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Nobody knows how to build with AI yet

(worksonmymachine.substack.com)
526 points Stwerner | 11 comments | 19 Jul 25 15:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.946s | source | bottom
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karel-3d ◴[19 Jul 25 16:32 UTC] No.44616917[source]▶
Reading articles like this feels like being in a different reality.

I don't work like this, I don't want to work like this and maybe most importantly I don't want to work with somebody who works like this.

Also I am scared that any library that I am using through the myriad of dependencies is written like this.

On the other hand... if I look at this as some alternate universe where I don't need to directly or indirectly touch any of this... I am happy that it works for these people? I guess? Just keep it away from me

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lordnacho ◴[19 Jul 25 16:42 UTC] No.44617013[source]▶
But you also can't not swim with the tide. If you drove a horse-buggy 100 years ago, it was probably worth your while to keep your eye on whether motor-cars went anywhere.

I was super skeptical about a year ago. Copilot was making nice predictions, that was it. This agent stuff is truly impressive.

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bloppe ◴[19 Jul 25 16:56 UTC] No.44617165[source]▶
An I the only one who has to constantly tell Claude and Gemini to stop making edits to my codebase because they keep messing things up and breaking the build like ten times in a row, duplicating logic everywhere, etc? I keep hearing about how impressive agents are. I wish they could automate me out of my job faster
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1. Benjammer ◴[19 Jul 25 17:07 UTC] No.44617257[source]▶
Are you paying for the higher end models? Do you have proper system prompts and guidance in place for proper prompt engineering? Have you started to practice any auxiliary forms of context engineering?

This isn't a magic code genie, it's a very complicated and very powerful new tool that you need to practice using over time in order to get good results from.

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2. goalieca ◴[19 Jul 25 17:11 UTC] No.44617299[source]▶
It ain’t a magic code genie. And developers don’t spend most of their day typing lines of code. Lots of it is designing, figuring out what to build, understanding the code, maintenance considerations, and adhering to the style of whatever file you’re in. All these agents needing local context and still spit junk.
3. dingnuts ◴[19 Jul 25 17:14 UTC] No.44617324[source]▶
guy 1: I put money in the slot machine everyone says wins all the time and I lose

you: HAVE YOU PUT MORE TOKENS IN???? ARE YOU PUTTING THEM IN THE EXPENSIVE MACHINES???

super compelling argument /s

if you want to provide working examples of "prompt engineering" or "context engineering" please do but "just keep paying until the behavior is impressive" isn't winning me as a customer

it's like putting out a demo program that absolutely sucks and promising that if I pay, it'll get good. why put out the shit demo and give me this impression, then, if it sucks?

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4. lordnacho ◴[19 Jul 25 17:24 UTC] No.44617410[source]▶
The way I ended up paying for Claude max was that I started on the cheap plan, it went well, then it wanted more money, and I paid because things were going well.

Then it ran out of money again, and I gave it even more money.

I'm in the low 4 figures a year now, and it's worth it. For a day's pay each year, I've got a junior dev who is super fast, makes good suggestions, and makes working code.

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5. Avicebron ◴[19 Jul 25 17:52 UTC] No.44617689{3}[source]▶
> For a day's pay each year

For anyone trying to back of the napkin at $1000 as 4-figures per year, averaged as a day salary, the baseline salary where this makes sense is about ~$260,000/yr? Is that about right lordnacho?

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6. lordnacho ◴[19 Jul 25 18:23 UTC] No.44618010{4}[source]▶
Yeah I thought that was a reasonable number in the ballpark. I mean, it probably makes sense to pay a lot more for it. A grand is probably well within the range where you shouldn't care about it, even if you only get a basic salary and it's a terrible year with no bonus.

And that's not saying AI tools are the real deal, either. It can be a lot less than a fully self driving dev and still be worth a significant fraction of an entry level dev.

7. tempodox ◴[19 Jul 25 18:27 UTC] No.44618056[source]▶
That's the beauty of the hype: Anyone who cannot replicate it, is “holding it wrong”.
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8. QuantumGood ◴[19 Jul 25 18:29 UTC] No.44618063[source]▶

   > it's a very complicated and very powerful new tool that you need to practice using over time in order to get good results from.
Of course this is and would be expected to be true. Yet adoption of this mindset has been orders of magnitude slower than the increase in AI features and capabilities.
9. ◴[19 Jul 25 18:35 UTC] No.44618116[source]▶
10. antihipocrat ◴[19 Jul 25 18:45 UTC] No.44618201{4}[source]▶
I assume it's after tax too..
11. orangecat ◴[20 Jul 25 06:24 UTC] No.44622478[source]▶
Or maybe it works well in some cases and not others?