Thread

1. AyanamiKaine · 1789978561 · focus · HN ↗

   I really don't know what to feel about AI generated code. It's clear that it improves velocity dramatically in code output. It has some value to it. But what is the cost?

   While I code without the help of AI, sometimes I feel like I am being left behind.

   Ohh you wrote only 400 lines today? I shipped a whole app while being in the gym... hits hard.

   1. nhinck2 · 1789980276 · focus · HN ↗

      All you need to us actually look around, has software quality dramatically increased over the last year? Have useful features been coming out at an unprecedented rate?

      Because after all this talk about being left behind and I see nothing to show for it.

      1. ncphillips · 1789981057 · focus · HN ↗

         Within my own company, yes. We’ve shipped a lot more features this year with the same number of people. They’re also better features. We get from 0 to 90% in an hour and then still put a lot of effort into that last 10%. The projects have better test coverage, docs, logging, etc. then they did 2 years ago. Stretch goals are reached much more frequently. What used to be 3 week projects are closer to 3 days. Our commit history is cleaner, easier to understand, has has better commit messages because we have Claude rewrite the history before opening the PRs. Our product is faster, more stable, and has nicer UX.

         But this is anecdotal. It’s a team of senior devs who already knew the codebase well. We have a ton of detailed guidelines that make sure it’s writing code we deem acceptable. We review each others code, and get LLMs to review, a LOT.

         1. nhinck2 · 1789981803 · focus · HN ↗

            So I'm guessing your user satisfaction has gone up a bunch and revenue now reflects your increased productivity?

            1. dragonelite · 1789998854 · focus · HN ↗

               Hey we should see this increase of so called productivity in the global GDP growth numbers. If AI really is this productive the slope of GDP growth should be steeper the last 2~ 3 years. If there is no change in the GDP growth slope, there's no general productivity improvement.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.