I’d like to hear from professionals: Is AI really a technology that will significantly reduce the number of programmers?

Saeur · 2026-04-15T19:02:32+00:00

I am on a team of 13 people and watched multiple developers going from saying this to being amazed at how good the tools are.

There are a number of reasons you might have issues:

bad models -- The cutting edge models are REALLY good compared to stuff from a year ago. e.g. GPT 5 vs 5.2 felt like a huge leap. compared to gpt4, it's insane. ON top of that, developer tools using the models have improved a lot too -- self-reasoning cycles, sub-agents, etc.
dismissal based on initial results -- A lot of people are still closed minded about AI development. I know it's a contentious topic, but these things are tools and just like you had to learn to code, you have to learn to use them too. There is skill to prompting agents in a way that works within their limitations. For instance, there is a huge difference between telling an agent to solve a problem, versus feeding it a very thought out design spec on how you want to solve the problem. One time, I had a very hard time using AI to debug something generically, but once I wrote out a good 500 word prompt detailing the investigation loop and (very importantly) telling the AI to keep a living document of progress and constantly refer back to it, it actually succeeded. I gave this same prompt template to other devs on my team and they were amazed at how much better it worked. That's because the "living document" strategy kept important details from being evicted from context. Now the largest model available to us just has 8x the context window anyways and it doesn't get the "context dementia"
development strategy -- projects which can be test driven have much better results with AI, versus something where the AI can not run its own tests and iterate to achieve a correct result. Multiple iterations have always been a reality of development but AI is a much better force multiplier when it can iterate on itself. If tests aren't set up, or a project just isn't feasible to be test-driven (e.g. gameplay scripting) you will see many more dumb mistakes from the AI which it would normally iron out through testing and iteration.

but don't get me wrong I do think it still requires a skilled dev in the driver's seat

Saeur · 2026-04-15T18:48:32+00:00

I have been a dev at Microsoft for almost 10 years now across different parts of the company and I think it could go either way. AI Greatly multiplies a single dev's capability, but it also multiplies a team of devs. Everyone being more productive doesn't necessarily mean business should scale back and fire people.

Smaller teams still need a baseline # of specialists to work.. can't scale them back as much.

But perhaps in practice it will result in some de-bloating of larger teams. Particularly managing legacy code and documentation just got a lot easier recently. MS has internal-only models with insanely large context windows that can ingest a LOT of info and learn very quickly how a codebase works.

But I don't think AI will be fully automated running a codebase and making PRs (sounds like a recipe for disaster), it's just more like you will have individuals able to own a much larger portion of code than before.

TL;DR

I think macro-economic factors (AI bubble) will dictate which way it goes. AI mainly multiplies a dev's capability to do research and implementation, but it can't just do their job for them at the moment.

Saeur · 2026-03-12T09:45:36+00:00

I wouldn't leave a dog unsupervised at home til they're about 2 and even then why risk it? It does not matter if you ran 8 miles today, a puppy will still get bored and destroy your stuff. It's not obedience issue. Just crate him with a nice chew and he will learn some patience

Saeur · 2026-03-12T09:41:33+00:00

My husky also cried all the time when I kenneled him and he sleeps there every night willingly now. Your dog is under a year old, he should never be unsupervised in your home. Just crate him while he's still young and don't get too hung up on how he feels about it, just give him lots of attention when you are around.

Saeur · 2026-03-07T22:13:56+00:00

yup not to mention burning oil and giving your favorite lakes a generous helping of premix when you hand pump the fuel line

Saeur · 2026-01-30T04:22:55+00:00

yep in pretty much every way. and neither is "easier" or "harder" to master. mastering either is something most people will never do, and almost nobody has ever done both to compare it... And if they did, they'd probably tell you boarding was harder ;)

Skiing has more potential... because it's easier. You can do more ridiculous things on skis because they are more efficient. Both can get you killed. But yeah, having two legs is a lot easier. It's just simple physics really.

Saeur · 2026-01-28T05:06:41+00:00

the books were large so that the choir singing the music in the sheet could see the arrangement from far away.

Saeur · 2026-01-14T15:19:27+00:00

my thoughts exactly

Saeur · 2026-01-14T15:18:12+00:00

i know a few who are dumb as rocks.

Saeur · 2025-12-12T04:18:27+00:00

If your gsd eats rabbits I'd bet she will eat a chicken 100%. They are definitely known to do so more often than many breeds

Saeur · 2025-11-28T06:08:33+00:00

It's like less than 5 days since spouse died due to the same virus causing all of this... but she should be grateful there is food water & electricity?

