5 ms·

I want to quit my cosy, well paying, job and start building the products I have been wanting to build for quite some years now. I have been starting to use AI a

by pan69 10mo ago

I want to quit my cosy, well paying, job and start building the products I have been wanting to build for quite some years now. I have been starting to use AI about 12 months ago and, as an experienced engineer of 30+ years professionally, I am blown away by how productive it makes me. What I used to be able to do in a week now takes me a day, what I used to be able to do in a month now takes me week, etc. So, 2026 is going to be the year I'm going to run this experiment on myself and see what I can accomplish with this way of working.

kaizenb 10mo ago
"The decision of all decisions is to reject the default path. To answer the call to adventure. To finally begin writing the first chapter. To leave the tutorial and start level one. That's when your life starts." Good luck!
imron 10mo ago
How are you using AI and what sort of software are you building? I have similar years experience and regularly try out AI for development but always find it’s slower for the things I want to build and/or that it produces less than satisfactory results. Not sure if it’s how I use the models (I’ve experimented with all the frontier ones), or the types of things I’m building, or the languages I’m using, or if I’m not spending enough, or if it’s just my standards are too high for the code that is produced but I usually always end up going back to doing things by hand. I try to keep the AI focused on small well defined tasks, use AGENT.MD and skills, build out a plan first, followed by tests for spec based development, keep context windows and chats a reasonable length etc, but if I add up all that time I could have done it myself and have better grasp of the program and the domain in the process. I keep reading how AI is a force multiplier but I’m yet to see it play out for myself. I see lots of posts talking about how much more productive AI has made people, but very few with actual specifics on setup, models, costs, workflows etc. I’m not an AI doomer and would love to realize the benefits people are claiming they get.... but how to get there is the question
- kukkeliskuu 10mo ago
  For me, it has gone through stages. Initially I was astounded by the results. Then I wrote a large feature (ad pacing) on a site using LLMs. I learned the LLMs did not really understand what they were doing. The algorithm (PID controller) itself was properly implemented (as there is plenty of data to train on), but it was trying to optimize the wrong thing. There were other similar findings where LLM was doing very stupid mistakes. So I went through a disillusionment stage and kind of gave up for a while. Since then, I have learned how to use Claude Code effectively. I have used it mostly on existing Django code bases. I think everybody has a slightly different take on how it works well. Probably the most reasonable advice is to just keep going and try different kind of things. Existing code bases seem easier, as well as working on a spec beforehand, requiring tests etc. basic SWE principles.
  - imron 10mo ago
    > I have learned how to use Claude Code effectively This is step 3 of “draw the rest of the owl” :-) > the most reasonable advice is to just keep going and try different kind of things. This is where I’ve been at for a while now. Every couple of months I try again with latest models and latest techniques I hear people talking about but there’s very little concrete info there that works for me. Then I wonder if it’s just my spend? I don’t mind spending $30/month to experiment but I’m not going to drop $300/month unless I can see evidence that it’ll be worth it, which I haven’t really seen, but maybe there’s a dependency and you don’t get the result without increased spend? Some posts I’ve seen claim spending of $1,500/month, which would be worth it if it could increase productivity enough, but there’s very few specifics on workflows and results.
    - LouisSayers 10mo ago
      You can achieve a lot on the $30 plan. I use Claude every day for everything, it's amazing value for money. Give it a specific task with the context it needs, that's what I find works well, then iterate from there. I just copy paste, nothing fancy.
mattm 10mo ago
Wow, you sound exactly like me - except I have a bit less years of experience. Let me know if you want to connect to help keep stay motivated (email in profile)
gremlinsinc 10mo ago
hmu if you need or want a partner...
daliusd 10mo ago
What’s your take on the fact that everyone around gets this boost? I feel the same boost but in our company we had little competition using llm - team I was leading won, but victory was not decisive but quite minimal.
WilcoKruijer 9mo ago
I did the same last year and I’m having a lot of fun. Good luck!

by pan69 10mo ago

kaizenb 10mo ago

"The decision of all decisions is to reject the default path. To answer the call to adventure. To finally begin writing the first chapter. To leave the tutorial and start level one. That's when your life starts." Good luck!

imron 10mo ago

How are you using AI and what sort of software are you building? I have similar years experience and regularly try out AI for development but always find it’s slower for the things I want to build and/or that it produces less than satisfactory results. Not sure if it’s how I use the models (I’ve experimented with all the frontier ones), or the types of things I’m building, or the languages I’m using, or if I’m not spending enough, or if it’s just my standards are too high for the code that is produced but I usually always end up going back to doing things by hand. I try to keep the AI focused on small well defined tasks, use AGENT.MD and skills, build out a plan first, followed by tests for spec based development, keep context windows and chats a reasonable length etc, but if I add up all that time I could have done it myself and have better grasp of the program and the domain in the process. I keep reading how AI is a force multiplier but I’m yet to see it play out for myself. I see lots of posts talking about how much more productive AI has made people, but very few with actual specifics on setup, models, costs, workflows etc. I’m not an AI doomer and would love to realize the benefits people are claiming they get.... but how to get there is the question

kukkeliskuu 10mo ago
For me, it has gone through stages. Initially I was astounded by the results. Then I wrote a large feature (ad pacing) on a site using LLMs. I learned the LLMs did not really understand what they were doing. The algorithm (PID controller) itself was properly implemented (as there is plenty of data to train on), but it was trying to optimize the wrong thing. There were other similar findings where LLM was doing very stupid mistakes. So I went through a disillusionment stage and kind of gave up for a while. Since then, I have learned how to use Claude Code effectively. I have used it mostly on existing Django code bases. I think everybody has a slightly different take on how it works well. Probably the most reasonable advice is to just keep going and try different kind of things. Existing code bases seem easier, as well as working on a spec beforehand, requiring tests etc. basic SWE principles.
- imron 10mo ago
  > I have learned how to use Claude Code effectively This is step 3 of “draw the rest of the owl” :-) > the most reasonable advice is to just keep going and try different kind of things. This is where I’ve been at for a while now. Every couple of months I try again with latest models and latest techniques I hear people talking about but there’s very little concrete info there that works for me. Then I wonder if it’s just my spend? I don’t mind spending $30/month to experiment but I’m not going to drop $300/month unless I can see evidence that it’ll be worth it, which I haven’t really seen, but maybe there’s a dependency and you don’t get the result without increased spend? Some posts I’ve seen claim spending of $1,500/month, which would be worth it if it could increase productivity enough, but there’s very few specifics on workflows and results.
  - LouisSayers 10mo ago
    You can achieve a lot on the $30 plan. I use Claude every day for everything, it's amazing value for money. Give it a specific task with the context it needs, that's what I find works well, then iterate from there. I just copy paste, nothing fancy.

mattm 10mo ago

Wow, you sound exactly like me - except I have a bit less years of experience. Let me know if you want to connect to help keep stay motivated (email in profile)

gremlinsinc 10mo ago

hmu if you need or want a partner...

daliusd 10mo ago

What’s your take on the fact that everyone around gets this boost? I feel the same boost but in our company we had little competition using llm - team I was leading won, but victory was not decisive but quite minimal.

WilcoKruijer 9mo ago

I did the same last year and I’m having a lot of fun. Good luck!