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Many people are seeing huge gains in coding productivity with AI. If you're not one of those people it might be useful to evaluate why you aren't experiencing a

Many people are seeing huge gains in coding productivity with AI. If you're not one of those people it might be useful to evaluate why you aren't experiencing any benefits, instead of claiming that there are none.

tonyedgecombe 1y ago
> If you're not one of those people it might be useful to evaluate why you aren't experiencing any benefits, instead of claiming that there are none. It might be that the gp is smart enough to code without a crutch.
- megaloblasto 1y ago
  I'll bet he's strong enough to push nails into wood so he never uses a hammer.
- llbbdd 1y ago
  https://xkcd.com/378/ https://xkcd.com/378/
J_McQuade 1y ago
> Many people are seeing huge gains in coding productivity with AI. I don't want to speak for the person you replied to, but I think that their main point is... are they? I see lots of articles about huge increases in productivity, but I think it's fair to argue that we've yet to see the huge increases in useful products that would surely (we hope) result from that if it were true.
- megaloblasto 1y ago
  I'm speaking just to coding productivity. I think AI does very little for business development or creativity type issues. People should realize that denying that AI can boost productivity in coding makes it look like they don't know how to use it, or believe in some conspiracy that no one is actually benefitting and it's all market hype from tech bros.
  - bgwalter 1y ago
    This is Gavin Belson level stuff.
  - jayd16 1y ago
    I admit that I don't know how to use it and it does seem like marketing hype and tech bros with some mild value and I'm waiting to be proven wrong and crushed, John Henry the Steel Driving Man style, and it's just not happening.
    - megaloblasto 1y ago
      There are a lot of different niches to software development. It could be that your specific niche isn't seeing much benefit yet. However, continuing to hold onto a view that AI is hype garbage could very possibly hurt your career in the near future.
  - SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
    I believe in some conspiracy that no one is actually benefitting. I don't want to blame marketing, it's genuinely very cool that I can give Cursor a description of what I'm trying to do and get a result that's like 80% correct. But I've repeatedly found that going from 80% to 100% takes just as much time and effort as it would have to do it myself from the start. I've shadowed people who believe AI is helping them, and it seems to me that some of them don't notice how much effort they're spending while others don't bother to correct the 80% version once tests are passing.
    - tbrownaw 1y ago
      Doesn't need a conspiracy, just excessive enthusiasm about the new shiny that hasn't been tempered by experience and reflection yet.
  - mattmanser 1y ago
    If they were, where are their products and open source projects? Let's circle back. One thing I've noticed about the super-AI enthusiasts on HN is that not a single one ever have a single comment linking to a repo of work they've made with it. I check. I actually always do because I'm really keen to learn how to use these magical super-AI workflows. I've watched streams, replicated clause MD files, tried all the context tricks. I'm not even saying AI doesn't help, it's great for getting me over the blank page writer's block. It's just not great at much else. So I've just checked your comments and not only do you not have any examples of your super-duper AI skills, but it looks like you've been in the industry less than a year, graduating from a PhD last year? You also admit it took you a week trying to debug a problem before an AI fixed it for you. Because you'd missed some parentheses in an algo. I'm not trying to shame you, but that does signal your inexperience. If you'd have made the code well and easy to test, you should have spotted your bad algo quickly. So is it that we're all bad at using AI? Or is it that AI benefits inexperienced programmers more?
add-sub-mul-div 1y ago
Maybe because it's become second nature to you, due to a long enough career spent practicing the actual skill rather than using a crutch or tangential skill?
zkry 1y ago
I don't think this line of reasoning holds. The only thing people should look at are peer reviewed studies, lots of them ideally, and with no conflict of interest. Who's getting productivity gains? What kinds of work are they doing? What doesn't work so well? All of these questions should be investigated by studies. People feeling productivity gains doesn't imply the gains exist. Otherwise it sounds like "many people have had their lives changed by {insert philosophical/religious movement}, so if you're not finding it true you should look into what's wrong with you."
- jaggederest 1y ago
  > The only thing people should look at are peer reviewed studies, lots of them ideally, and with no conflict of interest. "Ignore your own direct experience, only research papers matter" is certainly a take. The beautiful thing about the current generation of tools is that they are so incredibly cheap relative to historical tools intended to improve engineering productivity. You can't just run out and pick up CASE tools for less than ~$CAR to ~$HOUSE. A pro subscription to whichever AI tool you want to try is $20. Ignore research, try them, if you have success, use them. There's no dogma here. Just empiricism.
- jmkni 1y ago
  While you're looking at peer reviewed studies, I'm over here being way more productive with AI and getting shit done.
  - terminatornet 1y ago
    > When developers are allowed to use AI tools, they take 19% longer to complete issues—a significant slowdown that goes against developer beliefs and expert forecasts. This gap between perception and reality is striking: developers expected AI to speed them up by 24%, and even after experiencing the slowdown, they still believed AI had sped them up by 20%. Maybe you just think you're being more productive ;) https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/ https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...
LtWorf 1y ago
The people I know who are experiencing these gains were never more than juniors in skills, despite the number of years they've been on the job. Makes me evaluate indeed.
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tonyedgecombe 1y ago

