In the beginning of August 2026, I started a hobby project: building a MongoDB-like database. I have 20 years of industry experience and a master's degree in computer science, so I followed a disciplined, spec-driven development model using Claude, Kiro, Qwen Coder, and Cursor.
The first version was built in about two weeks of part time work. Then I started exploring. I learned relational algebra, researched almost every kind of database, reworked the internals, built a small relational algebra layer, a query planner, and an executor, covering everything from the backend storage to the query language. I learned more in those two months than in the previous 20 years.
Did I care what code the agents wrote? No. I read zero lines of generated code. What I cared about was correctness, verified through tests, and the high-level product features. For the first time in my career, I acted as a senior product manager, steering the project along the right roadmap. Without AI, I wouldn't have been able to do that.
When you have superpowers in your hands, you don't need to worry about the laundry. For the first time in my career, I can produce code in C, C++, Java, .NET, or any other language. Sometimes it takes me longer than a senior developer in that language, but does that really matter? Absolutely not.
Writing documentation and code by hand in 2026 is like driving a horse and buggy. It doesn't matter how skilled you are with the reins; you'll never compete with a car.
My hobby db project isnt opened source yet.
"My project isn't open sourced yet" underlines the problem. There has been a massive explosion of software that works, but badly. The average user experience suffers as a result.
Call me cynical, but I dont remember interacting with well engineered software, outside of pure, mainstream opensource repos.
Most of proprietary software is just crap, and always has been. The agents are not producing worse code than typical, demotivated, i-dont-care-what-i-am-building-i-wont-try-using-it corporate development teams have over the years. I'd even bet that because now making changes and fixes is so much easier, the user perceived quality will trend upwards for popular stuff.
I would bet every single dollar I have that if the source was shared, there would be 15 "big brains" showing up to point out how it's actually "bad".
I have seen a decent amount of clearly AI generated software that's useful, would likely not have been made without AI, and is better for for being AI generated. With AI, people make improvements that they would have never have bothered spending time to do manually. If anything, having uncharacteristically good "production value" in a clearly hobby project is how I typically spot AI use in projects that aren't obvious vibe coded slop.
The code itself may or may not be spaghetti. Not that I care as a user. User experience and code quality had never a particularly strong correlation even before AI.
tegeek · · focus · HN ↗
The first version was built in about two weeks of part time work. Then I started exploring. I learned relational algebra, researched almost every kind of database, reworked the internals, built a small relational algebra layer, a query planner, and an executor, covering everything from the backend storage to the query language. I learned more in those two months than in the previous 20 years.
Did I care what code the agents wrote? No. I read zero lines of generated code. What I cared about was correctness, verified through tests, and the high-level product features. For the first time in my career, I acted as a senior product manager, steering the project along the right roadmap. Without AI, I wouldn't have been able to do that.
When you have superpowers in your hands, you don't need to worry about the laundry. For the first time in my career, I can produce code in C, C++, Java, .NET, or any other language. Sometimes it takes me longer than a senior developer in that language, but does that really matter? Absolutely not. Writing documentation and code by hand in 2026 is like driving a horse and buggy. It doesn't matter how skilled you are with the reins; you'll never compete with a car. My hobby db project isnt opened source yet.
alansaber · · focus · HN ↗
aenis · · focus · HN ↗
Most of proprietary software is just crap, and always has been. The agents are not producing worse code than typical, demotivated, i-dont-care-what-i-am-building-i-wont-try-using-it corporate development teams have over the years. I'd even bet that because now making changes and fixes is so much easier, the user perceived quality will trend upwards for popular stuff.
WarmWash · · focus · HN ↗
Aozora7 · · focus · HN ↗
The code itself may or may not be spaghetti. Not that I care as a user. User experience and code quality had never a particularly strong correlation even before AI.