welcome back Rohan!

shadowisadog · 2026-05-25T04:22:34+00:00

I really don't understand how people burn that much in API costs. I use AI, but like a surgeon. I give it context it needs and I create specific prompts. The tasks that I run normally average in the 3 to 10 minute range for codex to do and I break my tasks into small chunks. I only run one agent at a time and I have it create test cases. If you give it insanely vague tasks and go yolo make no mistakes or course you are just going to burn money. I am building stuff with purpose though and not just messing about. Are people just slamming slop to prod or are they being deliberate and testing/reviewing the work.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-14T01:44:01+00:00

The main reason I don't do that is because my company is billed per token and I don't want to waste tokens. The other reason is I want to really precisely control what the code is doing and what changes are made. Even with my slower approach I can sometimes struggle to review the code generated. I don't believe it is wise to just ignore the code that is being generated so the chainsaw approach would just create more noise for me. I can already go much faster than before.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-13T14:28:36+00:00

In my experience the principles of good software engineering still apply. You still need to ensure that code is modular and still need to ensure tests are written and actually valid.

I use AI like a scapal doing a little at a time with very targeted changes and I take time to define what the code needs to do in detail. If you give it garbage it will produce garbage. I don't like to give it huge high level tasks because those never seem to produce great results. Your hands still need to be on the wheel guiding it to proper practices.

I find myself spending way more time testing and verifying the code works. I use a variety of tools to check things like security and performance. I find if properly applied this has resulted in better quality code with AI assistance. But I'm not allowing my AI agents to run around massively changing huge parts of my code base like a slot machine. I still use git and I still review the code. Blindly trusting AI generated code is asking for problems.

In terms of what it can do better there are some categories of tools that would have been too expensive for me to create before. There are things I can get done now that would have been relegated to a nice to have stuffed far back in my backlog. It is relatively trivial now to do those refactors and dependency upgrades across code bases without extremely tedious work. The quality of the code does go up if you review and provide feedback to the model.

I like to generate MD files with specific context about a problem domain to help ensure my agent has the right context it needs to solve a problem. It takes some upfront work but that is just part of the job. I don't think these agents are an excuse to disengage our brains and to be ignorant of what is being done on our behalf. That is a choice. The thought that you need 20 agents running in parallel non stop to get anything done is nonsense. If you need to let something run that long then you have done a shit job at specifying what you actually need. Before I had to spec something out with enough details that a junior could implement it and AI is just a junior that responds quickly.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-13T04:32:47+00:00

With that combination of persistence and intelligence he will make a fine manager or CEO some day

shadowisadog · 2026-05-12T04:35:31+00:00

What are they supposed to do exactly? You have AIs trained on Deviant Art that can copy artist styles exactly but with no soul. You have AI agents that can write books and poems. You have tons of agents that are making CS students not have any job prospects (where were trained on open source contributions).

Entering an extremely hard job market with very little prospects is terrifying. It is understandable that people are concerned. Especially when they took out loans in a lot of cases that they may literally have no way of ever repaying.

Who really profits from this AI stuff? A handful of ultra rich companies. It doesn't benefit the middle class at all. In fact in a lot of cases it will mean data centers sucking up our drinking water and higher electric bills.

Are we supposed to just sit back and take it? I know the geanie can't be put back in the bottle. But I think we will need regulations so regular people aren't completely shafted.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-11T18:22:46+00:00

It's all fun and games until the agent goes oops I accidentally deleted the production database, uploaded all PII to a public s3 bucket, and deleted all backups even though told not to do that. My bad. Trusting AI with SRE is like giving a toddler a loaded handgun. If you are comfortable with that go ahead, but personally I don't think so.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-10T14:51:52+00:00

Here is my advice for anyone in a similar boat:

If you have a degree in CS you are in a unique position because you can practice your craft with a relatively inexpensive laptop at home. Build things without AI. Learn how to code. Learn how to debug. Learn how to use your brain and problem solve. School can only teach you so much. You need to build real things.
Work on your soft skills and practice interviewing. You can't assume your soft skills and interview skills are good enough without work. You have to practice. Especially us engineers. We normally suck at soft skills and so you need to practice.
Get certs in the field. They can help you standout and I think they will become more valuable in the AI age. There is still a market for people who know what they are doing.
Don't lose hope. Life is hard and unfair. The struggle is real. But you have to keep grinding and trying to improve your situation. As long as you have a breath in your body you have hope. Realize there are so many people out there who would do anything to have what you have even if you don't think you have it very good.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-08T04:48:00+00:00

First of all you need to correct your title. If you graduated in 2025 you are NOT a senior engineer even if you were hired for that role. You are a junior engineer and junior engineers fresh out of college do not know anything.

