Ask HN: Developers still enjoying development after AI?

by aavcion 3/11/2026, 7:24 PMwith 5 comments

If you were a developer who enjoyed the craft before AI became so prevalent, how have your feelings changed after seeing AI do a lot of the ground work for you? Do you still enjoy it?

by Rochuson 3/12/2026, 12:39 AM

Sure. I could delegate the boring stuff to an agent and focus on what I'm interested in. It would make me more productive, if I could e.g. just let the agent generate an optimizer and code generator for any required target for my intermediate language. I have not yet found a system though which can do that without significant effort from my side; currently I don't seem to spare time; I just spend it differently (controlling the agent and getting aroung its weaknesses).

by baCiston 3/11/2026, 7:53 PM

To be honest, I’ve started enjoying my favorite job — programming — even more. Elegant algorithmic solutions and clean architecture always brought me joy. Now there’s an additional one: reviewing and fixing code generated by AI. It occasionally makes me feel a bit smarter.

by volf_on 3/11/2026, 7:28 PM

No.

the amount of coworkers who have said "<ai tool> said X,Y,Z". Then they make basic mistakes with what they need to do and it becomes my problem.

by maxalbarelloon 3/11/2026, 7:47 PM

There has never been a better time to be a developer! Less mechanical debugging, more creative thinking.

by PaulHouleon 3/11/2026, 7:28 PM

I'm loving it.