Yet another Hacker News

33 points benbreen 1 day ago 9 comments

ghoshbishakh 49 minutes ago | parent

A very very strong point. I have personally detailed entire projects because adding a feature seemed easy with AI. It is very difficult to vibe code and not add a bunch of useless crap features.

adamddev1 44 minutes ago | parent

Do you mean "derailed?"

huijzer 35 minutes ago | parent

You can also remove features with AI faster than before. During the initial development phase, that's the most important part IMO

josephg 15 minutes ago | parent

Really? I find LLMs quite bad at deleting code. If you ask them to add a feature, then later take it out again, the codebase almost always increases in size. Every time I've tried it, llms have failed to simplify code via refactoring.

LLMs are excellent at making prototypes though. And prototypes can be an excellent way to stop yourself from implementing the wrong features.

adamddev1 45 minutes ago | parent

> But that slow formation led to software that was durable rather than ephemeral, with a strong foundation that could be built upon.

People say that agentic development is great because you can churn out so much so fast. But that doesn't mean that any of it will be truly good and reliable.

The things that are truly insightful and solid end up being used exponentially more, which makes the linear cost of extra development time (asymptotically) insignificant in the cost/benefit equation.

jeanpah 43 minutes ago | parent

I don't think this is possible in this day and age, everyone expects the development to be instant.

cseleborg 8 minutes ago | parent

I guess we'll only be able to verify this 10-15 years after coding agents arrived. Personally, I think there will always be a market for apps created with care and great attention to detail.

olafmol 25 minutes ago | parent

In the Netherlands we have this saying: “Without friction, no shine”

ORDINAND_PIZZA 18 minutes ago | parent

good things take time because they grow from something like seed. as that seed grows, it figures out its local and global context. a curious and patient caretaker of this seed will spend a lot of time looking at it, understanding it, trying to figure out the right way to give the small plant a steady foundation. with care and attention, it could grow into a tree and attract all sorts of other insects, animals, and all sorts of life.

speed kills quality. it’s literally impossible to make anything good fast.

we know this, and it still applies to software. while we may be able to make things faster, they will never become good (or great) without an incredible amount of care, patience, and joy from its maker.

there are no shortcuts to quality. it will always take a lot of time to make anything good.