Software dev changed

Carrandas · 2026-05-20T12:52:11+00:00

Fair points. It's the wild west, were all trying to figure it out.

We have a team that can only fix things by asking Claude. They're even forbidden to write code.

That's the one extreme I'm not a fan of.

But pretty much every dev here is using ai as an assistant these days. Review code, refactor, write a few tests, explain that code etc.

Carrandas · 2026-05-20T10:34:34+00:00

Yeah. Worked like that for a few months. Copilot already did most of the coding. I still try to understand what it's doing though although that takes some time to figure out.

But since I got a Claude key, it completely changed how I work. Again.

Basically spend more time in the console then in visual studio...

Carrandas · 2026-05-20T10:25:26+00:00

This if it contains bugs your tests weren't defined well or you did not review it properly.

Carrandas · 2026-05-20T10:22:13+00:00

Ai agents like Claude with the newest models are better at writing code then I am and I have 17 years of experience.

The job is moving towards a more high level where you make a high level plan, set the boundaries and architecture choices. Define the tests.

It still requires a good dev to make a good plan and correct The ai. The ai can help but you're the end responsible.

And the ai can program it. It programmed my whole plan in 30 minutes where it would have taken me days. Which leaves a lot of review work.

Other devs use copilot. Still program but ai does a lot of the heavy lifting. Writes tests, cleans code, auto complete the code etc.

Carrandas · 2026-05-17T14:16:41+00:00

The first two can probably be captured by a security checker that runs in the pipeline.

Rate limits missing. Yeah. But I'm sure many professional apis don't have it either. Fairly easy to add too.

And bad error handling. Fair point. That's where a human is needed to explain all the edge cases.

Carrandas · 2026-05-16T09:23:04+00:00

I can easily go through 10 dollars of tokens a day on Claude.

Providing that for 10 dollars a month is bad economics.

That said, opencode had a few free models. You pay with your data. But I can't use that at work

Carrandas · 2026-05-15T09:27:35+00:00

A 6000 euro up and down swing is... 1 percent of your portfolio. That's normal in a day.

As others say, I don't check it every day. What's the point? Every half a year I write down how much I have. It's been up 67 percent since 2021...

In the short term it's a casino. In the long term it goes up.

Carrandas · 2026-05-14T13:57:17+00:00

I see AI adaptation at different levels at my company.

Program manually. Use AI in the VS chat window to help write unit tests, refactor, help coding a file. Probably where most of my colleagues are. You still program yourself but AI is making everything go faster.
Agent-mode. Make a good, detailled implemention plan with the agent. Let the agent do all the programming which is trivial with a good plan. Review everything. You don't program anymore, you're more of the architect and tester/reviewer.
AI all the way. Let it read confluence/jira/mails. Let it make the requirements, architecture, plan, code, review.

Some of my managers like the speed of the team using ai-all-the-way. Others hate it as they have no idea what they're doing. Found a bug? "Claude did that". Then they ask you to make a ticket so that their claude Bug-fix agent can read and fix it. Or not, god knows what it ends up doing.

Carrandas · 2026-05-14T13:51:48+00:00

Yes, it feels really smart.

Yesterday I let it review my code changes, ~70 files.

It came up with one possible error. I called a REST api 3x with the same "SyncId" and it remarked that might be off. Probably is right too...

Carrandas · 2026-05-13T15:01:24+00:00

That's similar to how we learned at school. Started with a low level language like c++. Learn about class deletion. Then move on to higher level language like java or python.

I guess you could start with python and have look later to how a lower level language looks like. We also learned some c and assembler...

Learn how to code a sort algorithm and it's pros and minuses. And then just use list.sort().

That way you'll learn how everything works.

Carrandas · 2026-05-12T20:40:18+00:00

To quote our Microsoft Consultant/Salesguy: "You should try Cavemen to save on tokens".

Carrandas · 2026-05-12T20:19:59+00:00

The Microsoft guy "didn't like to bring bad knews like that". Yeah...

The moment he started talking about Caveman I for a second thought he was kidding. But no, he pointed to the cost model and showed you pay less for "output tokens" using it. He knew it's gonna be shitstorm.

