Generative AI coding tools and agents do not work for me

> 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 are mostly over exaggerated (even if it feels faster in the moment).

There's an implied assumption here that code you write yourself doesn't need to be reviewed from a context different from the author's.

There's an old expression: "code as if your work will be read by a psychopath who knows where you live" followed by the joke "they know where you live because it is future you".

Generative AI coding just forces the mindset you should have had all along: start with acceptance criteria, figure out how you're going to rigorously validate correctness (ideally through regression tests more than code reviews), and use the review process to come up with consistent practices (which you then document so that the LLM can refer to it).

It's definitely not always faster, but waking up in the morning to a well documented PR, that's already been reviewed by multiple LLMs, with successfully passing test runs attached to it sure seems like I'm spending more of my time focused on what I should have been focused on all along.