I work at a company with over 700 employees. And there are tons of use cases where a simple CRUD app is sufficient. Or where glue code needs to be written / changed for legacy systems. Or where an OS system like Camunda is deployed and needs to be configured, workflows developed, etc
The reality of companies out there is much simpler than the challenges of a startup that needs to build systems that are state of the art, scale for millions of users, etc There are companies out there that make millions, in areas you‘ve never heard of, and their core business does not depend on software development best practices.
In our company we have an IT team with the median age of fifty, team members who never have developed software, just maintain systems, delegate hard work to expensive consultants.
Now in that setting someone coming from a startup background is like someone coming from the future. I feel like a wizard who can solve problems in days, instead of weeks or months waiting for a consultant to solve.
Fair enough. There are valid use cases for vibe coding scripts and simple CRUD apps, which current AI tools are fairly competent at producing.
The thing is that those don't typically take weeks and months to build with conventional tooling. And I find it hard to believe that all you're doing is this type of integration work. But I suppose there are companies that need such roles.
> There are companies out there that make millions, in areas you‘ve never heard of, and their core business does not depend on software development best practices.
That is true.
I do think that this cowboy coding approach is doing these companies a disservice, especially where tech is not their main product. It's only creating more operational risk that on-call and support staff have to deal with, and producing more technical debt that some poor soul will inevitably have to resolve one day. That is, it all appears to work until one edge case out of thousands brings down the entire system. Which could all be mitigated, if not avoided, by taking the time to understand the system and by following standard software development processes, even if it does take longer to implement.
What you describe isn't new. This approach has existed long before the current wave of AI tooling. But AI tools make the problem worse by making it easier to ship code quickly without following any software development practices that ensure the software is robust and reliable.
So, it's great that you're enjoying these tools. But I would suggest you adopt a more measured approach and work closely with those senior and junior engineers, instead of feeling like a wizard from the future.
> I do think that this cowboy coding approach is doing these companies a disservice, especially where tech is not their main product. It's only creating more operational risk
I absolutely agree with you! Alas, management in those companies (I have worked for some) does not understand the necessity of solid software engineering work. It’s way above their head. That’s why they have systems that constantly cause problems. And then expensive consultants are called in to fix symptoms, not solve root causes. Shocking to see that in lots of otherwise very successful companies.
Who's reviewing all the code you are churning out with ai? If everyone is used to maintaining not developing software it doesn't sound like they'd be best suited to have to review lots of complex pull requests.
It sounds like you are moving very fast and probably have people just clicking "approve".
Good luck for the future to who ever owns your company!
When I setup systems, I thoroughly document them, test them, develop them according to architectural best practices. My AI assisted code generation is lightyears ahead of what I see in companies I have worked for. The best they —the companies—-do is hire expensive consultants. Who sell them preconfigured system. And when you look into those systems you won’t believe your eyes either. Because you instantly realise that those devs do not know much about architectural patterns, aout systems design, about software development best practices. Yet they sell their systems as well, because they offer a niche product where they have only a handful competitors.
In that setting someone with solid software engineering background using AI to solve problems is like a wizard from the team‘s perspective.
When I worked for startups I was constantly panicking to miss the latest tech trends, and I feared that I would be not marketable in case I didn’t catch up. But in mature companies things work much slower. They work with decades old technology. In that setting not the latest tech counts but being able to solve problems, with whatever means you can.
I don’t review every single line that AI generates. I glance over the files to see if they meet my standards, prompt it to rewrite this or that portion, when necessary. Or change it myself.
Writing code is the most tedious part, not reviewing.
Personally I've had mixed experience when I let Sonnet 3.7 document my (and its) code and write commit messages, for some wip stuff it's alright but it soon gets out of hand and because it doesn't really have a direct view in my mind it ends up documenting what it sees instead of the intention behind it, which is totally fair but eh.
So yeah, mileage varies and agentic tools usually spit out more code and redundant comments than I'd like to review. I'm still waiting for a company to develop some sanity check for this somehow but snapshot testing and manual review aren't enough sadly.
The reality of companies out there is much simpler than the challenges of a startup that needs to build systems that are state of the art, scale for millions of users, etc There are companies out there that make millions, in areas you‘ve never heard of, and their core business does not depend on software development best practices.
In our company we have an IT team with the median age of fifty, team members who never have developed software, just maintain systems, delegate hard work to expensive consultants.
Now in that setting someone coming from a startup background is like someone coming from the future. I feel like a wizard who can solve problems in days, instead of weeks or months waiting for a consultant to solve.