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I work at a company relatively well-known in Startup-land and I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI. Devs are just copi

I work at a company relatively well-known in Startup-land and I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI. Devs are just coping so hard around LLMs its hard to watch. OTOH the few engineers who have embraced it are excelling.

pton_xd 2y ago
You likely should have replaced those devs years ago. Kudos to LLMs helping you figure that out though.
- bobxmax 2y ago
  Nope. They were talented devs who all (well, most) landed in great companies after. We just didn't need them anymore because LLMs and tools like cursor are insanely good.
stavros 2y ago
I'd like to come back to this in a year to see how maintainable the codebase is.
- bobxmax 2y ago
  Guess what happens when you can suddenly build features ahead of schedule? You can make them bulletproof instead of cutting corners. Our code is better and more robust than it's ever been. Our rate of user-reported bugs have dropped more than 50% since we started "vibe" coding 6-ish months ago.
jgilias 2y ago
After all these years 10x devs have become a reality.
barbazoo 2y ago
> I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI. Totally believable bro
- bobxmax 2y ago
  You're willingly naive and blind if you think this isn't happening everywhere around you.
  - barbazoo 2y ago
    Naive AND blind, wow. I do believe jobs are being replaced by AI. I just don't believe that in particular context > I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI Sure but is everything else the same after that? I doubt it.
Trasmatta 2y ago
Are you a developer yourself? Product people love the idea of being able to fire their dev teams, but I'm not sure they understand the implications (some of wich may not become clear for years).
- bobxmax 2y ago
  Yes, I'm a developer. LLMs allow engineers to become product people themselves.
  - jimsmart 2y ago
    > Yes, I'm a developer. It's interesting that you describe yourself as a developer now. Because just three months ago, in your first post [1] to HN, you said: > I'm somewhat non-technical but I've been using Claude to hack MVPs together for months now. Sure: you might feel as though you have now 10x'ed yourself. But, quite honestly, when the reality is that just a few months back you self-described as "somewhat non-technical", it's clear that (a) you're at such an early stage in your learning and understanding of tech, as a developer, that it's relatively easy to experience bigs gains, and (b) you can't actually have much of an objective measure on this, because you are in fact quite new to the field. I read a lot of your other comments. To me, even before I had confirmation that you were actually "somewhat non-technical", and fairly new to the field — effectively a junior developer by any real measure — this was already quite apparent to me. Based upon having been a developer for some decades myself already: I can generally spot those that talk-the-talk — and similarly: I can generally spot those who have non-trivial / deeper experience with various fields of tech. Powering-up with AI tooling doesn't remedy that. Even if it might seem otherwise from your "somewhat non-technical"-but-newly-empowered position. Good luck with your coding endeavours though, and with your evangelism. I have no doubts at all that the world is changing — including how software is developed. But I see your posts for what they are. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42423573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42423573
    - c0redump 2y ago
      Yikes. Can/should this guy be banned from commenting? People like him substantially degrade the quality of the conversation.
cpursley 2y ago
There's def a lot of gatekeeping going on by the real coders™. The rest of us are just learning and adapting. Personally, I'm glad that it's now easy to build decent looking UIs and quickly tune SQL.
c0redump 2y ago
Is it already the part of the hype cycle where we just make shit up?
- bobxmax 2y ago
  Whatever helps you sleep at night, while the rest of the world zips past you.
  - c0redump 2y ago
    How ironic. I have literally made my career and fortune building the very systems that you’re yapping about. Edit: see the other comment where you are called out for the lying fake that you are. How delightfully pathetic of you.
    - bobxmax 2y ago
      lol "fortune" whatever you say. that's why you're desperately snooping my other comments including that lame "gotcha" to find some confirmation I'm lying? it's ok, all craftsmen who got automated away once thought they were special. you're not the first you won't be the last. you will likely be unemployed soon though.
nextts 2y ago
Open mind here. Spill more details please. We're the 9 good or was their dead weight. Could the 9 to 2 have been done without AI anyway (because less work to do).
- bobxmax 2y ago
  They were good... probably a bit bloated. Without AI we could probably be 5 devs. With AI we can do it all in 1-2.
  - nextts 2y ago
    Trying to get my head around this. It must mean 90% of what they were doing was writing code. Like not even thinking, architecture, gathering requirements, make sure you built the right thing etc. Just generating syntax.
    - bobxmax 2y ago
      In my experience it's usually a few devs doing the most of that, and the rest are largely banging out features, debugging, refactoring. There's also just a lot more efficiency when you shrink the team.
  - nikolas- 2y ago
    > They were good So why wouldn't you keep them? If you're able to produce even more with AI enabled engineers, why downsize? To me, it sounds like a startup's dream to be able to output more without increasing headcount.
- c0redump 2y ago
  The person you’re talking to is simply lying. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43449975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43449975
vunderba 2y ago
I'd take strong opinions for/or against with a grain of salt. It's likely you're suffering a bit from baader meinhof. I could certainly see a possible reduction in engineering team size, but going from 9 to 2 makes me question how much of that reduction was a result of over-hiring in the first place.
- bobxmax 2y ago
  Probably a bit of both.

