Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.
I've seen people unable to work at average speed on small features suddenly reach above average output through a llm cli and I could sense the pride in them. Which is at odds with my experience of work.. I love to dig down, know a lot, model and find abstractions on my own. There a llm will 1) not understand how my brain work 2) produce something workable but that requires me to stretch mentally.. and most of the time I leave numb. In the last month I've seen many people expressing similar views.
ps: thanks everybody for the answers, interesting to read your pov
I’ve realized that a lot of my coding is on this personal satisfaction vs utility matrix and llms let me focus a lot more energy onto high satisfaction projects
I am a very above-average engineer when it comes to speed at completing work well, whether that's typing speed or comprehension speed, and still these tools have felt like giving me a jetpack for my mind. I can get things done in weeks that would have taken me months before, and that opens up space to consider new areas that I wouldn't have even bothered exploring before because I would not have had the time to execute on them well.
When I write my own code without an LLM, it is an extension of my own thinking, my own mental model.
But when I use an LLM, that LLM produces code that I need to comprehend, understand. It's like I'm continually reading some other developers' code, and having to understand their mental model and way of thinking to truly understand the code.
For me, this is very tiring. It just costs more energy for me to review and read other people's code than when I write it myself.
1. I do love getting into the details of code, but I don't mind having an LLM handle boilerplate.
2. There isn't a binary between having an LLM generate all the code and writing it all myself.
3. I still do most of the design work because LLMs often make questionable design decisions.
4. Sometimes I simply want a program to solve a problem (outcome-focused) over a project to work on (craft-focused). Sometimes I need a small program in order to focus on the larger project, and being able to delegate that work has made it more enjoyable.
My usual thought is that boilerplate tells me, by existing, where the system is most flawed.
I do like the idea of having a tool that quickly patches the problem while also forcing me to think about its presence.
> There isn't a binary between having an LLM generate all the code and writing it all myself. I still do most of the design work because LLMs often make questionable design decisions.
One workflow that makes sense to me is to have the LLM commit on a branch; fix simple issues instead of trying to make it work (with all the worry of context poisoning); refactor on the same branch; merge; and then repeat for the next feature — starting more or less from scratch except for the agent config (CLAUDE.md etc.). Does that sound about right? Maybe you do something less formal?
> Sometimes I simply want a program to solve a purpose (outcome-focused) over a project to work on (craft-focused). Sometimes I need a small program in order to focus on the larger project, and being able to delegate that work has made it more enjoyable.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
As a (self-reported) craft-and-decomposition lover, I wouldn't call the process "fast".
Certainly it's much faster than if I were trying to take the same approach without the same skills; and certainly I could slow it down with over-engineering. (And "deep" absolutely fits.) But the people I've known that I'd characterize as strongly "outcome-only", were certainly capable of sustaining some pretty high delta-LoC per day.
At least in the olden days[1] you could write code for days before compiling, which reduced the pain. Long compilation times has always been awful, but it is less frustrating when you could defer it until the next blue moon. LLMs don't (yet) seem to be able to handle that. If you feed them more than small amounts of code at a time they quickly go off the rails.
With that said, while you could write large amounts of code and defer it until the next blue moon, it is a skill to be able to do that. Even in C++, juniors seem to like to write a few lines of code and then turn to compiling the results to make sure they are on the right track. I expect that is the group of people who is most feeling at home with LLMs. Spending a few minutes writing code and then waiting on compilation isn't abnormal for them.
But presumably the tooling will improve with time.
Businesses are currently willing to accept that lack of productivity as an investment into figuring out how to tame the tools. There is a lot of hope that all the problems can be solved if we keep trying to solve them. And, in fairness, we have gotten a lot closer than we were just a year or so ago towards that end, so the optimism currently remains strong. However, that cannot go on forever. At some point the investment has to prove itself, else the plug will be pulled.
And yes, it may ultimately be a dead end. Absolutely. It wouldn't be the first failure in software development.
With no gossip, rivalry or backstabbing. Super polite and patient, which is very inspiring.
We also brutally churning them by "laying off" the previously latest model once the new latest is available.
As a manager/tech-lead, I've kind of been a tech priest for some time.
They seem to all be ICs that forget that there are abstraction layers above them where all of that happens (and more).
Flow is effortless. and it is rejuvenating.
I believe:
While communication can be satisfying, it’s not as rejuvenating as resting in our own Being and simply allowing the action to unfold without mental contraction.
Flow states.
When the right level of challenge and capability align and you become intimate with the problem. The boundaries of me and the problem dissolve and creativity springs forth. Emerging satisfied. Nourished.
Thinking is a skill that is reinforced by reading, designing and writing code. When you outsource your thinking to an LLM your ability to think doesn’t magically improve…it degrades.
Those always required significantly more though just like before and that's all I do now.
I mean old staff engineers and managers are often not coding at all but they are significantly better designers than a freshgrad that leetcode grinded for 4 years. Isn't that the same argument?
And if you let the AI too loose, as when you try to vibe code an entirely new program, I end up in the situation where in 1 day I have a good prototype and then I can spend easily 5 times as much sorting the many issues and refactoring in order to have it scale to the next features.
Long iteration cycles are taxing
But it does feel less fulfilling I suppose.