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Comment by ednite | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone else finding that the real job now is pushing back against AI-backed “suggestions” , from clients, managers, and even so-called “AI experts”? They sound confident, but too often collapse in design and practice.

How are you handling this shift? Do you find yourself spending more time explaining “why not” than actually building?

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Search for "workshop labor rates meme". It's just part of knowing the business beyond the craft.

If you are going to be involved, especially as the developer, you cannot let anything undermine your authority over the implementation details. This was always true before and AI is just a new source of noise.

Yes, that’s always been true. What feels different now is the volume of undermining authority that’s popped up and how so many people feel overconfident. For example, that recent dating app that went viral and became a security nightmare. Most likely created by a very confident non-dev person. Or like the author in the piece (spoiler: that’s me) now has the confidence to give people advice, thanks to AI.

I’m not really questioning that it happens, I’m stating how much energy it now takes to keep pushing back (or approving) and how easy it is to just agree with an AI output these days. Just my experience and two cents.

Comments like this make me really grateful I work in a company run entirely by engineers.

It’s more of the same. At least in my experience, much of work amounts to “yes sir. Will that be all sir?”

You take the input, mostly ignore it, and move on. YMMV on that strategy, but if you are deft with it then you can dodge a lot of bullshit.

It does require that the things you do decide to do pan out though. You’ll need results to back it up.

Yeah, that’s pretty much been my approach too. I try to take both the positive and the negative, since even bad input can help a project evolve. The tricky part now is the energy it takes to sift through it, feedback that sounds like it came from an MIT grad one minute, or my Italian grandma (who’s never touched a device) the next.

AI chat is the ultimate coach, influencer, and MBA.

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