A new Coddy Developer Survey found that four in five developers, 80%, say their use of AI has felt more like a dependence than an advantage.
A new Coddy Developer Survey found that four in five developers, 80%, say their use of AI has felt more like a dependence than an advantage.
I find it anti addictive. Work is pretty aggressive (but now not too aggressive thanks to cost, but still a bit aggressive). So everyone is expected to show some utilization or be shunned. For the first time, I find myself thinking it might be nice to get out of this entire industry, if only I could afford to
Anyway, I managed to consume what was my monthly quota in a week and was quite happy that I could credibly ignore AI for the next three weeks.
Then disappointed as an administrator quintupled my quota the next day.
Though nothing is nearly as annoying as everyone else’s use is AI. I hate using it, and it’s just even worse dealing with the consequences of other people using it.
Just burn through their money as fast as possible.
I got pushed out of the industry right before COVID hit, so I haven’t ever dealt with AI. I’m a school bus driver now, which is infinitely more satisfying than programming since I get to drive a big Tonka truck around and gaslight children all day. The only downside is making 1/6 of what I used to make so this is not really a viable alternative for most people. At least I get subsidized health insurance.
Yeah, the other people factor is a pretty good point. Some people in the organization seem to think that they have no liability for their output anymore, so long as AI produced it for them. They will pass on bloated shit, unreviewed shit, laundry lists of glittering generalities, elaborate plans based on fundamental misunderstandings about a tool, … half of the problem never gets noticed because people see a wall of fancy text that they don’t understand, so they think it’s good. Stakeholders aren’t reading that shit, certainly not comprehending it. I know as much, because it’s a steaming pile of horseshit. Nobody is over here actually grading the horseshit. Nobody is having hard discussions about what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
I put a considerable amount of effort into making an LLM do exactly what I want… I use it daily, have for years, and I’m still pretty terrible at it. Just imagine what some people are producing, who actually trust these models… not to mention when they use the fucking model to step into my lane. I will call your shit out in a group conversation if you do that. Don’t fucking do that. If it’s my lane, don’t pollute it with that AI bullshit. Now I have to explain to everyone why that shit doesn’t work. Do a better job.
An extension of the “they think it can do everyone’s job (except their own)”. Even weirder, they tend to think that the people enjoy their obnoxious attempts to diminish their jobs. Then you just have one more thing to try to explain to management why the code generation from a sales guy doesn’t actually do what the sales guy thinks it does.
I will say at least around me, it has gotten less bad on this front as of late. Either a lot of these folks got bitten and learned the codegen doesn’t magically make them capable, or they just got bored of trying. Either way, it’s nice to have them quiet down a bit.
It helps if they actually have to use the crap code they vibe out. They can no longer yell at the nearest dev that their impossible requirement isn’t working. So there’s less pushback against bringing back their convenient scapegoats.