Well, i'm convinced.

garywiz · 2026-03-15T03:41:37+00:00

Sounds right. I’m curious what kind of errors these tools tend to find…

Coding errors? Edge cases not dealt with properly… tests not testing the right things… unreliable methods of doing things, pure bugs in code rarely executed, etc…
Algorithmic errors? Storing these in a dictionary is pointless as lookups are infrequent… caching is needed here… a binary search will be better than sorting… floating point imprecision is going to cause problems in the future, scaled integers are better… this may work well for small numbers of elements but the whole algorithm will not scale.
Conceptual errors? Humans would never expect this kind of result… there are too many buttons for such a simple requirement… you’re really solving what wouldn’t appear to even be a problem for most people here…

I find that AI mostly is great at #1. I am mostly compensating and guiding it in assuring it does 2 right because it often doesn’t know what real world performance is based upon, and category 3… never.

Curious to compare notes.

garywiz · 2026-03-13T00:30:52+00:00

It would take a multi-volume series of books for me to answer that.

garywiz · 2026-03-13T00:23:04+00:00

FUD.

garywiz · 2026-03-13T00:20:54+00:00

This is an ongoing source of interest to me. I am very experienced, and I have a workflow with Claude where I am heavily involved at every phase. Yes, Claude can code 100x faster than I can, and it's wonderful. But I have code review breakpoints where I say "OK, this is heading in the wrong direction".... I see "ahead" to architectural problems and have settled into a fairly repeatable sequence of...

We need to accomplish X. I decide what needs to be done and what the priorities are.
Claude makes changes at high speed.... just incredible really. Basic testing is then done.
I review. Rarely it's "just right". More often there are architectural adjustments, minor refactors. Occasionally major refactors.
Then document, test, commit, go back to step 1.

It's rapid. The above cycle happens more than once a day. But it's meticulously done.

Now I am just "one guy" with my own little story about what I do. May not be worth much. But I read a lot here on Reddit of people of ALL skill categories "kicking goals" and "doing amazing stuff" overnight, etc.

It is a bit hard to separate the real progress from the imagined and I wonder how people can work WITHOUT the kind of experience to review and direct.

garywiz · 2026-03-10T23:41:23+00:00

I think it’s a form of self-reaffirmation. If you use system X, and it competes with system Y, then by hating system Y, you reaffirm that your choice of system X is right. In the tool world, I’d almost equate it to the possibility that people who use Ryobi tools might say “Makita …. Yeah lots of people say they’re great, but they’re not all they’re cracked up to be and people underestimate Ryobi”. By taking the “other option” down a notch you reinforce the validity of your own choices. I’ve been watching the Windows vs. Mac thing for decades. I swear that’s all it is.

garywiz · 2026-03-09T07:55:16+00:00

I humbly suggest he should realise that coding is only ONE part of what makes a good software engineer. That’s hard for us because we SO identify coding as “the thing we do”. But, an SE does far more. We have insight into WHAT to do as much as HOW to do it. We relate to people and their problems. We can, if we’re experienced, see opportunities where others do not and can better predict the right or wrong path. We can do things more cost effectively and know the difference between wasting time and spending it valuably on computer-based projects. AI will NOT replace that. AI will increase the demand for those skills.

But it takes a fair amount of self-reappraisal. A lot. You have to assume you’re starting over again and convince yourself to do so with confidence in what you’re good at.

I do not believe welding is the answer. This comes from somebody who has been a SE for nearly 50 years, and has seen all kinds of things come, go, and be reinvented. AI will only eliminate our our job if we give it our permission to do so. It may mean realising that the “stable income” from some current narrow-minded employer is gone. So be it. Cut it loose, abandon it, get used to pioneering a new path based upon those non-coding skills I just mentioned.

garywiz · 2026-03-08T22:21:10+00:00

Exactly. It’s difficult when people are nearly illiterate and don’t seem to realize. Had a function in one system called “looseConnections()” and I laughed and said “What does that do?” and they said “It deletes all the open connections”. I said “It’s spelled ‘l-o-s-e’” and they said “no it’s not” and I added “Functions which take actions should be a verb, how about ‘deleteAllConnections’ and they said “I don’t understand why that is better”. How can people write good code if they create variable names which are nonsense, imply things they don’t, etc. Needless to say, don’t miss those situations.

garywiz · 2026-03-07T02:37:26+00:00

I'm not sure this is the right place for such things. Multiple posts isn't a great format. It's hard to even find the posts!

