And it does not account for what I have observed lately which is how easily cursor et al will ad hoc refactor existing code when only asked to make a minor change then requiring hours of debugging or careful rollback. And I am speaking as a ‘vibe coder’ who hasn’t done any real coding for years.
yeah, we mitigate that with very explicit preflight prompt instructions, and also version control and human review :)
yes but for a new startup where practices like that are just forming it can cost a precious few days.
I wonder how much use of AI is that sophisticated/guarded. I also wonder how the general PR review paradox applies (larger the PR, the less actual review). My preference when using these tools is that any change an AI makes is it’s own commit.
I wish they would comment their commits. Also we need CI to look for any wholesale code removal.
I really only want to use tools that support a prompt injection/conventions file. Otherwise you get insane behavior IME.
fortunately claude code & cursor do!
my indirect one degree removed experience is they don’t make substantive comments when they decide ripping out a few thousand lines with necessary variables now hanging is a good idea.
I have luckily not experienced this. I also generally try to keep my context/editable files as small as possible (sometimes that is hard though).
that makes sense
if you subscribe to the fast fashion theory of AI code, why version control it if you can just rip it up and generate it anew if there are problems?
I call that bad vibes coding
Shudder.
I'm serious! AI generated code is like clothes from Temu.
You are exactly right and never before thought of that metaphor. Now it is stuck in my head.
If your just vibe coding then I agree. But you can also do actual coding with AI too. I don’t think it’s “all that” mind you, but I have been using it “for real” lately. It does require a lot of supervision though. A lot a lot a lot. I can’t stress that enough (which you obv know).
the level of supervision and the expertise to do that is what is being overlooked in the popular narrative. Again, not a coder, but close enough watching commits rn to see the truth.
yeah, as I told @kateconger.com the other day, the robots aren't replacing any of us any time soon, they're simply not good enough to do anything without constant supervision.
I was having this convo last night with a CFO of a local org.
💯 I am worried about: 1) junior engineers using AI; 2) junior engineers in general We as an industry seem to prefer mid+ career engineers. But you only get there by being a junior engineer first.
We have to keep giving kids out of college in all fields internships and first jobs where they will fail and be underproductive and mistaken, encourage them to use AI first — but be skeptical of it, and help them become mid career. Eng, PM, finance, sales, science … or the anthropocene era will end.