of dollars, and the code LLMs produce is actually good enough, for sure comparable with mid developers, most of them, you do need to develop a system to keep everything on track, I've found my balance and honestly? It's good and I enjoy it.

Go into embedded critical systems, that's probably the last thing they will get good at.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#65

Post by xgbi »

localhoster wrote: post #33

I have said it in some prev threads but the majority of my workplaces code is written by ai today, and it's not looking good. All implemention decisions are largely decided by claude these days. We have so many useless tests, so many repetitive code, Every change, even few lines long will trigger 25-50 additional files changes just because everything is so horribly written. I have heard this was the case before ai, b…

I'm trying to understand why the C suite is reaching for AI. I mean, what is driving them to force people to use it so much ?

Is it fear of the business being copied elsewhere?

Is it because monetary incentives to lessen the workforce?

Is it just all rich people's clubs laundering the same idea that AI will solve their problems, and the Cxx come back from their retreats and make it their stance that all company should use AI because muy buddy at the golf course said it?

Is it the promise of x10 the productivity?

My company has been holding on raises for a few years, but it's open bar on AI usage. And I feel it in the reviews: some are expedited without even a human in the loop. It also outs people that have no care for the result, they push things they don't even understand. The C suite has words like "every developer pushing a MR should be able to explain why and how", and in the same week, push for full automation of the Spec -> Implementation -> MR -> Review flow.

I don't quite understand the endgame here.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#66

Post by ropetin »

vermilingua wrote: post #19

I don't touch LLMs for any purpose (when I can help it, they are frequently shoved in your face regardless); and up until recently was doing just fine. I was fired for this stance, not for performance reasons (officially stated that there was no concern with my output), only for political reasons (insubordination, refusing to use LLMs to do my work for me). I have been seeing fewer and fewer job ads that ask for/requ…

I'm in a similar position. Our CEO who went full AI psychosis right when OpenClaw first came out. Directive from the top was to "use AI for everything" with no real regard for if it helped productivity, service delivery, or quality of output. That was very quickly reigned back in when they saw the bill. Multiple people using tens of thousands of dollars of tokens in a week, with no demonstrable value.

I'm in two minds on how best to handle these kind of, "but you have to use an LLM" issues. In my heart I'm like you; they hired me to do a job. If I'm doing the job at the rate and quality expected, why should they care if I use an LLM, my brain, or randomly throw mud at the keyboard until something magically works? The practical side of me says, "I like a roof over my head" so if they mandate I have to use an LLM then I'll do it as long as they take responsibility for any negative impact from that decision.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#67

Post by ww520 »

I still write code myself but I do use LLM. I use them for exploring ideas, explaining things, look up syntax, look up API/reference, look up algorithms, write tests, write duplicate code, write small functions that can be reviewed easily, do code reviews, find bugs, do performance review, do complexity analysis, etc.

The LLM generated code are correct about 80% of the time. Sometimes the generated code is overly complicated, has poor performance, missing a few assumptions, etc. that you need to review it carefully. It helps to have a solid and extensive set of tests.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#68

Post by dd8601fn »

jollyllama wrote: post #61
dd8601fn wrote: post #22

There are so, so many. You just generally won’t hear about it here. Where I work, I have chores than a claude subscription would knock out in minutes instead of months. But I don’t have permission to run something like that, so I don’t. Weirdly our contractors can. They wrote it into their contracts. It’s not even fair, really. They say they’re working on it, but some people might be pushing back.

> Weirdly our contractors can. They wrote it into their contracts. It’s not even fair, really. Do you draw any other conclusion than that your management wants to replace you with the contractors?

The people who originally hired them most certainly did. It just didn’t work out that way, and they’re gone now. Quite a few people were lost in between, though.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#69

Post by francisofascii »

We have groups in our company that do not have access to LLMs yet, due to company beuracracy. Also, token usage is capped, so developers need to be strategic about their usage. This could of course all change. We are swithing from Codex to Github Copilot due to pricing (I think).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?

#70

Post by localhoster »

xgbi wrote: post #65
localhoster wrote: post #33

I have said it in some prev threads but the majority of my workplaces code is written by ai today, and it's not looking good. All implemention decisions are largely decided by claude these days. We have so many useless tests, so many repetitive code, Every change, even few lines long will trigger 25-50 additional files changes just because everything is so horribly written. I have heard this was the case before ai, b…

I'm trying to understand why the C suite is reaching for AI. I mean, what is driving them to force people to use it so much ? Is it fear of the business being copied elsewhere? Is it because monetary incentives to lessen the workforce? Is it just all rich people's clubs laundering the same idea that AI will solve their problems, and the Cxx come back from their retreats and make it their stance that all company shoul…

Neither do I. And we are not even at the 10x they so eagarly wanting. Nearly 3x and that's assuming every new MR matters.

I think its a combination of phycosis, detachment from the codebase, and weak critical thinking

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