Agentic coding is burning me out(0xsid.com)
0xsid.com
Agentic coding is burning me out
https://www.0xsid.com/blog/agentic-coding-fatigue
18 comments
Agent coding hype is marketing to push FOMO on devs in order to trick them into turning off their brain in exchange for money. They get hooked at work where they are likely more than happy to let a machine barf out boring code they likely didn't want to write in the first place. Then they bring that practice home. It's digital crack for devs.
I find it difficult to distinguish agent coding from just a code harness. They refer to different things, but those agents dont exist without a harness that manages them.
The harness though is real; the LLM does not do anything interesting without a set of tools, specific prompts to use them, and taking a lot of forced context planning out of the dev's hands.
But yeah, usually when you mix business interests without customer concerns, those business interests develop dark patterns so they can invent concerns and then solve them.
The harness though is real; the LLM does not do anything interesting without a set of tools, specific prompts to use them, and taking a lot of forced context planning out of the dev's hands.
But yeah, usually when you mix business interests without customer concerns, those business interests develop dark patterns so they can invent concerns and then solve them.
I can relate to that. If I'm not careful catching up my internal model and understand of the problem space and the specification of my project while the agent keeps spitting out code I feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps I have very high standards for my code quality for various reasons? But its extremely frustrating and tiring to me to check all the implicit assumptions the agent so boldly makes at high speed.
Usually, I start with a solid idea that needs hands on experience to fully developin, so I need to stay in the loop. Than I have to force myself to carefully review the code and point out architectural issues (usually there sneak in a lot of them). If I don't force myself, I end up in a limbo where the agent produces code faster than my mental model following.
Even if I have a well developed domain knowledge and a good idea what I want, I then definitely feel some kind of, what I guess compares to, slot machine effect. "Maybe now I get what I want. Argh, not quite. Okay, feels nearly there. Perhaps only this prompt. Ah, there is something missing...".
I'm really curious how you handle and approach this.
Usually, I start with a solid idea that needs hands on experience to fully developin, so I need to stay in the loop. Than I have to force myself to carefully review the code and point out architectural issues (usually there sneak in a lot of them). If I don't force myself, I end up in a limbo where the agent produces code faster than my mental model following.
Even if I have a well developed domain knowledge and a good idea what I want, I then definitely feel some kind of, what I guess compares to, slot machine effect. "Maybe now I get what I want. Argh, not quite. Okay, feels nearly there. Perhaps only this prompt. Ah, there is something missing...".
I'm really curious how you handle and approach this.
They were so burned out that they decided to use an LLM to write this blog post.
It should be embarrassing to people that they can’t even write a whole argument out by hand. It’s not that hard. All you have to do is believe in it.
This blog post is just selling the idea of engineering as craft. It exists to make us feel good about having skills and to get us to regurgitate our priors in the comments. We should at least demand that the sales pitch be manual.
It should be embarrassing to people that they can’t even write a whole argument out by hand. It’s not that hard. All you have to do is believe in it.
This blog post is just selling the idea of engineering as craft. It exists to make us feel good about having skills and to get us to regurgitate our priors in the comments. We should at least demand that the sales pitch be manual.
Doesn't read like LLM writing to me and my detector usually fires very quickly. Don't see any obvious signs - want to share what made you think of LLM writing?
Being able to write well is arguably one of the most important things any person can ever learn, as you can't write well without thinking well.
So, I immediately write-off anyone who produces their writing with LLMs, as it is quite apparent that they are not a serious, thoughtful person and are instead just cosplaying as one via LLM. The fact that they can't see this (or, worse, think the slop actually makes them look good) only further proves the point. I'd much rather read flawed but genuine writing over vacuous AI slop, and surely most people are the same.
The other day someone posted in reddit about a repo that they seem to have put a lot of thought into. But the post and all comments were AI slop. I told them that while the project looked promising, I couldn't take them seriously on account of the slop writing.
