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A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

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Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#521

Post by phito »

gritspants wrote: post #172
daxfohl wrote: post #65

I worry about the "brain atrophy" part, as I've felt this too. And not just atrophy, but even moreso I think it's evolving into "complacency". Like there have been multiple times now where I wanted the code to look a certain way, but it kept pulling back to the way it wanted to do things. Like if I had stated certain design goals recently it would adhere to them, but after a few iterations it would forget again and g…

My disillusionment comes from the feeling I am just cosplaying my job. There is nothing to distinguish one cosplayer from another. I am just doordashing software, at this point, and I'm not in control.

What kind of software are you writing? Are you just a "code monkey" implementing perfectly described Jira tickets (no offense meant)? I cannot imagine feeling this way with what I'm working on, writing code is just a small part of it, most of the time is spent trying to figure out how to integrate the various (undocumented and actively evolving) external services involved together in a coherent, maintainable and resilient way. LLMs absolutely cannot figure this out themselves, I have to figure it out myself and then write it all in its context, and even then it mostly comes up with sub-par, unmaintainable solutions if I wasn't being precise engouh.

They are amazing for side projects but not for serious code with real world impact where most of the context is in multiple people's head.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#523

Post by teaearlgraycold »

HNisCIS wrote: post #437
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user of LLMs since GPT-3 there was noticeable stagnation in LLM utility after the release of GPT-4. But it seems the RLHF, tool calling, and UI have all come together in the last 12 months. I used to wonder what fools could be finding them so useful to claim a 10x multiplier - even as a user myself. These days I’m feeling more and more efficiency gains with Claude Code.

That's the thing people are missing, the models plateaued a while ago, still making minor gains to this day, but not huge ones. The difference is now we've had time to figure out the tooling. I think there's still a ton of ground to cover there and maybe the models will improve given that the extra time, but I think it's foolish to consider people who predicted that completely wrong. There are also a lot of mathemati…

I believe Sam Altman, perhaps the greatest grifter in today’s Silicon Valley, claimed that software engineering would be obsolete by the end of last year.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#524

Post by ryanjshaw »

jedberg wrote: post #302

> You realize that stamina is a core bottleneck to work There has been a lot of research that shows that grit is far more correlated to success than intelligence. This is an interesting way to show something similar. AIs have endless grit (or at least as endless as your budget). They may outperform us simply because they don't ever get tired and give up. Full quote for context: Tenacity. It's so interesting to watch…

I realized a long time ago that I’m better at computer stuff not because I’m smarter but because I will sit there all day and night to figure something out while others will give up. I always thought that was my superpower in the job industry but now I’m not so sure if it will transfer to getting AI to do what I need done…

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#525

Post by dag11 »

ed_mercer wrote: post #513
arh5451 wrote: post #507

Thank you for the really excellent summation. I echo your thought 1 to 1. I have found it more difficult to learn new languages or coding skills, because I am no longer forced to go through the painful slow grind of learning.

Does one ever still need to learn new languages or coding skills if an AI will be able to do it?

This question makes me unbelievably sad. Why should anyone learn anything?

I'm not disagreeing.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#526

Post by nathias »

daxfohl wrote: post #65

I worry about the "brain atrophy" part, as I've felt this too. And not just atrophy, but even moreso I think it's evolving into "complacency". Like there have been multiple times now where I wanted the code to look a certain way, but it kept pulling back to the way it wanted to do things. Like if I had stated certain design goals recently it would adhere to them, but after a few iterations it would forget again and g…

it's not about brain atrophy, it's skill atrophy

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#527

Post by chrisjj »

simonw wrote: post #503
chrisjj wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you an example of getting a coding chatbot to do exactly what you want?

https://gisthost.github.io/?a41ce6304367e2ced59cd237c576b817... - which built https://github.com/datasette/datasette-transactions exactly the way I wanted it to be built

> exactly the way I wanted it to be built

You verified each line?

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#529

Post by chrisjj »

audience_mem wrote: post #512
simonw wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://gisthost.github.io/?a41ce6304367e2ced59cd237c576b817... - which built https://github.com/datasette/datasette-transactions exactly the way I wanted it to be built

The problem with replying to the proof-demanders is that they'll always pick it apart and find some reason it doesn't fit their definition. You must be familiar with that at this point.

Worse, they might even attempt to verify your claims e.g. "When AI 'builds a browser,' check the repo before believing the hype" https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/26/cursor_opinion/

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#530

Post by solumunus »

rustyhancock wrote: post #486
solumunus wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get this at all. I’m using LLM’s all day and I’m constantly having to make smart architectural choices that other less experienced devs won’t be making. Are you just prompting and going with whatever the initial output is, letting the LLM make decisions? Every moderately sized task should start with a plan, I can spend hours planning, going off and thinking, coming back to the plan and adding/changing things,…

One challenge is, are those decisions making tangible differences? We won't know until the code being produced especially greenfields hits any kind of maturity 5 years+ atleast?

What? Of course it makes a difference when I direct it away from a bad solution towards a good solution. I know as soon as I review the output and it has done what I asked, or it hasn't and I make a correction. Why would I need to wait 5 years? That makes no sense, I can see the output.

If you're using LLM's and you don't know what good/bad output looks like then of course you're going to have problems, but such a person would have the same problems without the LLM...

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