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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

#231

Post by ModernMech »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #228
ModernMech wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I burned out I experienced skill regression and short term memory loss. Like, an inability to remember specific events of the day before, inability to perform skills I had done for decades like play an instrument. Took over a year to stabilize and return to normal.

Yes, this is extremely similar to my experience I cannot remember events, conversations, or details about important things. I have partially lost my ability to code, because I get partway through implementing a feature and forget what pieces I've done and which pieces still need to be done I can still write it, but the quality of my work has plummeted, which is part of why I'm off on leave now

Hang in there, it gets better and the skills come back. From my github:

  2,350 contributions in 2021
  2,661 contributions in 2022
  381 contributions in 2023
My recovery took about 18 months. It took time, and a lot of rest. I'd have to sleep like 12 hours a day sometimes.

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

#233

Post by griffiths »

ModernMech wrote: post #208
griffiths wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

When I burned out I experienced skill regression and short term memory loss. Like, an inability to remember specific events of the day before, inability to perform skills I had done for decades like play an instrument. Took over a year to stabilize and return to normal.

Mine is more of a long term memory loss. Inability to recall some memorable events from months or even a year ago. I’ll definitely check or go talk with someone.

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

#234

Post by Shorel »

CalRobert wrote: post #38
october8140 wrote: post #8

What kind of projects are people doing that are feeling the increased velocity?

Random example: I set up a model in DBT that has 100 columns. I need to generate a schema for it (old tools could do this) with appropriate tests and likely data types (old tools struggled with this). AI is really good at this sort of thing.

And many tools which are not AI are also really good at this sort of thing.

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

#235

Post by footlose_3815 »

Not sure if it's been declared generally yet, but debugging is harder with AI.

Once your requests start to veer away from the direction you wanted (Especially if at-any-point, you transition to Cursor's "Free" mode, and it misunderstands and bulldozes all your previously-working features)

Not only is it harder, the physical stress caused by debugging with AI is something new. It gets some requests so-incredibly-wrong and follows directions totally-contrary, your brain forgets it's talking to a computer, and reacts in a way you would to a person who did all the wrong things here.

Version control has never been so important. I never use cursor without it. And even then, sometimes I just open the client, and a bunch of files changed.

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

#236

Post by antonvs »

foo42 wrote: post #30

The tradeoff of higher velocity for less enjoyment may feel less welcome when it becomes the new baseline and the expectation of employers / customers. 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. I suspect it doesn't matter how we feel about it mind you. If it's going to happen it will, whether we enjoy t…

> The tradeoff of higher velocity for less enjoyment

I'm enjoying exactly what the author describes, so it's different strokes for different folks.

I always found the "code monkey" aspect of software development utterly boring and tedious, and have spent a lot of my career automating that away with various kinds of code generators, DSLs, and so on. \

Using an LLM as a general-purpose automated code monkey is a near-ideal scenario for me, and I enjoy the work more. It's especially useful for languages like Go or Java where repetitive boilerplate is endemic.

I also find it helps with procrastination, because I can just ask an LLM to start something for me and get over the initial hump.

> whether we're actually trading away more quality that we realise.

This is completely up to the people using it.

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

#237

Post by tom_ »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #220
zdragnar wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “more more more” If you're a salaried or hourly employee, you aren't paid for your output, you are paid for your time, with minimum expectations of productivity. If you complete all your work in an hour... you still owe seven hours based on the expectations of your employment agreement, in order to earn your salary and benefits. If you'd rather work in an output based capacity, you'll want to move to running your o…

That's funny, because, at more than one place I've worked as a salaried employee, when I had to work OT, the narrative was "you're salary because you're paid to get the job done, doesn't matter how many hours it takes". Unfortunately, "the job" somehow never worked out to be less than 40 hours a week.

In many (most?) salary jobs, employees are typically paid both to get the job done, and to supply at least N hours of their time for the company to have them use as it sees fit.

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

#238

Post by brailsafe »

latexr wrote: post #36
foo42 wrote: post #30

The tradeoff of higher velocity for less enjoyment may feel less welcome when it becomes the new baseline and the expectation of employers / customers. 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. I suspect it doesn't matter how we feel about it mind you. If it's going to happen it will, whether we enjoy t…

> 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 is quite the defeatist attitude. Society becoming shittier isn’t inevitable, though inaction and giving up certainly helps that along.

If the structures and systems that are in-place only facilitate life getting more difficult in some way, then it probably will, unless it doesn't.

Housing getting nearly unownable is a symptom of that. Climate change is another.

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

#239

Post by chongli »

loandbehold wrote: post #211
chongli wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Both. But I'm not talking about fixing. I'm talking about refactoring.

It’s often the case that in order to fix an issue you need to refactor first.

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

#240

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

tom_ wrote: post #237
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny, because, at more than one place I've worked as a salaried employee, when I had to work OT, the narrative was "you're salary because you're paid to get the job done, doesn't matter how many hours it takes". Unfortunately, "the job" somehow never worked out to be less than 40 hours a week.

In many (most?) salary jobs, employees are typically paid both to get the job done, and to supply at least N hours of their time for the company to have them use as it sees fit.

Yeah, I've been in industry for over a decade, still don't understand the value of salary for the devs.
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