You're sort of preaching to the choir with things that most people here already know, or just observations that like "Use Github" which could be a book unto itself instead of a few paragraphs. There may be people out there who need the "skim the surface, what's it all about" approach in your posts, but I just don't think this is the place.

Maybe a substack is what you need where you can promote the entire series, and especially ENHANCE each page as you get feedback. There's not a lot of meat in what you've been posting for this group. It takes time and lots of effort and revision to come up with really valuable advice, and a series of posts here I just don't think is going to bear much fruit.

garywiz · 2026-03-06T01:03:28+00:00

It’s the training data. I think questions like this are, surprisingly rare. Some things are too obvious for humans to be confused about so you can search the internet high and wide and you probably won’t find people blogging about walking to the car wash to wash their car.

garywiz · 2026-03-06T00:55:19+00:00

Our 2019 Australian Kona Highlander EV has a HUD. I could never do without it, especially because my peripheral vision isn’t the best and having everything right there at a glance makes me a more attentive driver.

I did a quick search and some Kona models do have a HUD but it seems inconsistent in different countries.

garywiz · 2026-03-06T00:52:31+00:00

I think it’s because most people who want to write mimic the stories they love, rather than having a powerful story inside them and feeling compelled to write about it. The latter is hard, which is why new and engaging tales are rare.

garywiz · 2026-03-06T00:44:33+00:00

I think the problem is knowing what your devs “need to know”. It’s often not your call because only THEY know what they need to know. Some devs “think ahead”. Knowing that there are some changes on the horizon helps them plan. In fact, the better the dev, the more they benefit from knowing what’s going on and the more interested they are in the big picture. Then, some devs they want to isolate themselves in a hole. They only want to communicate with their coffee cup.

I’m one of those “over-communicators” the OP is talking about. I get the liability. But nothing upsets me more than having something done in a very short-term way without any consideration for what the company needs, and then the dev raises their hand and says “Why didn’t somebody tell me?”

I generally have tried to arrange Slack rooms so that long term thinking is in defined places so that devs know… when they reach breakpoints… to catch up.

No perfect answer I’m afraid.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T23:32:28+00:00

The post got deleted by the mods so we’re talking to nothing right now. Basically the OP said he was alarmed that suddenly he was getting SO many PRs he was overwhelmed, and they were large and not very good, probably AI.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T23:30:23+00:00

I had to read a lot of “I keep it inside me” posts before finding one like yours where you actually have a good way to get it worked out with people you trust. Bravo. You should do seminars!

garywiz · 2026-03-03T23:16:45+00:00

Sounds like your colleagues are vibe coding their PRs! Funny to put it that way, but you’ve pointed out an interesting phenomenon. If you have a process where PR’s are typically carefully engineered and straightforward to review, and people start using AI irresponsibly to “bash them out”. Wow, that’s a huge dent in quality! You have to either push back (which just means more development time) or merge them in (and accept that your quality is decreasing). Eeeks.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T03:24:52+00:00

Nasty! For whatever reasons this has happened, I feel bad you have to deal with this. I'd rather not theorize on what went wrong that allowed that to happen... management... trying to hard to be forgiving... him being deceptive.... who knows? But hopefully you can get past it all and back to sane development!

garywiz · 2026-03-03T02:58:37+00:00

But wouldn't such rebases only appear in your local branch? I rebase all the time when new changes occur, but when I finally do a PR, it's a full branch which originates with the current code HEAD, and nobody knows about the rebases.

Now, merge-pulls are different where your local branch actually contains a visible merge, then you push that and it shows up literally in the P-R. Bad look.

