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AI coding

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Re: AI coding

#21

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

diarrhea wrote: post #9
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #2

> AI makes you feel 20% more productive but in reality makes you 19% slower. How many more billions are we going to waste on this? Adderall is similar. It makes people feel a lot more productive, but research on its effectiveness[0] seems to show that, at best, we get only a mild improvement in productivity, and marked deterioration of cognitive abilities. [0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6165228/

Note that the study is just n=13 and on subjects without ADHD.

That’s the deal.

People without ADHD take it, believing that it makes them “super[wo]men.”

Re: AI coding

#22

Post by net01 »

saejox wrote: post #17

> AI makes you feel 20% more productive but in reality makes you 19% slower. How many more billions are we going to waste on this? True in the long run. Like a car with a high acceleration but low top speed. AI makes you start fast, but regret later because you don't have the top speed.

This is shown in figure 5 of the paper. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.09089

Re: AI coding

#23

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

Eikon wrote: post #16
luckylion wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Research on _13_ people, that's a very important caveat when evaluating something like adderal.

It’s interesting how science can become closer to pseudoscience than proper research through paper-milling. It seems like that with such small groups and effects you could run the same “study” again and again until you get the result that you initially desired.

So it should be easy to find studies that prove that non-ADHD people that take it, have dramatically improved productivity.

Re: AI coding

#25

Post by bdcravens »

I'm almost 50, and have been writing code professionally since the late 90s. I can pretty much see projects in my head, and know exactly what to build. I also get paid pretty well for what I do. You'd think I'd be the prototype for anti-AI.

I'm not.

I can build anything, but often struggle with getting bogged down with all the basic work. I love AI for speed running through all the boring stuff and getting to the good parts.

I liken AI development to a developer somewhere between junior and mid-level, someone I can given a paragraph or two of thought out instructions and have them bang out an hour of work. (The potential for then stunting the growth of actual juniors into tomorrow's senior developers is a serious concern, but a separate problem to solve)

Re: AI coding

#26

Post by fleebee »

Eikon wrote: post #3

Even though I don’t buy that LLMs are going to replace developers and quite agree with what is said, this is more of a critique of LLMs as English-to-code translators. LLMs are very useful for many other things. Researching concepts, for one, has become so much easier, especially for things where you don’t know anything yet and would have a hard time to even formulate a search engine query.

I agree. I think a better analogy than a compiler is a search engine that has an excellent grasp of semantics but is also drunk and schizophrenic.

LLMs are really valuable for finding information that you aren't able to formulate a proper search query for.

To get the most out of them, ask them to point you to reliable sources instead of explaining directly. Even then, it pays to be very critical of where they're leading you to. To make an LLM the primary window through which you seek new information is extremely precarious epistemologically. Personally, I'd use it as a last resort.

Re: AI coding

#27

Post by raincole »

> It’s why the world wasted $10B+ on self driving car companies that obviously made no sense.

Obviously... in what way? I feel the anti-ai pattern is clear.

Self-driving cars don't work in my city so the whole concept is a hoax. LLMs don't code my proprietary language so it's a bubble.

> From this study (https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09089)

I can tell this is going to be the most misquoted study in blogs and pop-sci books after the 10,000-hour mastery study. And it's just a preprint!

Re: AI coding

#28

Post by gobdovan »

diarrhea wrote: post #9
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #2

> AI makes you feel 20% more productive but in reality makes you 19% slower. How many more billions are we going to waste on this? Adderall is similar. It makes people feel a lot more productive, but research on its effectiveness[0] seems to show that, at best, we get only a mild improvement in productivity, and marked deterioration of cognitive abilities. [0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6165228/

Note that the study is just n=13 and on subjects without ADHD.

Thanks again, diarrhea

Re: AI coding

#29

Post by isaacremuant »

saejox wrote: post #17

> AI makes you feel 20% more productive but in reality makes you 19% slower. How many more billions are we going to waste on this? True in the long run. Like a car with a high acceleration but low top speed. AI makes you start fast, but regret later because you don't have the top speed.

People repeating articles or papers. I know myself. I know from my own experiences what the good and bad of practice A or database B is. I don't need to read a conclusion by some Muppet.

Chill. Interesting times. Learn stuff, like always. Iterate. Be mindful and intentional and don't just chase mirrors but be practical.

The rest is fluff. You know yourself.

Re: AI coding

#30

Post by haute_cuisine »

bdcravens wrote: post #25

I'm almost 50, and have been writing code professionally since the late 90s. I can pretty much see projects in my head, and know exactly what to build. I also get paid pretty well for what I do. You'd think I'd be the prototype for anti-AI. I'm not. I can build anything, but often struggle with getting bogged down with all the basic work. I love AI for speed running through all the boring stuff and getting to the goo…

Would love to see a project you built with the help of AI, can you share any links?
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