Earlier quoted context omitted.
The wrinkle is that the AI doesn't have a truly global view, and so it slowly degrades even good structure, especially if run without human feedback and review. But you're right that good structure really helps.
AGENTS.md is for that global view.
AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
61–70 of 382 posts
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
The wrinkle is that the AI doesn't have a truly global view, and so it slowly degrades even good structure, especially if run without human feedback and review. But you're right that good structure really helps.
AGENTS.md is for that global view.
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#63Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#64I think AI is just a massive force multiplier. If your codebase has bad foundation and going in the wrong direction with lots of hacks, it will just write code which mirrors the existing style... And you get exactly was OP is suggesting. If however, your code foundations are good and highly consistent and never allow hacks, then the AI will maintain that clean style and it becomes shockingly good; in this case, the p…
No projects, unless it's only you working on it, only yourself as the client, and is so rigid in it's scope, it's frankly useless, will have this mythical base. Over time the needs change, there's no sticking to the plan. Often it's a change that requires rethinking a major part. What we loathe as tight coupling was just efficient code with the original requirements. Then it becomes a time/opportunity cost vs quality loss comparison. Time and opportunity always wins. Why?
Because we live in a world run by humans, who are messy and never sticks to the plan. Our real world systems (bureaucracy , government process, the list goes on) are never fully automated and always leaves gaps for humans to intervene. There's always a special case, an exception.
Perfectly architected code vs code that does the thing have no real world difference. Long term maintainability? Your code doesn't run in a vaccum, it depends on other things, it's output is depended on by other things. Change is real, entropy is real. Even you yourself, you perfect programmer who writes perfect code will succumb eventually and think back on all this with regret. Because you yourself had to choose between time/opportunity vs your ideals and you chose wrong.
Thanks for reading my blog-in-hn comment.
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#65Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what if the foundation was made by the AI itself? What’s the excuse then?
Then you are boned unless it was architected well. LLMs tend to stack a lot of complexity at local scopes, especially if the neighboring pages are also built poorly. E.g pumping out a ton of logic to convert one data structure to another. Like a poorly structured form with random form control names that don’t match to the DTO. Or single properties for each form control which are then individually plugged into the req…
Must be my lucky day! Too bad my dream of being that while the bots are taking care of the coding is still sort of fiction.
I love a future when this is possible but what we have today is more of a proof of concept. A transformative leap is required for this technology before it can be as useful as advertised.
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#67I vibe coded a retro emulator and assembler with tests. Prompts were minimal and I got really great results (Gemini 3). I tried vibe coding the tricky proprietary part of an app I worked on a few years ago; highly technical domain (yes vague don’t care to dox myself). Lots of prompting and didn’t get close. There are literally thousands of retro emulators on github. What I was trying to do had zero examples on GitHub…
I tried to vibe code a technical not so popular niche and failed. Then I broke down the problem as much as I could and presented the problem in clearer terms and Gemini provided working code in just a few attempts. I know this is an anecdote, but try to break down the problem you have in simpler terms and it may work. Niche industry specific frameworks are a little difficult to work with in vibe code mode. But if you…
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#68[flagged]
> It's so intriguing, I wonder if the people who are against it haven't even used it properly. I feel like this is a common refrain that sets an impossible bar for detractors to clear. You can simply hand wave away any critique with “you’re just not using it right.” If countless people are “using it wrong” then maybe there’s something wrong with the tool.
It then shows hubris and a lack of imagination for someone in such a situation to think they can apply their negative results to extrapolate to the situation at large. Especially when so many are claiming to be seeing positive utility.
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most credible argument against AI is really the expense involved in querying frontier models. If you want to strengthen the case for AI-assisted coding, try to come up with ways of doing that effectively with a cheap "mini"-class model, or even something that runs locally. "You can spend $20k in tokens and have AI write a full C compiler in a week!" is not a very sensible argument for anything.
How much would it cost to pay developer to do this??
But regardless, services are extremely cheap right now, to the point where every single company involved in generative AI are losing billions. Let’s see what happens when prices go up 10x.
Re: AI makes the easy part easier and the hard part harder
#70I think AI is just a massive force multiplier. If your codebase has bad foundation and going in the wrong direction with lots of hacks, it will just write code which mirrors the existing style... And you get exactly was OP is suggesting. If however, your code foundations are good and highly consistent and never allow hacks, then the AI will maintain that clean style and it becomes shockingly good; in this case, the p…
A tangent, I keep hearing this good base, but I've never seen one, not in the real world. No projects, unless it's only you working on it, only yourself as the client, and is so rigid in it's scope, it's frankly useless, will have this mythical base. Over time the needs change, there's no sticking to the plan. Often it's a change that requires rethinking a major part. What we loathe as tight coupling was just efficie…