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Ask HN: Anyone else struggling with AI and work?

7 points by carlgreene ↗ HN
Been a developer for a little over 10 years now. I work on web stuff. Your typical React/Svelte codebases with Node backends.

The past year or so I've been working with coding agents and at first they just felt like a really really great tool. They'd allow me to do my work faster, and while obviously not perfect, they'd do a pretty good job.

When Opus 4.5 came out it seemed like something changed. I found myself reviewing less and less code. I wasn't writing any on my own either. And for the past several months it's really just been like that. I dictate to my machine a long prompt as to what feature I want, how I want it architected, and what success looks like and Codex just does it. And does it pretty damn well.

This has left me feeling a bit lost in my career because much of the challenge and flow that I would get from coding is gone. Thinking through intricate data flows, mapping them out in my brain, etc... is just gone. I don't do it anymore because there's just no need.

Many will say, "well stop using it so much" or "use it more like a tool and less like the E2E developer." Well...I can't really. I am just flat out not as good, fast, or complete as these latest agents. It would be disingenuous to my company, and my employer would probably question why my productivity is so much lower than my peers.

I think the main emotion i'm feeling right now is just extreme boredom. I don't think being remote is helping at all tbh.

On the surface it feels like it should be amazing. Most of my work is taken care of by agents. But in reality I feel kind of empty, disengaged and bored.

Does anyone else feel like this? Anything you've done to combat it? I have 3 young children so "doing hard stuff outside of work" is not really an option. I have considered working with my hands while prompting and testing code because that would at least make me feel engaged with _something_, but I don't think that will actually work in practice.

11 comments

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macwhisperer
good, the point is that now you have free mental bandwidth to use on building something that truly interests you using AI to help actualize your goal. build something cool for your kiddos idk?
iExploder
I focus more on specs, product and outside behavior these days. Colleague showed me a fancy plugin he made for emacs today at work. I congratulated his efforts and mentioned I dont open text editors anymore :shrug: ...
dbehera
AI has more than enhance my work using Ai and I become more productive. it took me exactly two to three weeks to get it idea of how I can integrate AI into my work schedule
ex-aws-dude
Why not just use the extra power to build something harder _at_ work? Use your imagination
boundless88
I share your concerns - I'm worried that my software development skills will become completely worthless in the future. What I'm thinking right now is that I need to spend more time on product experience and interpersonal communication. These soft skills won't be replaced by AI anytime soon. The barrier to getting into software development is pretty low nowadays, so you don't need to learn theoretical stuff like computer principles or compiler fundamentals like kids who come from traditional computer science backgrounds. So relying solely on software development skills won't lead to much success in the long run. You need some soft skills, like being proficient in a certain business domain or having a higher level of software aesthetic.
coreyp_1
This resonates with me, but what helped was to come to a realization.

I love coding. I love low level coding. But I haven't written any code in the last 6 months, roughly.

But I don't feel empty or dissatisfied at all. My realization for myself is that I love solving problems and designing elegant solutions. Using AI, I still have to do that. I still have to make choices about how I want specified modules to interoperate. I know the big picture, and can catch when the AI is taking a shortcut.

I realized that it is all still low level design in my eyes. And I enjoy doing it, whether with my own hands, or with AI.

The amazing thing with AI, though, is that it has allowed me to explore so many things much quicker than I could before. It's still my design, my ideas, and even my poor choices that I have to deal with, but it reduces the boiler plate, so to speak.

That, and it has allowed me to explore more than I ever dreamed that I would be able experience.

m0nit0r
Coding since coding agents are doing such a decent job has become more orchestrating stuff. Less handy work in the code base but more oversight and "management". In the end you still need the skills to understand how software works and what to look out for. AI needs hardcore guidelines from someone who knows what they are talking about.