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AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

praf.me

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Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#171

Post by chongli »

loandbehold wrote: post #135
shkkmo wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more economically efficient I suspect we'll find that the amount of technical debt and loss of institutional knowledge incured by misuse of these tools was initially underappreciated. I don't doubt that the industry will be transformed, but that doesn't mean that these tools are a panacea.

I read about AI assistants allegedly creating tech debt but my experience is opposite. Claude Code makes it easy to refactor helping to reduce tech debt. Tech debt usually happens because refactoring takes time but is hard to justify to upper management because upper management only sees new features but not quality of code. With Claude Code refactoring is much faster so it gets done.

Are you talking about refactoring code you’re already familiar with? Or a completely unknown codebase that no one else at the company knows anything about and you’ve been tasked with fixing?

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#172

Post by hudon »

sarchertech wrote: post #166
hudon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What caused textile machines to replace the manual labor wasn’t the quality of their output, it was quantity. In fact, manually made clothing was of higher quality than what was machine-produced.

That’s a misconception. The machines we’re talking about made raw cloth not clothing and it was actually higher quality in many respects because of accuracy and repeatability. Almost all clothing is still made by hand one piece at a time with sewing machines still very manually operated.

“ …by the mid‑19th century machine‑woven cloth still could not equal the quality of hand‑woven Indian cloth. However, the high productivity of British textile manufacturing allowed coarser grades of British cloth to undersell hand‑spun and woven fabric in low‑wage India” [0]

“…the output of power looms was certainly greater than that of the handlooms, but the handloom weavers produced higher quality cloths with greater profit margins.” [1]

The same can be said about machines like the water frame. It was great at spinning coarse thread, but for high quality/luxury textile (ie. fine fabric), skilled (human) spinners did a much better job. You can read the book Blood in the Machine for even more context.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_loom

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#173

Post by thatjoeoverthr »

Same. Part of the old experience of building applications is the typing. You have some notion in your head of what you want, and now you've got to go _type_ for six hours to get some effect. This becomes a kind of "manual skill" and you can do it with music. Like running.

That's gone.

My impression of myself is the high leverage strategic work was always subconscious, but I never had to notice; my hands were busy so it felt like I'm "working".

And with the AI typing for me, it doesn't necessarily go that much faster. I've got to go lift weights, play my favourite vintage racing slop (Rush 2) or take a long shower. At some point the plan is revealed to me and I've got to poke the computer and make it do the next thing.

Very strange experience. All of it.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#174

Post by mulhoon »

dep_b wrote: post #134

I cannot run or code to music. I might be playing music while doing so, but it's super distracting and it's basically just me working at 50% while enjoying myself. I worked with a bunch of guys that always always always had a web radio pumping cheesy hard style stuff all day long. Got nothing done.

Same. I’ve been a coder over 25 years. I love music and am a musician, but I can’t listen to music while coding, I need silence. Too distracting. In fact music is often distracting for me during conversations, if it’s on in the background, say in a shop or bar.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#175

Post by jckahn »

creesch wrote: post #155
latexr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The excitement of getting a day's work done in an hour* (for example) is likely to fade once the expectation is to produce 8 of such old-days output per day. That dumb attitude (which I understand you’re criticising) of “more more more” always reminds me of Lenny from the Simpsons moving fast through the yellow light, with nowhere to go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR10t-B9nYY > I suspect it doesn't matter how…

> That dumb attitude (which I understand you’re criticising) of “more more more” always reminds me of Lenny from the Simpsons moving fast through the yellow light, with nowhere to go. Realizing that attitude in myself at times has given me so much more peace of mind. Just in general, not everything needs to be as fast and efficient as possible. Not to mention the times where in the end I spend a lot of time and energ…

> Just in general, not everything needs to be as fast and efficient as possible.

It does when you are competing for getting and keeping employment opportunities.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#176

Post by hudon »

sarchertech wrote: post #167
nullandvoid wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safety critical (will kill someone if not bug free) code makes up Both will stay manual / require high level of review they're not what's being disrupted (at-least in near term) - it's the rest.

Nearly all clothing is still produced in an extremely manual process. What was automated was the production of raw cloth.

This is a distinction without a difference. Even if you take a rudimentary raw cloth comparison like cotton vs heavy wool (the latter being fire resistant and used historically used by firemen, ie. “Safety critical”), the machines’ output quality was significantly lower than manual output for the latter.

This phenomenon is a general one… chainsaws vs hand saws, bread slicers vs hand slicing, mechanical harvesters vs manual harvesting, etc.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#178

Post by hudon »

codr7 wrote: post #121
hudon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What caused textile machines to replace the manual labor wasn’t the quality of their output, it was quantity. In fact, manually made clothing was of higher quality than what was machine-produced.

Yes, but they still filled their purpose. AI slop code doesn't even work beyond toy examples.

After the operating system and the spreadsheet, most software is toys.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#179

Post by ai_assisted_dev »

imiric wrote: post #131
ai_assisted_dev wrote: post #17

It definitely changed how I get into flow state for me. But music still works, if not even better when coding with AI (listening to: techno, electro, edm). Generally my flow is to sit down, make a small plan of what I will work on, fire off 2 agents to work on different parts of the code that are lower hanging fruits (takes 2-10 mins for them to complete). Then while this is busy, map out some bigger tasks. Agents fi…

That's not the same flow state experienced by programmers. While programming, it's possible to get into a trance-like state where the program's logic is fully loaded and visible in your mind, and your fingers become an extension of your mind that wire you directly to the machine. This allows you to modify the program essentially at the speed of thought, with practically zero chance of producing buggy code. The progra…

Nice way of gatekeeping "flow state of programmers", considering I have been a software engineer for the past 2 decades. So I have experienced quite some flow states in my life, and this is no different.

Re: AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

#180

Post by mrbombastic »

griffiths wrote: post #159
bluefirebrand wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cushy software job has burned me out so badly that I am on medical leave with massive memory problems and a bit of concern about my heart So I mean... Yeah Is software more comfortable generally than many other lines of work? Yes probably Is it always soft and cushy? No, not at all. It is often high pressure and high stress

What kind of massive memory problems? I might have this but didn't think to attribute it to burnout.

Also asking for a friend…
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