It's great to see even the most hardcore developers who are not fond of change being happy with the latest releases related to AI-assisted development.
My workflow now boils down to 2 tools really - leap.new to go from 0 to 1 because it also generates the backend code w/ infra + deployment and then I pick it up in Zed/Claude Code and continue working on it.
1.So far, it is great if you know what you want, and tell it exactly how you want it, and AI can help you on that (basically intern level work).
2. When you are in a new area, but you don't want to dive deep and just want something quick and it is not core of the app/service.
But, if you are experienced, you can see how AI can mess things up pretty quickly, hence for me it has been best used to 'fill in clear and well defined functionality' at peacemeal. Basically it is best for small bites, then large chunks.
I agree. But it's also a mindset game. Experienced devs often approach AI with preconceptions that limit its utility - pride in "craftsmanship, control issues, and perfectionism can prevent seeing where AI truly shines. I've found letting
go of those instincts and treating AI as a thought partner rather than just a code generator be super useful. The psychological aspects of how we interact with these tools might be as important as the technical ones.
Bunch of comments online also reflect how there's a lot of "butthurt" developers shutting things down with a closed mind - focusing only on the negatives, and not letting the positives go through.
I sound a bit philosophical but I hope I'm getting my point across.
> pride in "craftsmanship, control issues, and perfectionism
sounds like you can't code for shit. guidelines, standards, and formatting have developed for a reason. the reason is: less bugs and maintainability. you sound like the average cocky junior to me.
> pride in "craftsmanship, control issues, and perfectionism
I mean, do we really want our code base to not follow a coding standard? Or are network code not to consider failure or transactional issues? I feel like all of these traits are hallmarks of good senior engineers. Really good ones learn to let go a little but no senior is going to watch a dev automated or otherwise, circumvent six layers of architecture by blasting in a static accessor or smth.
Craftsmanship, control issues and perfectionism, tend to exist for readability, to limit entropy and scope, so one can be more certain of the consequences of a chunk of code. So to consider them a problem is a weird take to me.
You have to watch Claude Code like a hawk. Because it's inconsistent. It will cheat, give up, change directions, and not make it clear to you that is what it's doing.
So, while it's not "junior" in capabilities, it is definitely "junior" in terms of your need as a "senior" to thoroughly review everything it does.
What I mean is that OP is presenting a story, not a scientifically proven methods for mental health improvement. And perhaps some things worked for them. This is different from scientifically proven methods. Although useful, it is certainly not a given that the methods will work for you, it could even be so that they will have a negative effect on the majority of people. Still, there is value in these pieces, everyone is different, hence social science being difficult. One could use them to experiment, harm is unlikely to be caused. But, reading to much about self-help and just not getting started with it for whatever reason can also make you feel bad. It starts with acceptance imho. Anyway, just be careful with pieces like this is my advice. It worked for one person, OP. And there are a trillion more pieces with either similar of very different advice.
I'm happy to see that you are able to strike a good balance between those two worlds and, in an ideal world, that should be the ideal outcome, rather than going back into the stone age.
I'm not the person you asked, but alienation was a major theme for early 20th century sociologists who studied the ugly effects of urbanization in those days.
Alienation means the breakdown of social ties and the fragmentation of identity. Durkheim published theories on this stuff well over 100 years ago. He also studied suicide.
I agree that we're probably seeing a continuation of trends that began long ago and that are tied in with capitalism, urbanization, and the decline of religion.
I mean this not to imply a structural sense of our society, only the shock that his prediction is insanely accurate given the time and technology separating us.
Yep, that's true. I can only give a philosophical reply to this; we feel as we are in an utopia when utilizing tech to distract us from the negative thoughts/feelings that we are experiencing!
Why not digistopia? (digi-topia to me really sounds like digital utopia, which I'm all for... erm, actually I think a real utopia needs to acknowledge the real world, so it can't be fully digital)
I, as many of you, work in tech. And the last 3 years were mentally horrible. The constant information bombardment, working remotely and rarely leaving the apartment, isolation, and so on and so forth, have left me scarred.
If anyone feels the same way, I hope that the pieces I'm shipping are helpful as I truly want to help a million people on overcoming the 21st century pandemic.
For those who are curious, I describe Digitopia as: an idealized but ultimately isolating and detached state induced by excessive digital interaction.
Thank you for writing this! I often feel the same way.
My relationship with Slack kind of summarizes things neatly. I enjoy using Slack and it is far and away my preferred method of communication with work colleagues and even work friends. At the same time, seeing slack messages or even the number of slack messages waiting for me is anxiety inducing. There is a false sense of urgency. Zoom is worse, on basically all counts. But Slack is a great idea and tool that is somehow awful for my mental health. I don't know what the solution is. I guess unplug and take a walk. No one has ever complained that I don't reply to a Slack message fast enough.
