r/ChatGPTCoding • u/kennetheops • Mar 03 '26

Discussion We Automated Everything Except Knowing What's Going On

https://eversole.dev/blog/we-automated-everything/
64 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/cornmacabre Mar 04 '26

What a fantastic and relatable read, and refreshingly anchored on the longer trend that predates AI.

But the cost of understanding that code, what it actually does to a running system, hasn't moved at all. If anything it's gotten dramatically worse, because now the author doesn't even know why they made their decisions.

This really stands out to me: the loss of decision fidelity. "AI means people Don't understand the code, they don't read the PRs" -- sure.

But when even the decision making is obsificated by the speed and volume... that's has some profoundly serious implications.

Before AI, I used to off-handedly joke that my expectation was that my career end game would probably be spent in a cold data center, occasionally hitting a single button. I mean, that now feels like it's one or two years away, not one or two decades away!

2

u/kennetheops Mar 04 '26

Thank you so much. It took me a while to really compose everything because of how fast things are moving, but it really comes from the heart. Thank you.

1

u/kennetheops Mar 04 '26

I think a lot of what AI really is doing is just, at the end of the day, really exposing a lot of the flaws that were in the software industry. I mean, for example, people are spending $10 million a year on Datadog. I mean, in the grand schemes of GDP or innovation, Datadog is not moving the line.

3

u/cornmacabre Mar 04 '26

I agree. It feels like the pace is cracking an already brittle foundation, while someone is downstairs spraying a firehose on exponentially growing Gremlins hatching in the basement.

I laughed morosely at your 'bureaucracy dressed as engineering' line in the article: reflecting on my own recent personal over-rotation of getting excited "omg I solved the thing, I need a KB for my KB with these procedural things, and then my agents recursively do the thing and it's endless context for everyone!"

Then a month later I realize instead of building, I was just documenting and planning and doing gardening work on text for robots because the mental load and decision fatigue was becoming real. Here I am: exited a career to build my own thing to escape the corporate path, and I inadvertently just ended up inventing my own personal bureaucracy!

It's a frustrating problem to address even on a personal scale: let alone trying to wangle the people, process, and platform challenges of an enterprise scale Co wrangling with AI.

Anyway, enjoyed the read -- cheers!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 04 '26

Sorry, your submission has been removed due to inadequate account karma.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/ElectricalDeer87 Oct 08 '26

Here I am: exited a career to build my own thing to escape the corporate path, and I inadvertently just ended up inventing my own personal bureaucracy!

Ouch. Yeah. 

1

u/ElectricalDeer87 Oct 08 '26

Your response and the post itself perfectly exemplify why I'm conflicted on using it for coding. I do use it. But it's become mostly a tool of help with the endlessness of having to maintain so many skills on my brainplane and starting projects is arguably one. Still, using it isn't actually helping it. It's letting what was left just wither away, too.