They replied thanking me. Then the next day followed up to say that I changed their life - no more Ai-generated writing when interacting with other humans. I hope they were serious about it.
So, I immediately write-off anyone who produces their writing with LLMs, as it is quite apparent that they are not a serious, thoughtful person and are instead just cosplaying as one via LLM. The fact that they can't see this (or, worse, think the slop actually makes them look good) only further proves the point. I'd much rather read flawed but genuine writing over vacuous AI slop, and surely most people are the same.
The other day someone posted in reddit about a repo that they seem to have put a lot of thought into. But the post and all comments were AI slop. I told them that while the project looked promising, I couldn't take them seriously on account of the slop writing.
They replied thanking me. Then the next day followed up to say that I changed their life - no more Ai-generated writing when interacting with other humans. I hope they were serious about it.
Which part of the post feels LLM written to you? Not snark, I’m genuinely curious.
I’ve recently started writing again, after well over a decade, so I’m not very up to date on how things are done and perceived. FWIW, I write these on Google Docs and then port them over to my site. Earlier posts had an AI disclaimer saying I used Google Docs which presumably uses AI for spellchecking and obvious grammar issues but it ticked people off so I’ve stopped adding those.
I’ve recently started writing again, after well over a decade, so I’m not very up to date on how things are done and perceived. FWIW, I write these on Google Docs and then port them over to my site. Earlier posts had an AI disclaimer saying I used Google Docs which presumably uses AI for spellchecking and obvious grammar issues but it ticked people off so I’ve stopped adding those.
I should say that the OP didn't actually scream LLM to me. I was just making a general reply to the parent comment's statement about LLM writing. I should have made that clear.
I, too, would be curious what they found so obviously sloppy about this post. It seems to me like it had a human voice.
I, too, would be curious what they found so obviously sloppy about this post. It seems to me like it had a human voice.
No worries, it just grated a bit to be called AI slop by the person you were responding to and I assumed you agreed with them too.
doesn't come off as llm to me. Funny, comments like this exist on every blog post shared here. Don't think there's a way to escape it unless you video yourself typing or something..
There is also a second order problem at work. It is clear that there is a market for these kinds of posts, even if they are written with LLMs. All they need to sell is affect. The robots can do affect pretty good.
Is there a meaningful market for them though? Do people actually appreciate them? Or is it just like LinkedIn slop (which I can only imagine has gotten immeasurably worse post-llm), which any half-thinking person disregards completely?
I suppose there's always been some market for LinkedIn lunatics, and likewise for any sort of "influencers", MLM, etc... And I've always written-off any of those people as well. Perhaps this is just a new flavour of the same thing...
Dumb people will continue to be grifted, and thoughtful people will continue to use these posts/materials as a good filter for who deserves their attention.
I suppose there's always been some market for LinkedIn lunatics, and likewise for any sort of "influencers", MLM, etc... And I've always written-off any of those people as well. Perhaps this is just a new flavour of the same thing...
Dumb people will continue to be grifted, and thoughtful people will continue to use these posts/materials as a good filter for who deserves their attention.
I don’t think we’re in a world of meaningful markets anymore. The idea is to get passed around on sites like these and on LinkedIn and what not until you reach somebody who’s gonna pay you money to be a contractor. And you know because they found you via your engineering blog posts that you’re not gonna have to do any real work, because the person was hooked on affect.
If a robot writes the blog post, then the economics become even easier because you could write a dozen of them.
If a robot writes the blog post, then the economics become even easier because you could write a dozen of them.
Spending less time online, overwhelmed by what others are building with AI 24/7 has been a very good countermeasure for me.
It got me back into enjoying things more
It got me back into enjoying things more
imo, Agentic lower the bar for people to actually create software they want, however it also introduce or scale problem for devs, since is inevitable for them to use it
It's still hard to stop yourself from constant bikesheding, reorganizing, etc, but yeah, mentally it's a different bag of tricks you need to learn.