Elizabeth Ayer1d ago

I'm a big fan of this explanation/rant from Andrew Murphy.

Taken as a whole, there are many bottlenecks in a corporate software development process. The "load-bearing" calendar is a great example!

Speeding up code creation just increases pressure on the bottleneck, which decreases throughput.

https://andrewmurphy.io/blog/if-you-thought-the-speed-of-writing-code-was-your-problem-you-have-bigger-problems

If you thought the speed of writing code was your problem - you have bigger problems | Debugging Leadership

AI coding tools are optimising the wrong thing and nobody wants to hear it. Writing code was already fast. The bottleneck is everything else: unclear requirements, review queues, terrified deploy cultures, and an org chart that needs six meetings to decide what colour the button should be.

Debugging Leadership
Show threadElizabeth Ayer1d ago

So why are we still trying to optimize code creation?

For decades, people with power - executives and product people - have been shifting the blame for strategy failures and poor market insight onto development "productivity."

This AI moment should be incredibly clarifying. Like, it should be the reductio ad absurdum of a productivity-centric approach.

Show threadElizabeth Ayer1d ago

The fact that we are *not* seeing wildly improving software all around us tells us everything we need to know.

There is no flourishing of value delivery, new product categories, more needs being satisfied better. It’s the opposite.

All we are seeing is decreases in quality, because 👏 code 👏 creation 👏 is not 👏 the problem.

Show threadDavid Pollak19h ago
@elizayer @hbons give me some time. I’ve only been using LLMs to code for a few months… so far I’ve only managed to write an operating system https://codeberg.org/dpp/meows
A new scripting language https://codeberg.org/dpp/meowscript
An eBPF to FPGA converter https://codeberg.org/dpp/lycaon
And some misc utils
But this is weekend work
meows

A vibe coded OS that is a blend of microkernel and Erlang

Codeberg.org
Show threadCedric Rossi7h ago

@dpp and somehow, all these boatloads of incredible new projects (not picking specifically at yours) managed to have approximatively 0 impact. (I’m talking about positive impact of course, the negative ones are well documented).
But as long as you have fun helping destroying society, you do you! Otherwise, maybe pick up playing ukulele or something?

@elizayer @hbons

Show threadDavid Pollak4h ago

@ced @elizayer @hbons we are posting via a tool that was developed by an imperial government to ensure communications could survive after a nuclear war.

We are using a toxic form of communication (oh… yeah… mastodon is toxic light) that has destroyed the trust in institutions and is the proximate cause of the rise of authoritarian regimes

Yes, I use tools that have negative externalities.

I use these tools to explore and create.

You don’t like it, ignore me.

Show threadCedric Rossi4h ago

@dpp

“The world is bad already, so let’s make it worse” 👏
Have fun !

@elizayer @hbons

Show threadHylke Bons 🥜4h ago
@ced @dpp @elizayer I don't think AI use is productive or in our (the working class) interest. but let's be nice and people who do decide to use it for whatever reason are not bad people.
Show threadCedric Rossi

@hbons true, and not implying people are bad, just maybe not thinking about the consequences, or not caring about them (in which case I see no reason to interact with them anymore)

@dpp @elizayer

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