This article is underlining the stark contrast between the viewpoints of “AI Enthusiasts” and everyone else.
Don’t get me wrong, I use these tools daily. That being said I’m having a very hard time finding where the productivity gains are.
I imagine I’m far from alone in that search and when you pair that with the constant marketing and glowing “analysis” from some of the enthusiasts about how this technology is “solving coding” or “changing the face of security” or even leading to AGI it starts to tickle that part of my brain where I keep blockchain, NFTs and copper bracelets.
So TLDR the tech is good but the hype-slaves and their masters are killing it with overpromising and under delivering.
Not the OP, but there are likely many tens/hundreds of thousands of people using AI daily because their management requires it. Management tracks AI usage by employee and uses it as a KPI. You want to keep your job, you use AI. You want a bonus, you use AI a lot.
This is simultaneously one of the easier management KPIs for employees to hit and one of the least meaningful.
I think a lot of the disconnect in the programming world is we treat all programming as equivalent and it's not.
There really are many programming jobs that are rote and I have no problem believing that an LLM based tool can learn the pattern and regurgitate with the tweak de jour. In those jobs LLMs probably do increase productivity.
But there are other programming jobs that are not rote and there is no pattern to learn because you haven't done the thing yet. LLMs aren't any more useful than a normal base library would be, and if you're already good at using a library of code, they're not a productivity booster and often, in my experience, a hinderance.
I think another point is the prompt actually forces the engineer to spend a moment to actually think about what they're doing and make some kind of plan. Pre-AI tools way too many programmers just jumped straight into problems without thinking what they were doing figuring they could code their way out of anything and ending up stuck in some cul de sac and having to back track. And if they just stopped and made a basic plan they wouldn't have that issue. Forcing engineers to make a plan, who wouldn't otherwise do so, before they start, could definitely be a productivity booster for them.
> forces the engineer to spend a moment to actually think about what they're doing and make some kind of plan
i thought so too, until i observed the exact opposite at $job
basically i see people just jump into claude and tell it to do x, then x is wrong or not quite right, so they go down a rabbit-hole fixing up things again and again burning tokens like a bonfire till it sort of works... i see very little upfront planning from where im at but maybe this is just my bubble...
> Don’t get me wrong, I use these tools daily. That being said I’m having a very hard time finding where the productivity gains are
I'm really struggling to understand why you would use them that much if you aren't sure they are more productive. Is it just a more enjoyable workflow for you?
I ask because I find AI assisted workflows extremely painful. Constantly pulling me out of flow, like driving in gridlock traffic.
> Don’t get me wrong, I use these tools daily. That being said I’m having a very hard time finding where the productivity gains are.
So why are you using the tools? Personal curiosity? Workplace mandate?
I've made measurably more and faster progress on both professional and personal projects since adopting these tools. Sometimes assisted is less productive than unassisted, but the net gain is pretty obvious to me.
I use the tools, but I'm under no delusions that I'm not just being lazy. I could just do it myself, and in some cases it would take roughly the same amount of time, but I can scroll TikTok while it dutifully churns out code.
I don’t like the tools personally, and find the reversion of any sort of interface to a chat interface a huge loss to UI - but for the love of all things holy why are using them if they don’t provide any benefit?
Don’t get me wrong, I use these tools daily. That being said I’m having a very hard time finding where the productivity gains are.
I imagine I’m far from alone in that search and when you pair that with the constant marketing and glowing “analysis” from some of the enthusiasts about how this technology is “solving coding” or “changing the face of security” or even leading to AGI it starts to tickle that part of my brain where I keep blockchain, NFTs and copper bracelets.
So TLDR the tech is good but the hype-slaves and their masters are killing it with overpromising and under delivering.