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I’m increasingly finding that the type of engineer that blogs is not they type of engineer anyone should listen to.

observationist 10mo ago
Badgersnake's corollary to Gell-Mann amnesia?
sgk284 10mo ago
Can you say more? I see a lot of teams struggling with getting AI to work for them. A lot of folks expect it to be a little more magical and "free" than it actually is. So this post is just me sharing what works well for us on a very seasoned eng team.
- imron 10mo ago
  As someone who struggles to realise productivity gains with AI (see recent comment history) I appreciate the article. 100% coverage for AI generated code is a very different value proposition than 100% coverage for human generated code (for the reasons outlined in the article).
- justatdotin 10mo ago
  it is MUCH easier for solo devs to get agents to work for them than it is for teams to get agents to work for them.
  - andrekandre 10mo ago
    that's interesting, whats the reason for that?
    - justatdotin 10mo ago
      Hi, the reason I have this expectation is that on a (cognitively) diverse team there will be a range of reactions that all need to be accommodated. some (many?) devs don't want agents. Either because the agent takes away the 'fun' part of their work, or because they don't trust the agent, or because they truly do not find a use for it in their process. I remember being on teams which only remained functional because two devs tried very hard to stay out of one another's way. Nothing wrong with either of them, their approach to the work was just not very compatible. In the same way, I expect diverse teams to struggle with finding a mode of adoption that does not negatively impact on the existing styles of some members.
      - andrekandre 10mo ago
        thanks for the reply, thats interesting i was thinking it was more like llms when used personally can make huge refactorings and code changes that you review yourself and just check it in, but with a team its harder to make sweeping changes that an llm might make more possible cause now everyone's changes start to conflict... but i guess thats not much of an issue in practice?
        justatdotin 10mo ago
        oh yeah well that's an extreme example of how one dev's use could overwhelm a team's capacity.
iamjs 10mo ago
I find that this idea of restricting degrees of freedom is absolutely critical to being productive with agents at scale. Please enlighten us as to why you think this is nonsense
- mrkeen 10mo ago
  Wearing seatbelts is critical for drunk-driving. All praise drunk-driving for increased seatbelt use.
  - llmslave2 10mo ago
    Finally something I can get behind.
yoyohello13 10mo ago
The value of the blog post is negatively correlated to how good the site looks. Mailing list? Sponsors? Fancy Title? Garbage. Raw HTML dumped on a .xyz domain, Gold!
- llmslave2 10mo ago
  The exception is a front end dev, since that's their bread and butter.
- userbinator 10mo ago
  on a .xyz domain That's a negative correlation signal for me (as are all the other weird TLDs that I have not seen besides SEO spam results and perhaps the occasional HN submission.) On the other hand, .com, .net, and .org are a positive signal.
throwatdem12311 10mo ago
It's just veiled marketing for their company.
cube00 10mo ago
Even some of the comments here can't help name dropping their own startups for no actual reason.

Badgersnake's corollary to Gell-Mann amnesia?

sgk284 10mo ago

Can you say more? I see a lot of teams struggling with getting AI to work for them. A lot of folks expect it to be a little more magical and "free" than it actually is. So this post is just me sharing what works well for us on a very seasoned eng team.

imron 10mo ago
As someone who struggles to realise productivity gains with AI (see recent comment history) I appreciate the article. 100% coverage for AI generated code is a very different value proposition than 100% coverage for human generated code (for the reasons outlined in the article).
justatdotin 10mo ago
it is MUCH easier for solo devs to get agents to work for them than it is for teams to get agents to work for them.
- andrekandre 10mo ago
  that's interesting, whats the reason for that?
  - justatdotin 10mo ago
    Hi, the reason I have this expectation is that on a (cognitively) diverse team there will be a range of reactions that all need to be accommodated. some (many?) devs don't want agents. Either because the agent takes away the 'fun' part of their work, or because they don't trust the agent, or because they truly do not find a use for it in their process. I remember being on teams which only remained functional because two devs tried very hard to stay out of one another's way. Nothing wrong with either of them, their approach to the work was just not very compatible. In the same way, I expect diverse teams to struggle with finding a mode of adoption that does not negatively impact on the existing styles of some members.
    - andrekandre 10mo ago
      thanks for the reply, thats interesting i was thinking it was more like llms when used personally can make huge refactorings and code changes that you review yourself and just check it in, but with a team its harder to make sweeping changes that an llm might make more possible cause now everyone's changes start to conflict... but i guess thats not much of an issue in practice?
      - justatdotin 10mo ago
        oh yeah well that's an extreme example of how one dev's use could overwhelm a team's capacity.

iamjs 10mo ago

I find that this idea of restricting degrees of freedom is absolutely critical to being productive with agents at scale. Please enlighten us as to why you think this is nonsense

mrkeen 10mo ago
Wearing seatbelts is critical for drunk-driving. All praise drunk-driving for increased seatbelt use.
- llmslave2 10mo ago
  Finally something I can get behind.

yoyohello13 10mo ago

The value of the blog post is negatively correlated to how good the site looks. Mailing list? Sponsors? Fancy Title? Garbage. Raw HTML dumped on a .xyz domain, Gold!

llmslave2 10mo ago
The exception is a front end dev, since that's their bread and butter.
userbinator 10mo ago
on a .xyz domain That's a negative correlation signal for me (as are all the other weird TLDs that I have not seen besides SEO spam results and perhaps the occasional HN submission.) On the other hand, .com, .net, and .org are a positive signal.

throwatdem12311 10mo ago

It's just veiled marketing for their company.

cube00 10mo ago

Even some of the comments here can't help name dropping their own startups for no actual reason.