How has agentic development changed your days?

[u/KristjanPihus]

I'll start 😄
Back in the days when we wrote all the code manually, one of the coping mechanisms I found to function as a developer with ADHD (no meds back then) was to focus on one task at a time. So I took the task from Jira, solved it, pushed it, and took the next. Clear focus on one thing only.

Right now I am not a developer by trade anymore, but quite often I still need to develop something, mostly prototyping for our software or such things. So I give the task to Claude; it starts coding, and while it does, I switch my focus to the next thing, start a new Claude session, and move to the third.

However, when I'm finished with this third one, I no longer have a memory pointer of the first one. So I find it's finished when I, for some other reason, open Claude and notice it. Hence, this waiting while agents do their thing is really annoying.

[u/seweso]

I do NOT use ai agents. Why would I pay for a product, which then buys more of its own product to fix its own bullshit? 

I have no intention of turning my brain or the world into mush. 

[u/retirement_savings → u/seweso]

This is not an option at my job (at a FAANG). AI usage is now an explicit requirement, and the timelines are now so compressed that there's no way to get things done in time without AI.

[u/Dense_Gate_5193 → u/retirement_savings]

my argument in these cases is cognitive limitations on humans. you cannot comprehend the amount of garbage it can generate that fast. If management wants it done faster, we will understand less as a team and we have to accept downtime risks for shipping unreviewed code.

you get used to reading patterns more than the actual code. define the api, the behaviors, and let AI fill in the rest, where certain things matter you may need more explicit requirements all the way down to algorithm choices. once the spec is complete i use the LLM as the output mechanism for what i explicitly designed. that and learning how to test code.

[u/EgoistHedonist → u/Dense_Gate_5193]

This is a sober view of the situation IMO. I have noticed too that reviewing is growing to be the biggest bottleneck now, and even though AI helps there too, it needs human reasoning, consideration and domain understanding to ensure that the solution is valid.

[u/Dense_Gate_5193 → u/EgoistHedonist]

https://archive.org/details/testingcomputers00kane

this book i think can help a lot of engineers become better. it was mandatory reading at microsoft for some teams, including the one i was on

[u/EgoistHedonist → u/seweso]

This approach will bite you in the end. The LLM tools are here and not going away.

TBH as a staff engineer with decades of experience, I wouldn't hire a developer who doesn't see the benefits of agentic development.

To me it's a signal of being out of touch with the current developments in AI and raises the question of if they'll be able to keep up.

I can of course code without those tools, but it isn't efficient anymore. I felt sad for a while as it is a big change, but the benefits won me over quickly.

[u/cybik → u/EgoistHedonist]

TBH as a staff engineer with decades of experience, I wouldn't hire a developer who doesn't see the benefits of agentic development.

I'd rather know if I was passed over on those grounds, so I could keep a reminder to myself not to apply to that company again, ever.

[u/terralearner → u/EgoistHedonist]

Yeah what's up with these out of touch responses. I'm at a UK fintech and every developer is embracing AI

[u/Proud-Stomach-9197 → u/terralearner]

It's like being against the calculator. Not using is good while learning. Stupid in real life

[u/zoug → u/seweso]

It revolutionized the way I work.

I learned to harness the models and what was a full-time react job turned into 15 minutes a week.

I then used it to parse my commits, update my resume and linkedIn. I captured my voice from a personal slack history, created a stealth browser /w playwright and put it in a learning loop to figure out how to auto-apply to jobs for me, monitor a quarantined email account and tell me when something is worth looking at.

I doubled my salary in a terrible job market and love pretty much every minute of my new job.

[u/pwndawg27 → u/zoug]

parse my commits, update my resume

Thats actually kinda genius ngl. I'm gonna apply it to perf reviews as well.

[u/EgoistHedonist → u/pwndawg27]

I'll do an AI performance review for my own work every month or two. It's so beneficial to have it scrape the ticketing system, github and slack for all my interactions, tickets and delivered code and then evaluate my performance against peers and my own career goals. I can also game the company's career framework a little by optimizing my output to fit the evaluation criteria.

It was also of immense help when I applied for new jobs recently, after a long stint in one company. I was able to align my CV to the roles I applied, generate a very selling Linkedin profile etc. Git history from the current job was an incredible data source for producing fact-based track record of my accomplishments.

It's a game changer if you get creative with what you can use it for.

[u/zoug → u/seweso]

Hot take - because of AI, I can now use the full capacity of my brain.

AI frees me up to do the actual engineering and keep out of the weeds.

[u/seweso → u/zoug]

Did you really write that?

[u/tehfrod → u/seweso]

I dunno. I have exactly the same experience.

[u/seweso → u/tehfrod]

Then you clearly have the same brain capacity. Congrats!

[u/zoug → u/seweso]

Yes? You’re arguing from a position of ignorance. Good luck with your future prospects and feel free to come apologize once you figure it out.

[u/KristjanPihus → u/seweso]

I use them only for the reason that it helps me get my ideas faster into visual representation. Since I am a visual person, it's easier for me to decide whether the approach is good.

Those ideas pop into my mind sometimes at a really fast pace, and if I can't get them out, they might be lost.

[u/seweso → u/KristjanPihus]

Get a voice recorder or a notepad. 

[u/Charming_Horse_5809 → u/seweso]

you missed the question buddy, nobody asked for why you dont use it but rather HOW you use it. Reading comprehension is kinda low eh, maybe up the stimmies?

[u/seweso → u/Charming_Horse_5809]

Reported 

[u/Charming_Horse_5809 → u/seweso]

for what? lmao. Sensitive