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Cognitive load is what matters

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1457 points nromiun | 2 comments | 30 Aug 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.415s | source
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xmprt ◴[30 Aug 25 17:46 UTC] No.45076575[source]▶
This is one of the reasons I fear AI will harm the software engineering industry. AI doesn't have any of these limitation so it can write extremely complex and unreadable code that works... until it doesn't. And then no one can fix it.

It's also why I urge junior engineers to not rely on AI so much because even though it makes writing code so much faster, it prevents them from learning the quirks of the codebase and eventually they'll lose the ability to write code on their own.

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fsckboy ◴[30 Aug 25 17:47 UTC] No.45076587[source]▶
>AI can write extremely complex and unreadable code that works... until it doesn't. And then

AI can fix it

I'm not defending or encouraging AI, just saying that argument doesn't work

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xmprt ◴[30 Aug 25 17:50 UTC] No.45076613[source]▶
I'm talking about cases where even AI can't fix it. I've heard of a lot of stories where people vibe code their applications to 80% and then get stuck in a loop where AI is unable to solve their problems.

It's been well documented that LLMs collapse after a certain complexity level.

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1. fsckboy ◴[30 Aug 25 18:26 UTC] No.45076911[source]▶
you were also talking about the future (as AIs get better and better). as of now AIs cannot write code too complex for better programmers to understand. your point holds for armies of low skill programmers, but you're just raising a fear and haven't come close to proving the case you're trying to make. We already know as counterweight that being first to the market with very substandard code generally wins over taking your time to get it right, so why should it be different with AI?
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2. AstroBen ◴[31 Aug 25 00:27 UTC] No.45079237[source]▶
> We already know as counterweight that being first to the market with very substandard code generally wins

..we do?

Who created short stories as used in Tiktok/IG?

The first touch screen phone?

First social media app?

Was Google the first?

I mean I almost see the opposite of what you're saying..