[krystofee]

I’m experiencing something similar. We have a codebase of about 150k lines of backend code. On one hand, I feel significantly more productive - perhaps 400% more efficient when it comes to actually writing code. I can iterate on the same feature multiple times, refining it until it’s perfect.

However, the challenge has shifted to code review. I now spend the vast majority of my time reading code rather than writing it. You really need to build strong code-reading muscles. My process has become: read, scrap it, rewrite it, read again… and repeat until it’s done. This approach produces good results for me.

The issue is that not everyone has the same discipline to produce well-crafted code when using AI assistance. Many developers are satisfied once the code simply works. Since I review everything manually, I often discover issues that weren’t even mentioned. During reviews, I try to visualize the entire codebase and internalize everything to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the system’s scope.

[dm3]

I'm very surprised you find this workflow more efficient than just writing the code. I find constructing the mental model of the solution and how it fits into existing system and codebase to be 90% of effort, then actually writing the code is 10%. Admittedly, I don't have to write any boilerplate due to the problem domain and tech choices. Coding agents definitely help with the last 10% and also all the adjacent work - one-off scripts where I don't care about code quality.

[scuff3d]

I doubt it actually is. All the extra effort it takes to make the AI do something useful on non trivial tasks is going to end up being a wash in terms of productivity, if not a net negative. But it feels more productive because of how fast the AI can iterate.

And you get to pay some big corporation for the privilege.

[layer8]

> Many developers are satisfied once the code simply works.

In the general case, the only way to convince oneself that the code truly works is to reason through it, as testing only tests particular data points for particular properties. Hence, “simply works” is more like “appears to work for the cases I tried out”.