IDK, I never fancied using local emulators for stuff like the cloud, as others have pointed out, for UT you can mock cloud services, and for localdevelopment you should intercat with the cloud.
Hiding bad system design behind another docker container will not push you to the right direction, but the opposite.
In addition this is def vide-coded (50k loc in one week) so I don't see how can one trust this even.
Tools like this one are for local-first development, obviously you still need "real" staging environments. Deploying changes to staging takes significant time due to cloudformation being horribly slow. This is to move faster so you have tighter feedback loops for infra changes.
Agent assisted coding is just vibe-coding in disguise.
You still only glance over the code "just so it won't be considered vibe-coding", but at the end of the day, if you invest a proper amount of time reading and reasoning with the generated code - than it would take the exact same time, as if you would have wrote it by hand.
By not going through this process, you loose intent, familiarity, and opinions.
TBH, I have found AI addictive, you use it for the first time, and its incredible. You get a nice kick of dopamine. This kick of dopamine, is decreasing with every win you get. What once felt incredible, is just another prompt today.
Those things don't excite you any more.
Plus, the fact that you no longer exercise your brain at work any more.
Plus, the constant feeling of FOMO.
What felt incredible was getting the setup and prompting right and then producing reasonable working code at 50x human speed. And you're right, that doesn't excite after a while.
But I've found my way to what, for me, is a more durable and substantial source of satisfaction, if not excitement, and that is value. Excuse the cliche, but its true.
My life has been filled with little utilities that I've been meaning to put together for years but never found the time. My homelab is full of various little applications that I use, that are backed up and managed properly. My home automation does more than it ever did, and my cabin in the countryside is monitored and adaptive to conditions to a whole new degree of sophistication. I have scripts and workflows to deal with a fairly significant administrative load - filing and accounting is largely automated, and I have a decent approximation of an always up-to-date accountant and lawyer on hand. Paper letters and PDFs are processed like its nothing.
Does all the code that was written at machine-speed to achieve these things thrill me? No, that's the new normal. Is the fact that I'm clawing back time, making my Earthly affairs orderly in a whole new way, and breathing software-life into my surroundings without any cloud or big-tech encroachment thrilling? Yes, sometimes - but more importantly it's satisfying and calming.
As far as using my brain - I devote as much of my cognitive energy to these things as I ever have, but now with far more to show for it. As the agents work for me, I try to learn and validate everything they do, and I'm the one stitching it all into a big cohesive picture. Like directing a film. And this is a new feeling.
I can only speak for myself of course, but injecting software into all those processes to me seems like a source of stress more than something calming.
The best technology is the one we don't even need to use.
Many of programmers became programmers because they find the idea of programming fascinating, probably in their middle school days. And then they went to be professionals. Then they burned out and if they were lucky, transited to management.
Of course not everyone is like that, but you can't say it isn't common, right.
If what once felt incredible is just another prompt today, what is incredible today? Addictive personalities usually double down to get a bigger dopamine kick - that's why they stay addicted. So I don't think you truly found it addictive in the conventional sense of the term. Also excercising the brain has been optional in software for quite a while tbh.
I think the randomness is addicting. While writing a prompt often doesn't result in the perfect outcome, it very well could. Pressing the "prompt lever" (again and again), waiting for the result to show up looks a lot like gambling.
Yeah if you want to keep your edge you have to find other ways to work your programming brain.
But as far as output - we all have different reasons for enjoying software development but for me it's more making something useful and less in the coding itself. AI makes the fun parts more fun and the less fun parts almost invisible (at small scale).
We'll all have to wrestle with this going forward.
I wish.
I have just witnessed a engineer on our (small) team push a 4k line change to prod at the middle of the night.
His message was: "lets merge and check it after".
AI can help good team become better, but for sure it will make bad teams worse.
I don’t really see how this is an AI issue. We use AI all the time for code generation but if you put this on my desk with specific instructions to be light on review and it’s not a joke, I’m probably checking to see if you’re still on probation because that’s an attitude that’s incompatible with making good software.
People with this kind of attitude existed long before AI and will continue to exist.
Totally, and im not saying otherwise.
I'm saying that it takes the same amount of work to become a good engineering team even with AI.
But it takes exponentially less work to bacome worse team. If they say C++ makes it much more easier to shut yourself in the foot, in a similar manner LLMs are hard to aim. If your team can aim properly, you are going to hit more targets more quickly, but if and when you miss, the entire team is in wheelchairs.
Try to comply to an infosec standard. Typically one of many compliance controls are "every change must be reviewed and approved by another person". So no one can push on their own.
I know folks tend to frown on security compliances, but if you honestly implement and maintain most of the controls in there, not just to get a certificate -- it really make a lot of sense and improves security/clarity/risks.
There’s a weird thing going on - I can see value in using LLM’s to put something together so you can see it rather than investing time to do it properly initially.
Thats the gist of it.
I've been trying to tell the founders that if we invest 2x more time on proper planning we will get 20x more outcomes in return.
It's as simple as that, its not about just writing stuff and pushing, its about understanding the boundaries of what you make, how it talks with other stuff, and what are the compromises you are willing to take in return for faster speeds.
reply