Comment by squidlib
2 days ago
The ownership component is the toughest and least enjoyable part of coding with ai. AI saves the time of coding, but 100% of the responsibility remains on you. You then have to invest an imbalanced amount of time to understand and fix the issue vs the time it took to generate the code. Then on top of that is the emotional feeling of something you “owned” messed up, but it wasn’t really your doing - it was the AI that did the keyboard work and now I need to parent/manage the AI. This destroys trust in AI and the cycle restarts. But we keep coming back to the slot machine as we often get those returns where things just work, but like gambling, you’re not satisfied by those wins and you’re immediately on to looking for the next fleeting high.
I think the question is then "how do I gain more confidence this code is correct?" This doesn't have to be reading through everything line by line, it can be writing more tests, or working with the LLM to dig into how certain edge cases are handled etc. There are a lot of things you can do to improve your confidence in a piece of code.
> You then have to invest an imbalanced amount of time to understand and fix the issue vs the time it took to generate the code.
Obviously no amount of training will make AI human but: how is this different from you being the leader of a team whose output you own and are accountable for?
The difference is that now people who signed up and were hired as engineers now have to do what managers used to do. It's also a different pay grade when managers are accountable for a team vs and engineer for Claude instances.
In a weird way, it reminds me of playing chess. If I play a human opponent I can be thoughtful and deliberate. If I switch to playing a bot, I respond to the speed of the responses no matter the level and get crushed.
It takes a while to settle in and play deliberately. I also need to switch gears because bots play much differenly than human opponents - they don't fall for bait, they don't have time pressure at all, they don't leave pieces uncovered by accident.
I think of coding with AI is similar, you need to have a framework where you build understanding along the way from plan to review. It is untenable to roll out a 6000 line feature then try to review it, even if the LLM is happy to do things that way, mere mortals can't keep up. But if you stay in your lane and code solidly, AI can be a straight speed boost. I feel like most people despairing over handing the reins to AI simply haven't found their personal sweet spot.