A very prolific coworker who fully embraced claude has inflicted the team with a flood of AI-generated PRs. About six months later, it is his frequent bemoaning at the standup that their PR don't get reviewed, languishing in inattention. I don't think anyone - including myself - _intentionally_ avoid his PRs. It's just that he doesn't make it easy for the team to look at.
This single headline perfectly captures what I have been thinking. It's not that I reject AI content, but it takes _effort_ to review and weed out any mistakes. When your thoughtful reviews that take an hour(because the PR is typically large, and you want to be _right_ when you're pointing out a hallucination) gets an AI-generated response with AI-generated amendments, It doesn't feel _nice_. I feel dismissed and it has continuously trained me to subconsciously avoid his PRs. After all, the team is fully onboarded with AI, so it's not like there is a lack of PRs to review.
It looks like the sentiment isn't just isolated for me.
In the end it's an emotional response. I am "anti-AI" because it has caused a net negative experience for me, so I feel bad towards it. Confirmation bias makes it easier for me up-vote or voice concerns for "anti-AI" posts and stay silent for "pro-AI" posts.
When I first started working with claude at work, I had a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, it was awesome, surreal experience that lets me go 10x overnight. Then the negative experiences started hitting me.
My team who has fully embraced AI now generate slop. They're 2-5x more "productive" and churn out code for me to "review". I point out things that don't make any sense, and their AI agent enthusiastically agrees with me, "You're right to push back, great suggestion! You're right that this didn't make any sense". I feel dismissed and it has contributed to my dissatisfaction at work significantly.
A lot of my work is seeping through the AI slob because I can't get away from it. AI PR descriptions like a novel and it's so _verbose_. It's tiring. It allows juniors who are being so extra with the new tool and give bad ideas with bad implementation. Shooting that down nicely doesn't work and because other people in the team who have embraced AI accepts it.
I enjoyed writing code and reading code. I used to take pride in writing a clean, maintainable code and writing a good documentation. AI has made bad developers think they're right, and very confident. It's tiring to talk to. So I don't like AI, because that's the source of all this frustration.
Yes, I am definitely more productive with AI. But the net result for me is decidedly negative.
I'm being completely honest about it. Hopefully this helps someone understand why some engineers dislike AI.
> I always try to say to the person helping me "I know you are not the person responsible for my issue."
This simple sentence that shows empathy to the person on the other side of the line is so profound. In a single breath you let the other person be heard, be seen, and appreciated. At the worst, it makes you stand out amongst all the abusive asshats they interact with day to day. It makes them want to help you. I've used this line every time I had to deal with a customer service agent and the voice always softened after that. A simple "thank you", or "take your time" seem to mark you as a person, rather than a case to close.
Seems like a lot of non-instantiated claims. It's easy to mark a faceless bureaucrat that we are allowed to hate and project out frustration onto it. It's a good writing trope that works, because it's so easy to relate.
The OP's point was that the "faceless" bureaucrat may be helpless and the smug emotion the original author implied may not be unfounded. I can see a valid point for both.
I got my first Bose headphone in 2008 or so. It was a treat for myself as a poor university student after a paycheque. I loved the headphone and one day it broke down after several years of heavy abuse. I called their customer service for repairs and how much it would cost. Rather than recommending me to just buy a new one, the customer support agent asked questions about the model, what the issue was, and offered a replacement.
I've loved their product and support ever since. Glad to see this happening as well. Kudos.
This single headline perfectly captures what I have been thinking. It's not that I reject AI content, but it takes _effort_ to review and weed out any mistakes. When your thoughtful reviews that take an hour(because the PR is typically large, and you want to be _right_ when you're pointing out a hallucination) gets an AI-generated response with AI-generated amendments, It doesn't feel _nice_. I feel dismissed and it has continuously trained me to subconsciously avoid his PRs. After all, the team is fully onboarded with AI, so it's not like there is a lack of PRs to review.
It looks like the sentiment isn't just isolated for me.