Thread

1. zug_zug · 1789908167 · focus · HN ↗

   I think this is a bit of a simplistic mental approach. I've certainly seen a lot of "The engineer owns the outcome, AI is just a tool, don't release anything you don't vouch for."

   However, I just don't think that's realistic. It's asking an author to suddenly become an editor. It's asking somebody who writes code to now read and debug others code.

   It can actually be harder to find the the bug in a tricky piece of code than it can be to write your own correct code from scratch. I see AI introduce all sorts of bugs all the time in my personal projects that I would never introduce, and would never think to test for, especially around anything graphical.

   1. christophilus · 1789908765 · focus · HN ↗

      > It's asking somebody who writes code to now read and debug others code.

      This has been a big part of the job for anyone on a team for at least 20 years. I do agree that it’s the hardest and worst part of the job, and has now become the majority of the job for anyone who isn’t vibe coding. So, that sucks.

      1. OptionOfT · 1789919170 · focus · HN ↗

         Disagree. At least back in the day there weren't endless comments about how this widget is load-bearing, and how honestly the other widget carries the derived widget, referencing decision ADR-100 that is nowhere to be found. All these comments matter because once accepted as part of the codebase the next LLM takes these comments as canonical.

         The largest problem these days is the volume of code developers are expected to review. The volume went up significantly.

         1. theshrike79 · 1789988245 · focus · HN ↗

            > the next LLM takes these comments as canonical

            This is the best and worst thing about LLM coding agents. They trust comments way too implicitly. And then the errors just keep compounding.

            Or a temporary hack that becomes "load-bearing" because the agent doesn't figure out that it's supposed to be a temporary testing shim - instead it keeps building on it until it basically duplicates what it's mocking.

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