pton_xd 2y ago

You likely should have replaced those devs years ago. Kudos to LLMs helping you figure that out though.

bobxmax 2y ago
Nope. They were talented devs who all (well, most) landed in great companies after. We just didn't need them anymore because LLMs and tools like cursor are insanely good.

stavros 2y ago

I'd like to come back to this in a year to see how maintainable the codebase is.

bobxmax 2y ago
Guess what happens when you can suddenly build features ahead of schedule? You can make them bulletproof instead of cutting corners. Our code is better and more robust than it's ever been. Our rate of user-reported bugs have dropped more than 50% since we started "vibe" coding 6-ish months ago.

jgilias 2y ago

After all these years 10x devs have become a reality.

barbazoo 2y ago

> I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI. Totally believable bro

bobxmax 2y ago
You're willingly naive and blind if you think this isn't happening everywhere around you.
- barbazoo 2y ago
  Naive AND blind, wow. I do believe jobs are being replaced by AI. I just don't believe that in particular context > I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI Sure but is everything else the same after that? I doubt it.

Trasmatta 2y ago

Are you a developer yourself? Product people love the idea of being able to fire their dev teams, but I'm not sure they understand the implications (some of wich may not become clear for years).

bobxmax 2y ago
Yes, I'm a developer. LLMs allow engineers to become product people themselves.
- jimsmart 2y ago
  > Yes, I'm a developer. It's interesting that you describe yourself as a developer now. Because just three months ago, in your first post [1] to HN, you said: > I'm somewhat non-technical but I've been using Claude to hack MVPs together for months now. Sure: you might feel as though you have now 10x'ed yourself. But, quite honestly, when the reality is that just a few months back you self-described as "somewhat non-technical", it's clear that (a) you're at such an early stage in your learning and understanding of tech, as a developer, that it's relatively easy to experience bigs gains, and (b) you can't actually have much of an objective measure on this, because you are in fact quite new to the field. I read a lot of your other comments. To me, even before I had confirmation that you were actually "somewhat non-technical", and fairly new to the field — effectively a junior developer by any real measure — this was already quite apparent to me. Based upon having been a developer for some decades myself already: I can generally spot those that talk-the-talk — and similarly: I can generally spot those who have non-trivial / deeper experience with various fields of tech. Powering-up with AI tooling doesn't remedy that. Even if it might seem otherwise from your "somewhat non-technical"-but-newly-empowered position. Good luck with your coding endeavours though, and with your evangelism. I have no doubts at all that the world is changing — including how software is developed. But I see your posts for what they are. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42423573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42423573
  - c0redump 2y ago
    Yikes. Can/should this guy be banned from commenting? People like him substantially degrade the quality of the conversation.

cpursley 2y ago

There's def a lot of gatekeeping going on by the real coders™. The rest of us are just learning and adapting. Personally, I'm glad that it's now easy to build decent looking UIs and quickly tune SQL.

c0redump 2y ago

Is it already the part of the hype cycle where we just make shit up?

bobxmax 2y ago
Whatever helps you sleep at night, while the rest of the world zips past you.
- c0redump 2y ago
  How ironic. I have literally made my career and fortune building the very systems that you’re yapping about. Edit: see the other comment where you are called out for the lying fake that you are. How delightfully pathetic of you.
  - bobxmax 2y ago
    lol "fortune" whatever you say. that's why you're desperately snooping my other comments including that lame "gotcha" to find some confirmation I'm lying? it's ok, all craftsmen who got automated away once thought they were special. you're not the first you won't be the last. you will likely be unemployed soon though.

nextts 2y ago

Open mind here. Spill more details please. We're the 9 good or was their dead weight. Could the 9 to 2 have been done without AI anyway (because less work to do).

bobxmax 2y ago
They were good... probably a bit bloated. Without AI we could probably be 5 devs. With AI we can do it all in 1-2.
- nextts 2y ago
  Trying to get my head around this. It must mean 90% of what they were doing was writing code. Like not even thinking, architecture, gathering requirements, make sure you built the right thing etc. Just generating syntax.
  - bobxmax 2y ago
    In my experience it's usually a few devs doing the most of that, and the rest are largely banging out features, debugging, refactoring. There's also just a lot more efficiency when you shrink the team.
- nikolas- 2y ago
  > They were good So why wouldn't you keep them? If you're able to produce even more with AI enabled engineers, why downsize? To me, it sounds like a startup's dream to be able to output more without increasing headcount.
c0redump 2y ago
The person you’re talking to is simply lying. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43449975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43449975

vunderba 2y ago

I'd take strong opinions for/or against with a grain of salt. It's likely you're suffering a bit from baader meinhof. I could certainly see a possible reduction in engineering team size, but going from 9 to 2 makes me question how much of that reduction was a result of over-hiring in the first place.

bobxmax 2y ago
Probably a bit of both.