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Comment by jwpapi | Hacker News Reader

I don’t know but to me it seems a bunch of people should learn proper typing. There is no way in world that AI is faster in solving/writing problems than you are when you can maneuver your idea/vim properly and have proper domain knowledge and mental model of your codebase. I think it’s genuinely 10x as fast. Just on execution and then if you write it you keep mental model, decide details and you don’t lose context.

Like honestly I’m losing my mind, when people claim I haven’t written code in a year. You had the wrong job your whole life and whilst you think you are so frontier now by using agenst your market value is actually decreasing.

Imagine a painter saying, I’m so happy I don’t have to paint anymore. Or a tennis player. I’m so happay that I don’t have to play tennis anymore.

wtf is going on?

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Obviously I'm just one guy, but I maintain what I said w/ typing happily at 120+wpm. I think I could break 150 if I switched to colemak or dvorak, which I've been considering.

I don't think my job was ever to type fast, nor do I make any claim that I'm ontologically better than someone writing code by hand - but for what I need to do, I'm way faster now.

You might think he's an AI shill, but I was pretty compelled by simonw's post and idea - "your job is to deliver code that works" [1]. I think I can deliver more code that I can prove to work, faster now. The productivity is nice, but as I've said on other parts of the thread, it's also just fun to spend more time thinking, less time hitting the semicolon on my keyboard?

[1]: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/code-proven-to-work/

Edit: should have used [1] in the first place instead of an asterisk.

I’m using NEO layout with all the coding keys on layer 3. I’m using both pinkys to jump into layer 3. I can therefore code a lot on home row. I use intellij with two two stroke keybinds (f.e. => Alt + E -> M => Extract Method) and vim motions in editor. I use ai next edit and autocomplete inside editor as I’m right on the loop.

Most changes I need to do are few lines of codes or big architectural changes. I’m at 40k lines of code after 24 months of working that’s 1.5k lines per month and 50 lines a day. If you can write 50 lines a day would you let AI write those or write them yourself.

I challenge anyone to show me a project with a good codebase where the actual loc output is so high that a human couldn’t write it in one hour a day.

I’m not working for a company so my job is to deliver a platform that works for users not to get a paycheck.

Coding for other people is like playing tennis for other people. You're signed as a tennis player to win. If a robot could play for you and win more games for you, you might consider using it. Now, I'm not saying AI tools let you "win," but I am saying a lot of people don't code "for the love of the game;" they code to keep the lights on.

Also the jury's out on if they're losing market value. We have yet to see which way the wind blows, but I personally think the genie might be out of the bottle on this one.

Full disclosure: I'm personally working up the courage to quit, take a fat paycut (maybe) and do something bucholic with the rest of my working life. I don't find much enjoyment in the tech landscape anymore (I'm 37).

> I don’t know but to me it seems a bunch of people should learn proper typing

There is no way your hands can produce code faster than a machine.

Even before AI, I used a custom code generator for years. It generated about 90% of the code needed for large business applications in seconds, including support for multiple protocols, database adapters (Oracle, SQLite, in-memory, etc.), and programming languages such as C++, TypeScript, and Java.

Writing the same amount of code by hand would have taken even the fastest developer months. The machine did it in seconds, and it did it consistently and bug free.

Sorry but you are just wrong. Perhaps if you are working on tiny problems in very small projects. Beyond that AI is simply many times faster regardless of how fast you type.

It’s exactly the opposite. On small projects I can use heavily because maintanability doesn’t matter on big projects you’ll end up in a deadlock. That’s why we have so many dead projects. People end up with 10x the needed LOCs and changes get incredible slow and tedious.

If i want to have a script that does sth trivial I’m happy to let AI do it, but if I’m building a house that doesnt break hell no.

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