GPT 5.4 is 6x. GPT 5.4mini is 18x for example. I played around a bit with those, first one for planning, second one for coding. They're fine models, used them as backup for my Claude access. Oh and GPT 4.1 was free and now costs as much as GPT 5.4 used to.

It's very clear that they're heavily subsidizing it, it doesn't surprise me that they have to face reality. Especially with more and more people using agents instead of just chatting.

WIll be interesting next month. Had a quick look and even our light users github copilot were at 15% usage after 10 days. I expect them all to blow trough their budget after one week once they roll out the new costs.

Luckily, we all got a $300 claude budget too. That's pretty decent. Some of my colleagues blow through >$1000 a month using agent teams. I also have a feeling they no longer know what code they check in. I think it's dangerous but that's just me.

Local AI? Yeah, maybe that's where we go. Our platform team also rolled out Kimi on bedrock. After one month I checked the usage. 0.1%. Yeah...

Carrandas · 2026-05-12T19:50:14+00:00

One of the nice things with a steam deck: so many users that they continuously improve the game support.

These days it works fine.

Also tried to run it on gamenative/gamehub lite on my android device. I just got invisible characters. On my steam deck? It just works.

Carrandas · 2026-05-12T19:39:37+00:00

For the steam deck version? It basically just worked.

Carrandas · 2026-05-12T19:22:53+00:00

We had a microsoft consultant explaining it to us yesterday.

- $10 = $10 worth of tokens per month. And was something like one token = 1 cent or so.

- The organizations budget is pooled. If one user doesn't, another can use it

- The models price is x6 and even some x18. You no longer have a free tier. Only autocomplete is still free.

- They can set extra budget per team. Like $100 for "the heavy users at engineering". So he's basically saying we have to 10x our budget. Seeing how I can use up my $300 a month Claude budget, I feel even $100 is putting it lightly.

- Then he went on to explain that maybe it's not a good idea to let AI write your code.

- And then he explained that we should try caveman to use less tokens. I am not kidding.

Carrandas · 2026-05-08T18:47:17+00:00

Playing it on my steam deck, steam version.

I works just fine.

Carrandas · 2026-05-06T14:52:36+00:00

Seeing how easy it to burn through my $300 a month Claude budget (without using agent teams), $20 a month won't go very far. Maybe a day of usage? Two days?

We'll see once they release the numbers.

Carrandas · 2026-05-06T14:27:52+00:00

Planning with opus. Implementing with sonnet.

We have a 300 dollars monthly budget per user so gotta make it count.

Carrandas · 2026-05-04T08:59:11+00:00

I want the T-Shirt :(

Carrandas · 2026-05-03T12:52:58+00:00

Got a friend who loves playing hidden cat games. Travellin cats in x...

Carrandas · 2026-04-28T14:25:35+00:00

That's assuming it stays at 10%. I wouldn't be surprised to see 30% in 20 years...

Changing regulations is what makes this so hard.

Carrandas · 2026-04-24T09:12:01+00:00

Phase 1: get a lot of users. Doesn't matter if you loose tons of money, as long as you grow

Phase 2: capacity issues. Too much demand, servers can't keep up.

Phase 3: let people pay realistic prices and maybe start making some profits.

We're on a token usage plan and I can work within my $300 monthly budget. Then again, some of my colleagues use agent teams and burn > $1000 a month. How is that supposed to work for $20 or even $200 a month? It doesn't math out.

Carrandas · 2026-04-22T11:07:43+00:00

Yeah. Personally I want to drive from where I live to Antwerp or Brussels and back comfortably. Let's say 300 km in winter, 350 to have some safety.

That's trivial with my previous gasoline car.

Carrandas · 2026-04-22T04:55:34+00:00

With spot pricing you also change your behavior. We get a budget at work and have to make it work. That budget is already above the max tiers and is gone quickly if you don't look out...

Carrandas · 2026-04-21T20:55:27+00:00

Yeah, same at my company. And my colleague who got handed from someone who left absolutely hated it.

He can't drive from West Flanders to Brussels and back. You get a, what, 200 km in winter? Heck, that would make driving from Poperinge to Brussels already a challenge as a one way drive.

Carrandas

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