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Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

blog.miguelgrinberg.com

41–50 of 464 posts

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#41

> It takes me at least the same amount of time to review code not written by me than it would take me to write the code myself, if not more. As someone who uses Claude Code heavily, this is spot on. LLMs are great, but I find the more I cede control to them, the longer it takes to actually ship the code. I’ve found that the main benefit for me so far is the reduction of RSI symptoms, whereas the actual time savings a…

I solved my RSI symptoms by keeping my arms warm all the time, while awake or asleep. Maybe that will work for you, too?

My issue is actually due to ulnar nerve compression related to a plate on my right clavicle.

Years of PT have enabled me to work quite effectively and minimize the flare ups :)

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#42

> For every new task this "AI intern" resets back to square one without having learned a thing! I guess the author is not aware of Cursor rules, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, etc. Task-list oriented rules specifically help with long term context.

You can lead a horse to the documentation, but you can't make him think.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#43
post #28

> It takes me at least the same amount of time to review code not written by me than it would take me to write the code myself, if not more. As someone who uses Claude Code heavily, this is spot on. LLMs are great, but I find the more I cede control to them, the longer it takes to actually ship the code. I’ve found that the main benefit for me so far is the reduction of RSI symptoms, whereas the actual time savings a…

Do you have to review the code? I’ll be honest that, like the OP theorizes, I often just spot review it. But I also get it to write specs (often very good, in terms of the ones I’ve dug into), and I always carefully review and test the results. Because there is also plenty of non-AI code in my projects I didn’t review at all, namely, the myriad open source libraries I’ve installed.

Yes, I’m actually working on an another project with the goal of never looking at the code.

For context, it’s just a reimplementation of a tool I built.

Let’s just say it’s going a lot slower than the first time I built it by hand :)

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#45
post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher skill ceiling than many people realize No, it's not. It's something you can pick in a few minutes (or an hour if you're using more advanced tooling, mostly spending it setting things up). But it's not like GDB or using UNIX as…

I do not agree it is something you can pick up in an hour. You have to learn what AI is good at, how different models code, how to prompt to get the results you want.

If anything, prompting well is akin to learning a new programming language. What words do you use to explain what you want to achieve? How do you reference files/sections so you don't waste context on meaningless things?

I've been using AI tools to code for the past year and a half (Github Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, OpenAI APIs) and they all need slightly different things to be successful and they're all better at different things.

AI isn't a panacea, but it can be the right tool for the job.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#47
post #25

Everyone is still thinking about this problem the wrong way. If you are still running one agent, on one project at a time, yes, its not going to be all that helpful if you are already a fast, solid coder. Run three, run five. Prompt with voice annotation. Run them when normally you need a cognitive break. Run them while you watch netflix on another screen. Have them do TDD. Use an orchestrator. So many more options.…

I have never seen people work harder to dismantle their own industry than software engineers are right now.

What exactly is the alternative? Wish it away? Developers have been automating away jobs for decades, its seems hypocritical to complain about it now.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#48
post #19

To some degree, traditional coding and AI coding are not the same thing, so it's not surprising that some people are better at one than the other. The author is basically saying that he's much better at coding than AI coding. But it's important to realize that AI coding is itself a skill that you can develop. It's not just , pick the best tool and let it go. Managing prompts and managing context has a much higher ski…

> You might prefer manual coding, but you might just be bad at AI coding and you might prefer it if you improved at it. ok but how much am I supposed to spend before I supposedly just "get good"? Because based on the free trials and the pocket change I've spent, I don't consider the ROI worth it.

how much time did you spend learning your last language to become comfortable with it?

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#49

> But interns learn and get better over time. The time that you spend reviewing code or providing feedback to an intern is not wasted, it is an investment in the future. The intern absorbs the knowledge you share and uses it for new tasks you assign to them later on. This is the piece that confuses me about the comparison to a junior or an intern. Humans learn about the business, the code, the history of the system.…

Put the business context in the system prompt.

Re: Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

#50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might prefer manual coding, but you might just be bad at AI coding and you might prefer it if you improved at it. ok but how much am I supposed to spend before I supposedly just "get good"? Because based on the free trials and the pocket change I've spent, I don't consider the ROI worth it.

You're going to spend a little over $1k to ramp up your skills with AI-aided coding. It's dirt cheap in the grand scheme of things.

do I get a refund if I spend a grand and I'm still not convinced? at some point I'm going to start lying to myself to justify the cost and I don't know how much y'all earn but $1k is getting close
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