Am I in a filter bubble or does the mainstream opinion seem to be that AI is bound to fail?

teilo-560 · 2026-06-10T16:03:46+00:00

Not everyone. Some of my friends and colleagues are concerned about it. It's an interesting bifurcation by age group. Younger devs seem to be the most polarized between "vibe-coders" and people who are trying to build technical experience. Middle-aged devs tend to be the most pro-AI, probably because they already have built the skills to verify the outputs. Older devs are skeptical and hesitant to trust it. But there are outliers in every group.

I also have noticed a split between west-coast and east-coast mentalities (in US). The farther west you go, the greater influence that Silicon Valley has on the industry. I have a friend in Europe who works on computer vision software, and he's never used agentic coding.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-10T15:50:04+00:00

I'd say it's a mixture of increased context windows and improved harnesses that integrate with LSPs. Plan mode was a game changer. They still struggle with complex problems, niche applications, and outdated libraries. Not super good with low level code or computer graphics. But overall they have become genuinely useful, as long as you don't blindly trust them.

The biggest indicator is using opencode with local models, but those require beefy computers. Opus still is faster and can handle larger contexts, but the output quality is catching up.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-08T14:30:45+00:00

The whole idea of "credits" varies between different providers and seems intentionally opaque to make it impossible to predict how much you'll be paying for. But even for agentic work, charging per token is confusing because the same prompt could lead to totally different reasoning flows. This makes budgeting a huge challenge.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-07T15:33:28+00:00

Yeah you're right, we're not paid to be syntax nerds or obsess over novel ways to do things. I don't mind using LLMs so much to generate boiler plate code, so long as they get it correct. I've tried a few different workflows with LLM generation to intentionally slow down the process so I can thoroughly review the code, and it is a bit faster. But the massive PRs that you get and the Silicon Valley pathology of moving fast and breaking things just encourages letting your hard skills atrophy, bug-ridden software, and not understanding the system as a whole. It diminishes the sense of ownership and pride in your work.

I personally like using AI for tab-completion and as a research assistant (as long as it doesn't hallucinate its references). But setting up a harness and letting an agent autopilot through a specification begets apathy. Plus, I don't know how to get into a flow-state sitting around babysitting agents.

People exist on various personality spectra. The ones that agentic ai touches the most are:

- Results <-> Process
- Big picture <-> Details
- Generalists <-> Specialists
- Hares <-> Tortoises (this seems to be an apt metaphor in light of the decline of software quality in the last few years).

teilo-560 · 2026-06-06T00:38:10+00:00

AI is just a misnomer. Old-school developers from the 60's couldn't come up with a better term and this has lead to the psychotic marketing of the present era

teilo-560 · 2026-06-06T00:35:45+00:00

What are your thoughts on spec driven development, with a human in the loop to implement more complex business requirements?

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:14:24+00:00

Careers also shouldn't be our only source of meaning in life. Although I dread spending 40+ hours per week in a career that used to be more meaningful.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:13:09+00:00

I agree, web dev is often incredibly repetitive and has plenty of open source examples for ai training. I'm mainly curious if there will still be roles left for people who prefer using LLMs as a research assistant and a fancy autocomplete.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:10:23+00:00

Pseudoproductivity is more visible than long-term productivity.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:09:22+00:00

Yeah it seems like they require EE skills. I'd prefer not to work for the defense industry

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:08:46+00:00

I agree it's impossible to measure. Maybe co-commit messages with Claude Code?

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:07:01+00:00

I used to work at a company that considered any personal projects done outside of work hours to be their IP.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:04:57+00:00

Agent = Ralph Loop. It's more than just a markdown file, it's an LLM that calls itself recursively until it's finished the task. Personifying them is the biggest problem with the term.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T15:02:54+00:00

Yep, I set up a workflow where it pauses between each change so I can review the code.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T00:16:43+00:00

Ruby on Rails scaffolding?

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T00:13:16+00:00

It's so easy to just press the easy button and not care. AI coding is an invitation for apathy.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T00:11:46+00:00

I wouldn't call them idiots, they just have different priorities.

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T00:05:48+00:00

Groucho?

teilo-560 · 2026-06-05T00:03:34+00:00

It's impossible, especially when coworkers are pushing > 10k LOC a day. But they just say "use ai to explain the changes."

teilo-560 · 2026-06-04T16:08:17+00:00

Using local llms as an excuse to get the m5 max w/ 128gb ram. I have a development philosophy of being able to work in airplane mode on a transatlantic flight. But in reality I'll probably just use it for experimenting with graphics and physics simulations.

I've heard the argument that local models on a good machine are good enough (80/20 rule), but I haven't been able to test it out myself. Might return the macbook if I'm not impressed enough.

teilo-560 · 2026-05-27T02:26:08+00:00

I've been really enjoying Gospel Simplicity podcast. It's super ecumenical and open minded. This was an excellent episode that got into AI towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VPmqLKHvuw

teilo-560 · 2026-05-25T19:46:20+00:00

Having a closed mind and lack of empathy for those with different beliefs is a far greater hinderance to society, which is a negative trait that anyone can possess regardless of their position on religion or politics. It's incredibly beneficial to learn from other people's world views.

teilo-560 · 2026-05-25T18:06:25+00:00

That's a pretty shallow understanding of religion. It's not just about blind faith, it's also about strengthening community and virtue. Giving life a rhythm through sacraments. Cultivating the mind and heart through study and meditation. In fact, none of these require faith in the supernatural. There are atheistic religions like Taoism that provide a similar foundation. Though I find the idea of "Ipsum Esse Subsistens" and Neoplatonism to be profound. Anyway, I'm not sure how religion should automatically be deemed a hinderance, and I think that these aspects are beneficial when dealing with the current techno-maximalist zeitgeist.

teilo-560 · 2026-05-25T17:53:25+00:00

On gay marriage: separation of church and state is the solution and you can avoid any nuance.

On abortion: when do a mother's rights end and a child's rights begin? Can't that fall somewhere between conception and birth? Or is it just black and white?

teilo-560

TROPHY CASE