So, I'm someone who takes great pride in quality work. Always have, always will. I use AI to help uphold that commitment to myself, with learning prompts, self-review skills, quizzing myself to understand the code, etc. My goal is to continue my work and use AI to level up myself and others.
I know there's talk around about AI changing how we work. I've seen people compare the use of AI in coding to "assembling an Ikea chair vs. being a woodworking craftsmen". I get the idea. You're supposed to no longer have the craftsman's eye to the work. AI removes you from a certain level of detail, a certain level of artisanal quality.
However, I fear people are mixing up not reading their code closely after setting up guard rails, tests, well written prompts, and strict workflows... with not reading their code after a lazy prompt, not bothering to even run it, and expecting their PR reviewer to deal with their 10k+ line ai slop grenade.
AI is amplifying people's work. Unfortunately, AI is also amplifying the people who never really cared in the first place. We've all worked with them. The devs who just sort of coast. In the before times, they might make a PR and, when probed, it's revealed they didn't run it locally or didn't bother testing it, etc. Back then, you could push back (hopefully) and they would begrudgingly, you know, do their job. Luckily, they moved at a human pace and were usually a mere annoyance.
With AI, that person is an utter menace that now outputs 10 times more crap with absolutely no regard for other workers. I'm not even talking about an "artisanal" level of quality, but just basic levels of responsibility in your work. Making sure your own code runs. That it actually completes the ticket. That it doesn't actively degrade the product. I'm talking the outright lowest bar for being an engineer.
I simply do not understand it. I truly cannot conceive being okay outputting that kind of work and looking in the mirror and being okay with myself. Now, unfortunately, these types of people are completely overwhelming the other type of dev, who has a modicum of care about quality in their work.
I'll be 100% honest that I haven't run into that at O'Reilly and I thank the gods for it, because I would have no patience. But I'm friends with devs who do deal with it, who are at their wits end on how to handle the firehose of crap being shot at them every day. And honestly, this post is hardly going to convince people who are lazy and selfish enough to produce that kind of work in the first place.
I suppose I'm writing this because, if you're dealing with this, I see you and I empathize deeply. You aren't wrong in being frustrated. This is a difficult time to have any sort of standards for your work and you aren't wrong for wanting to uphold them. I hope the AI hype can slow down enough to embrace that quality is still a desirable aspect of code at some level. Which seems insane to have to state out loud, but here we are.
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