I am now being required by my day job to use an AI assistant to write code. I have also been informed that my usage of AI assistants will be monitored and decisions about my career will be based on those metrics.
I gave it an honest shot today, using it as responsibly as I know how: only use it for stuff I already know how to do, so that I can easily verify its output. That part went ok, though I found it much harder to context switch between thinking about code structure and trying to herd a bullshit generator into writing correct code.
One thing I didn't expect, though, is how fucking disruptive it's suggestion feature would be. It's like trying to compose a symphony while someone is relentlessly playing a kazoo in your ear. It flustered me really quickly, to the point where I wasn't able to figure out how to turn that "feature" off. I'm noticing physical symptoms of an anxiety attack as a result.
I stopped work early when I noticed I was completely spent. I don't know if I wrote more code today than I would have normally. I don't think I wrote better code, as the vigilance required is extremely hard for my particular brand of neurospicy to maintain.
As far as the "write this function for me" aspect, I've noticed that I tend to use the mental downtime of typing out a function I've designed to let my brain percolate on the solution and internalize it so I have it in my working memory. This doesn't happen when I'm simply reviewing code written by something else. Reviewing code and writing it are completely separate activities for me. But there's nothing to keep my fingers and thoughts busy while I'm coming up with what to write next.
I didn't think we were meant to live like this.
reshared this
π Superball βοΈ
in reply to The Uberduck • • •The Uberduck
in reply to π Superball βοΈ • • •@superball We'll see.
I'm opposed to what we currently call AI on so many grounds, but even if I turn off my ethics (which in itself takes more energy than I have some days) and hold my nose, I don't see it making me more effective than I would be otherwise.
And when it comes to troubleshooting and debugging, I am John Fucking Henry.
The worst part about it is that the oligarchs are going to burn the planet in pursuit of actual clothes for this emperor. Their claims of "AI will solve the climate crisis but we're in a race to get to AGI while there's still time" are completely empty. They're not trying to rush AGI to solve the climate crisis. They're trying to rush AGI to maintain their lifestyles when the planet can only support a fraction of the current population.
Hollow men wasting our lives' blood sprinting through the sand at a mirage.
The Uberduck
Unknown parent • • •@FranceskaMann @superball I believe you are rebutting a point I did not make.
I will edit the original post to make my meaning more clear.
Magess
in reply to The Uberduck • • •mine announced today too that AI usage will be part of our reviews.
I had to turn off the AI autocomplete in databricks for the reason you describe. It kept popping up new things in the middle of me trying to do anything and its suggestions we're just a copy of exactly what I had written.
I'm not even a dev. But I will have to find ways to showcase my usage.
It sucks we have to live like this to boost someone stock portfolio.
Rupert πͺπΊπ΄ββ οΈπΎππ·πΊπͺππ₯
Unknown parent • • •Paul SomeoneElse
in reply to The Uberduck • • •I quit my high paying job mostly because I was pigeonholed into developing with
OpenAI/LLM/agents RAG and all of that. I was even good at it, but it is all so stupid to me.
Across the company they were starting to make us use copilot.
It got to the point that writing good code and developing cohesive systems
was not even on the radar. It was all just vibe code BS. I couldn't do it.
I guess I'm a luddite, but I don't care. I am one of those people that
thinks deleting code is usually of higher value than adding code.
I've always worked with mostly programmers that kinda just went along,
but usually the lead programmers were at least decent to good.
Not anymore at the job I was at. It was all hype, BS, and garbage code.
I worked for a while doing maintenance kind of work on large java projects.
I know how painful it is to fix code where people just added and added and added.
It's like the US tax code.
Anyways good luck π
The Frog
in reply to Paul SomeoneElse • • •@pkw
"I guess I'm a luddite"
The Luddites were right though. They weren't against technology, they against the way technology was used to destroy lives.
Patrick Morris Miller
in reply to The Uberduck • • •