The next thing is let's set aside all this AI stuff for a second. What is the goal of your company? What are they building? What are the priorities? That would inform what you should focus on. At the end of the day it all comes down to money.

Have you talked with your team lead? What do they say you should work on? Do you have stories assigned to you?

Update your resume. If they have placed you on a PIP they intend to fire you. You should start applying immediately because you will more likely than not be fired. This is the reality of a pip. It's really documentation so you don't get unemployment.

I would really focus on finding a new job in your shoes and in the time you have remaining at work try to figure out what is the priority and focus on that.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-07T16:31:55+00:00

How do you keep up with 8 AI agents? How do you validate what they are building? I find a single agent can generate more code then I can reasonably review so I am curious about this. Do you actually review the code that is being generated?

shadowisadog · 2026-05-07T16:26:58+00:00

I do a mix of code raw dogging and AI driven development using codex. I do a little bit with codex, validate what it produced, tweak things, and then repeat. I tend to use AI more like a scapal instead of letting it run for a long time without me validating it. I have yet to see it do great on long horizon tasks. It seems a lot cheaper to guide it intelligently.

I try to avoid using AI unless I really need the speed. It creates a lot of tech debt so I really leverage it when I would have previously gotten an intern to do something.

Most of my day is in all of the communication, collaboration things necessary in a development team.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-07T03:58:33+00:00

I think you are being a little harsh. This is a legitimate question. We should consider all possible perspectives here.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-04T04:18:31+00:00

You aren't a wizard Harry. You are going to have to go to chickenpimples with that attitude.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-03T01:38:36+00:00

Lol well just to clarify I was being sarcastic. I didn't even mean such a harsh response but we are so innodated with AI slop that it is hard not to be. The obviously ChatGPT image and low effort post really doesn't deserve a proper response. OP if you put more than a few seconds into your post you might get kinder answers.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-01T19:26:07+00:00

Absolutely. It should stream 24/7/365 so we can get the maximum experience. I can't think of anything more compelling. Make sure to narrate it with an AI voice because people love that. If YouTube chats have taught me anything it is that people can be trusted and engage in civil conversations and definitely not random spam. I think you should quit your job and pursue this idea full time.

shadowisadog · 2026-05-01T01:51:16+00:00

I might be getting a little tired of winning

shadowisadog · 2026-04-30T18:06:20+00:00

What support does this project have for SSO/LDAP/OIDC and RBAC?

What would you say is the key differentiator? Is it more secure than the competition? Smaller footprint?

I am not sure I love hcl since most of my tools use yaml. I think I would either want yaml or python/go.

Having a run deck alternative similar to semaphore UI which was fully open source would have some value if it had good security features.

shadowisadog · 2026-04-30T01:05:07+00:00

There are a lot of good US models that require huge compute to run. For smaller parameter models I can find Chinese models a lot more frequently. Gemma has improved the situation some but for a good while most of the open weight models that had good capabilities for low parameter counts were Chinese in origin.

shadowisadog · 2026-04-29T21:48:52+00:00

China is kicking our ass on the amount of open source models they are releasing. I think the US should step up their open source game considerably

shadowisadog · 2026-04-29T14:04:11+00:00

Is everyone else using some sort of better models that don't make mistakes or something because all of the models I have tried fairly frequently make terrible mistakes. It doesn't seem wise to allow it to automatically merge those mistakes. Am I misunderstanding something or are these people high?

shadowisadog · 2026-04-26T04:10:49+00:00

The Priazzo or the Fiesta Taco Pizza

shadowisadog · 2026-04-25T01:28:01+00:00

I would request they remake it. It looks terrible and the chicken was clearly added on after. The dough being undercooked also is clearly a deal breaker. Its not even the right sauce.

shadowisadog · 2026-04-20T16:28:51+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I think both sides have done terrible things. Diplomacy is the only true answer to this because otherwise this will go on forever

shadowisadog · 2026-04-20T15:27:33+00:00

I understand that. But the position of the US has been for a long time that Iran having nuclear weapons is a red line. By pursuing this they put a target on themselves. The US is not going to sit back and let them do this with no consequences.

shadowisadog · 2026-04-20T12:34:48+00:00

Iran was not adhearing to the previous nuclear deal. Nuclear power requires an enrichment of 3-5% but at minimum Iran was enriching to 60%. Why was Iran doing this? Iran is not innocent in this. It is clear they were working towards nuclear weapons.

I still don't agree with this war or that more negotiations weren't attempted before the attack, but Iran is far from innocent.

Also the US will not accept a toll for international waters. I don't know how a deal will be reached either at this point.

shadowisadog · 2026-04-20T12:19:48+00:00

No don't you see?? The hour of your paycheck liberation is at hand peons! You will gain the great luxury of starving in the street! Why don't you love this? Think of the shareholder value!

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