> If you're not one of those people it might be useful to evaluate why you aren't experiencing any benefits, instead of claiming that there are none. It might be that the gp is smart enough to code without a crutch.

megaloblasto 1y ago
I'll bet he's strong enough to push nails into wood so he never uses a hammer.
llbbdd 1y ago
https://xkcd.com/378/ https://xkcd.com/378/

J_McQuade 1y ago

> Many people are seeing huge gains in coding productivity with AI. I don't want to speak for the person you replied to, but I think that their main point is... are they? I see lots of articles about huge increases in productivity, but I think it's fair to argue that we've yet to see the huge increases in useful products that would surely (we hope) result from that if it were true.

megaloblasto 1y ago
I'm speaking just to coding productivity. I think AI does very little for business development or creativity type issues. People should realize that denying that AI can boost productivity in coding makes it look like they don't know how to use it, or believe in some conspiracy that no one is actually benefitting and it's all market hype from tech bros.
- bgwalter 1y ago
  This is Gavin Belson level stuff.
- jayd16 1y ago
  I admit that I don't know how to use it and it does seem like marketing hype and tech bros with some mild value and I'm waiting to be proven wrong and crushed, John Henry the Steel Driving Man style, and it's just not happening.
  - megaloblasto 1y ago
    There are a lot of different niches to software development. It could be that your specific niche isn't seeing much benefit yet. However, continuing to hold onto a view that AI is hype garbage could very possibly hurt your career in the near future.
- SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
  I believe in some conspiracy that no one is actually benefitting. I don't want to blame marketing, it's genuinely very cool that I can give Cursor a description of what I'm trying to do and get a result that's like 80% correct. But I've repeatedly found that going from 80% to 100% takes just as much time and effort as it would have to do it myself from the start. I've shadowed people who believe AI is helping them, and it seems to me that some of them don't notice how much effort they're spending while others don't bother to correct the 80% version once tests are passing.
  - tbrownaw 1y ago
    Doesn't need a conspiracy, just excessive enthusiasm about the new shiny that hasn't been tempered by experience and reflection yet.
- mattmanser 1y ago
  If they were, where are their products and open source projects? Let's circle back. One thing I've noticed about the super-AI enthusiasts on HN is that not a single one ever have a single comment linking to a repo of work they've made with it. I check. I actually always do because I'm really keen to learn how to use these magical super-AI workflows. I've watched streams, replicated clause MD files, tried all the context tricks. I'm not even saying AI doesn't help, it's great for getting me over the blank page writer's block. It's just not great at much else. So I've just checked your comments and not only do you not have any examples of your super-duper AI skills, but it looks like you've been in the industry less than a year, graduating from a PhD last year? You also admit it took you a week trying to debug a problem before an AI fixed it for you. Because you'd missed some parentheses in an algo. I'm not trying to shame you, but that does signal your inexperience. If you'd have made the code well and easy to test, you should have spotted your bad algo quickly. So is it that we're all bad at using AI? Or is it that AI benefits inexperienced programmers more?

add-sub-mul-div 1y ago

Maybe because it's become second nature to you, due to a long enough career spent practicing the actual skill rather than using a crutch or tangential skill?

zkry 1y ago

I don't think this line of reasoning holds. The only thing people should look at are peer reviewed studies, lots of them ideally, and with no conflict of interest. Who's getting productivity gains? What kinds of work are they doing? What doesn't work so well? All of these questions should be investigated by studies. People feeling productivity gains doesn't imply the gains exist. Otherwise it sounds like "many people have had their lives changed by {insert philosophical/religious movement}, so if you're not finding it true you should look into what's wrong with you."

jaggederest 1y ago
> The only thing people should look at are peer reviewed studies, lots of them ideally, and with no conflict of interest. "Ignore your own direct experience, only research papers matter" is certainly a take. The beautiful thing about the current generation of tools is that they are so incredibly cheap relative to historical tools intended to improve engineering productivity. You can't just run out and pick up CASE tools for less than ~$CAR to ~$HOUSE. A pro subscription to whichever AI tool you want to try is $20. Ignore research, try them, if you have success, use them. There's no dogma here. Just empiricism.
jmkni 1y ago
While you're looking at peer reviewed studies, I'm over here being way more productive with AI and getting shit done.
- terminatornet 1y ago
  > When developers are allowed to use AI tools, they take 19% longer to complete issues—a significant slowdown that goes against developer beliefs and expert forecasts. This gap between perception and reality is striking: developers expected AI to speed them up by 24%, and even after experiencing the slowdown, they still believed AI had sped them up by 20%. Maybe you just think you're being more productive ;) https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/ https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...

LtWorf 1y ago

The people I know who are experiencing these gains were never more than juniors in skills, despite the number of years they've been on the job. Makes me evaluate indeed.

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