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AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

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Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#151

Post by tomalbrc »

nobrains wrote: post #98
orwin wrote: post #48

I now started to us AI to help review my juniors PRs, because I couldn't keep up with the amount of code they ship. It started poorly, but now I have my method: I first read the code and flag the lines I'm not sure about, then ask any frontier model (I like Claude here for analysis, even if I don't use it for the rest) to explain the PR and to put effort on the parts I flagged (basically explain in detail the code, n…

"because the underlying lib wasn't coded like the original AI pretended it was" So, the models ARE dumb. They just are very good at finding patterns in their training data. I mean, when they code minecraft clones, it is not because they can cook up how to write minecraft clones, rather, their training data includes a lot of minecraft-like games code, and they just reuse that.

Yes this is the reason they fail miserably when it comes to novel problems.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#152

Post by springtimesun »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #148
cheeze wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got here and... I agreed with everything up to this point. The author makes a good point. If you don't know what you're doing, AI accelerates that. No question. But they put a whopping... ten bucks into using DeepSeek and weren't impressed with the initial results. I know they try to cover this with "you just aren't prompting correctly!" but if, in 2026, you aren't able to have an LLM generate decent quality code..…

> in 2026, you aren't able to have an LLM generate decent quality code Nobody is. The only difference is that some of us are willing to say the emperor has no clothes.

I am.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#153

Post by alchemism »

1718627440 wrote: post #143
oblio wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People gotta eat.

All people do, only few resort to fraud. If you start with that argument, you can rationalize any crime.

“Fake it ‘till you make it” is not a venerable mafia saying, if you catch my meaning.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#154

Post by alchemism »

Zakis1 wrote: post #75
big-chungus4 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DeepSeek has been the most used model on open router by far, only temporarily overtaken by ox alpha when it was free, so it's the most representative experience

Ryanair is Europe's most popular budget airline. If I fly with them once can I write a blog post now calling all air travel miserable? My point is, there is a monumental difference between flying Ryanair and Emirates First Class for example.

Caviar is better in the sky, it turns out.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#155

Post by cheesecakegood »

grebc wrote: post #94
padolsey wrote: post #60

Bit of a humbling/jarring moment when I realized that people are doing real paid work using LLMs that they could not otherwise do. I mean, it's quite obvious I suppose. But up until now I just assumed it was only a (massive) catalyst for things people would already be able to do with enough time. But nope -- it seems people are right now employed in roles that they would not be able to fulfil the tasks within if AI w…

I mentioned this then other day, my university class had maybe 80% of people who could not code. No joke. And a lot have gone onto to code professionally. AI is a godsend to this cohort of code monkies. Edit: we graduated in 2006.

I’ve long been curious what you (and a lot of people that express this) feel the cutoff is to know how to code? Because obviously there’s a sliding scale between truly knowing very little, being able to adapt similar work, extensive modifications, coding everything from scratch, etc. on top of understanding certain programming concepts and organization.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#156

Post by grebc »

cheesecakegood wrote: post #155
grebc wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mentioned this then other day, my university class had maybe 80% of people who could not code. No joke. And a lot have gone onto to code professionally. AI is a godsend to this cohort of code monkies. Edit: we graduated in 2006.

I’ve long been curious what you (and a lot of people that express this) feel the cutoff is to know how to code? Because obviously there’s a sliding scale between truly knowing very little, being able to adapt similar work, extensive modifications, coding everything from scratch, etc. on top of understanding certain programming concepts and organization.

Can you build a desktop/terminal app, web app/site, mobile app, or even a library without engaging AI is probably where I’d draw the line. Not everything you touch when you know how to code is doing the whole thing, but I’d expect you’d be able to piece it all together with some time and docs. Pick your own platform that suits too, I’m not saying iOS or Windows only.

For context to my above comment re university course. The final project we had to do was make a very rudimentary room reservation server/client on the terminal. Java, however you wanted to store the data was fine, TCP sockets were the parameters given.

It took me all of a week to finish it. Lots struggled to even begin. We were given 10 weeks.

I didn’t know much then but I read the docs and figured it out.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#157

Post by okdood64 »

sixeyes wrote: post #74
orwin wrote: post #48

I now started to us AI to help review my juniors PRs, because I couldn't keep up with the amount of code they ship. It started poorly, but now I have my method: I first read the code and flag the lines I'm not sure about, then ask any frontier model (I like Claude here for analysis, even if I don't use it for the rest) to explain the PR and to put effort on the parts I flagged (basically explain in detail the code, n…

>I tell them to try to find what part of the code doesn't work before generating the fix this makes me kinda sad. they don't do this on their own? are they not even a little curious

> are they not even a little curious

Some are. Some aren't. Usually a good indicator of career trajectory.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#158

Post by okdood64 »

cheeze wrote: post #30
dr_dshiv wrote: post #5

“I wanted to see if I can get in on this 10x magic. I decided to put my money where my mouth was and I bought $10 worth of DeepSeek credits to use with a project I was working on.“ Wow. I guess that’s the punchline!

I got here and... I agreed with everything up to this point. The author makes a good point. If you don't know what you're doing, AI accelerates that. No question. But they put a whopping... ten bucks into using DeepSeek and weren't impressed with the initial results. I know they try to cover this with "you just aren't prompting correctly!" but if, in 2026, you aren't able to have an LLM generate decent quality code..…

> but if, in 2026, you aren't able to have an LLM generate decent quality code... IDK what to tell you.

I think the author's point still stands. At some point you need to determine whether the output is of decent quality. A lot of people don't have the ability and experience to do that.

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#159

Post by kooi »

I started manual coding again at least 1 day a week.

Its good for the brain, but man it's really slow.

And the AI results prove it: Over the past couple years I've been able to bring several work projects to completion single handedly.

Our R&D company is now handling more clients and we are returning better outcomes/products faster than before.

So...what to do? Results don't lie.

However I will say LLM's can't write multi threaded double buffers by them selves. Probably because they are so application specific.

But I think the reason I can go do fast is because I went so slow before. I have an intuition I can transfer into an LLM. Question is if that intuition will become sloppy as time goes on...

Re: AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too

#160

Post by a34729t »

grebc wrote: post #94
padolsey wrote: post #60

Bit of a humbling/jarring moment when I realized that people are doing real paid work using LLMs that they could not otherwise do. I mean, it's quite obvious I suppose. But up until now I just assumed it was only a (massive) catalyst for things people would already be able to do with enough time. But nope -- it seems people are right now employed in roles that they would not be able to fulfil the tasks within if AI w…

I mentioned this then other day, my university class had maybe 80% of people who could not code. No joke. And a lot have gone onto to code professionally. AI is a godsend to this cohort of code monkies. Edit: we graduated in 2006.

At a FAANG adjacent company in 2017 we hired a guy from Google with 4 years experience who passed our very hard coding interviews. He literally couldnt code. It blew my mind.
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