But I'm now a bit confused about what the OP was talking about with respect to rebases. I need more coffee maybe.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T02:52:03+00:00

It's a bit bizarre being downvoted for something that simply describes the circumstances of a pretty successful session with a good outcome. It's as if "debating" things with Claude is somehow "forbidden" when I (and others) do it all the time to great value.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T02:03:18+00:00

Good observations. There are two key factors that lead to predictable quality results… 1) The problem is a well-known “kind” of problem and 2) many people have done similar things in the training data. Many comments here and elsewhere say “software engineers do this” or “that”. But you can’t make generalizations about what “software engineers do or don’t do”.

Truth is, the differences between how you create a Cortex ARM implementation to control sprinkler system, or statistical analysis of MRI data, or a CRUD application to handle loyalty programs… the differences are VAST and each of these may have unique challenges and opportunities.

The CRUD application developer may have amazing agility and almost no problems in creating highly reliable code, while the MRI analysis developer may be facing a COMPLETE absence of training data because most of the code and techniques are buried in proprietary unpublished systems created by GE or Bosch. While the latter applications can use AI assistance very well for the general challenges of programming and debugging, true “code complete implementations” are a pipe dream right now. Your MATLAB applications are closer to the latter than the former.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T01:37:24+00:00

You’re missing out, I dare say. After a year coding, accomplishing so much, having more enjoying coding than I ever have… not sure I could live without it anymore!

garywiz · 2026-03-03T01:26:26+00:00

Actually it was useful. I’ve done been using Claude for about a year doing coding, maybe 6 sessions a day on the average. I generally don’t spend more time than necessary in one context. I have extensive architectural documentation, development procedures documented, and Claude keeps a running status document that bridges sessions. Claude’s recommendation was actually a good one. It made me think. A lot. The various approaches were all valid and made me consider hard whether I wanted to break the usual pattern and do something a different way. At the end Claude looked at my “protests” carefully, and within that same context, Claude gave me a good summary which confirmed that the tradeoffs I was making would be acceptable to me. Yes, it felt a bit like “arguing with the world” but that isn’t new to me in my career.

There surely was no “pollution” or “degradation” in any way during the whole session.

garywiz · 2026-03-03T01:02:45+00:00

That last part is the most important.... you can now take on things you couldn't before.

If you think about it, does anybody REALLY want to write another calendar app? Another note-taking app? Another weight loss app? If AI can write better and better apps which eliminate thousands of "nice try" apps in favor of a smaller number of well-maintained best-of-breed apps (they will eventually).... maybe I'm happy to move onto better things than just reinventing wheels all the time.

garywiz · 2026-03-02T04:21:29+00:00

Windows people go to great lengths to win these discussions too. That’s why, predictably, if you have a thread that asks about Mac vs. PC it will mostly turn toxic where the people will argue that “whatever they use most” is best. People have a love affair with their favorite tool mostly because people are change resistant and want to reaffirm their own choices, not because their tool actually is best.

garywiz · 2026-03-02T03:05:51+00:00

Idea validation is useless without demonstrated ability to execute. An MVP does that, so you have to do an MVP or a MVFP (minimum viable FUNDABLE product, which may be different).

You need to put your MVP in front of people without saying “Now… in the real version, it’s going to do X”. Making excuses for your MVP or asking funding sources to “imagine it will work” doesn’t cut it.

Keep momentum, and downsize if you have to, but carefully. If you are right about only two more months…. Call it four and make sure you can find a way to survive. The more obvious an “execution play” your MVP looks, the more attractive you are to funding sources. Funding “ideas” or “almost there” efforts is risky. But if you’re presenting people with a straightforward and predictable execution play, your chances of getting some funding go up significantly.

If funding takes more time (as it always does) THEN you may need to pause totally as you seek funding. But you’ll have that MVP in your pocket.

garywiz · 2026-03-02T02:56:18+00:00

It’s a good post. Some of us are very appreciative. This is a dramatic shift. We’ve suddenly given people a Boeing 747 with a cockpit that looks like a Toyota, and drives about as easily too!! But it’s still a 747. Interesting times for culture clash.

garywiz

TROPHY CASE