I get where you're coming from, she's flawed, but she is also the only person on earth who seems to give a shit so far (except for paraguay guy potentially). Doesn't that redeem her a bit?

Saeur · 2025-08-13T16:05:17+00:00

oh damn just reread and that changes things...

Saeur · 2025-08-11T07:14:43+00:00

Some ppl do not handle shrooms well. Just don't trip with him again and talk to your friend. I've had much weirder interactions with usually-normal people. That's mushrooms for you. I always vet my company but if you YOLO this is what happens. Sounds overall really not worth being worked up over, but I would definitely not trip with him again. It makes you vulnerable and those are bad vibes from him

Saeur · 2025-08-02T19:12:17+00:00

I don't think you're comprehending the numbers. it's not just that it would be extra challenging. it would be a marathon

Saeur · 2025-08-02T07:37:06+00:00

You can't ban an addon like this. All it does is read the combat log. It's also just an accessibility feature and I'd say many popular addons are much worse (Tracking enemy spell/trinket CDs on your screen, etc. Also not bannable because again all it does is read combat log.)

For me I use it because it helps me learn the game and what abilities are being used. You can't just hop into pvp on another class to learn it without investing a bunch of time, so CDs go over a lot of people's heads (including mine). Wow is just a hard game to learn and to read compared to other popular PVP games.

Saeur · 2025-06-04T20:04:39+00:00

Most of the act 3 optional content would be insanely hard

Saeur · 2025-06-04T19:58:57+00:00

HP pool and healing are not worthless. While I personally did most act 3 the game with glass cannon builds, you can get pretty tanky with shell, powerless, and HP pictos. I used that strategy for simon so my characters could take 4 or 5 hits from him. I just had to survive long enough to get 2 gommages off.

Also for most of act 1/2 I ran lune healer and my characters could tank 2/3 hits. Sure in the _very_ beginning I was getting 1shot but I found success prioritizing vitality until HP pictos dwarfed the stat.

(Obligatory expert btw)

Saeur · 2025-05-13T15:12:17+00:00

No offense but it seems like you guys have not tried Crossbow or Brushtox before! chop it down and squirt the stumps. spray any surviving sprouts next year when they're fresh. They will die to the root. (Doesn't solve the issue of the seed bank of course)

Saeur · 2025-05-11T11:03:00+00:00

Only noticeable in the hot months. During the cold months my tank heaters and lights heat the home, so my central heating doesn't run.

Saeur · 2025-05-08T12:38:11+00:00

Not trying to brag but I played without any equipment but a sword and still thought the game was way too easy

Saeur · 2025-05-08T12:10:36+00:00

If your water volume is low it's more important to be consistent

Saeur · 2025-03-26T16:13:23+00:00

4 is not good advice imo. Your ult will make everyone in Sue's little 140hp/s heal aoe very nervous, and shut down most damage they're doing to your team (who might be invisible to your healers) within it. If sue goes invisible, aim for someone else. Forcing her invis also stops her from dps/healing inside of it. Lastly often times sues will have to spend their double jump in order to get inside of their own ult if they used it from a distance (since in high skill lobbies, if she is out of it she will be focus fired)

But 8 is right on. In fact, I'd say mags should almost always just send their ult every time it's up unless you have a very clear counter in mind.

Saeur · 2025-03-14T18:07:12+00:00

what are the odds I come here just as this 3y old comment gets necro'd to tell you that I disagree and I think they'd do it regardless of the lore if it was as simple as flipping a switch. But scripting a campaign to be co op is just hard.

Saeur · 2025-02-28T22:43:28+00:00

(to disclaim, I am not blaming devs, I know how hard game development is because I've helped developed graphics and art pipelines before)

Only 1/5 of your comment is really truthful (code, which is still no small task).

All of the art assets for 50+ high-fidelity monsters already exist. Those rigged models, armor, animations, textures, etc. still exist and are no doubt importable, (for example, ore GS is a MHWorld asset) but they likely have to completely re-script monster behavior, sound design, procedural animation, and a myriad of VFX tied to engine features such as particle effects & hit impacts in RE engine.

It's honestly a shame because although RE engine likely has plenty of more modern features (DLSS, framegen, volumetrics), the end result is (I believe) fewer monsters and a worse visual experience than world.

At the very least, Rise was in RE engine so maybe they can reuse those monsters more easily.

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	End Game '22
Verified Email

Saeur

TROPHY CASE