It’s easy to get AI to write bad code. Turns out you still need coding skills to get AI to write good code. But those who have figured it out can crank out working systems at a shocking pace.

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mmaunder 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Agreed 100%. I'd add that it's the knowledge of architecture and scaling that you got from writing all that good code, shipping it, and then having to scale it. It gives you the vocabulary and broad and deep knowledge base to innovate at lightning speeds and shocking levels of complexity.

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serious_angel 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I am sorry for asking, but... is there guide even on how to "figure it out"? Otherwise, how are you so sure about it?

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wmeredith 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Right here: https://codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/the-ai-ready-so...

This series of articles is gold.

Unsurprisingly, writing good software with AI follows the same principles as writing it without AI. Keep scopes small. Ship, refactor, optimize, and write tests as you go.

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pornel 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When a new technology emerges we typically see some people who embrace it and "figure it out".

Electronic synthesisers went from "it's a piano, but expensive and sounds worse" to every weird preset creating a whole new genre of electronic music.

So it seems plausible, like Claude's code, that our complaints about unmaintainable code are from trying to use it like a piano, and the rave kids will find a better use for it.

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mmaunder 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's actually a great question. Truth be told the best way right now is to grab Codex CLI or Claude CLI (I strongly prefer Codex, but Claude has its fans), and just start. Immediately. Then go hard for a few months and you'll develop the skills you need.

A few tips for a quickstart:

Give yourself permission to play.

Understand basic concepts like context window, compaction, tokens, chain of thought and reasoning, and so on. Use AI to teach you this stuff, and read every blog post OpenAI and Anthropic put out and research what you don't understand.

Pick a hard coding problem in Python or Typescript and take a leap of faith and ask the agent to code it for you.

My favorite phrase when planning is: "Don't change anything. Just tell me.". Save this as a tmux shortcut and use it at the end of every prompt when planning something out.

Use markdown .md docs to create a planning doc and keep chatting to the agent about it and have it update the plan until you're super happy, always using the magic phrase "Don't change anything. Just tell me." (I should get myself a patent on that little number. Best trick I know)

Every time you see an anti-AI post, just move on. It's lazy people making lazy assumptions. Approach agentic coding with a sense of love, excitement, optimism, and take massive leaps of faith and you'll be very very surprised at what you find.

Best of luck Serious Angel.

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2god3 5 hours ago | parent [-]

You're not really answering the question are you?

Your answer is to play with it. Cool. But why cant you and others put together a proper guide lol? It cant be that hard.

Go ahead and do it - it'll challenge the Anti-AI posters you are referencing. I and others want to see that debate.

	▲	appcustodian2 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Don't worry we'll all be taking the Claude certification courses soon enough
	▲	mmaunder 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Ah - I know! Seriously I know. There's such a bad need for this right now. The problem is that the folks who are great at agentic coding are coding their asses off 16 to 20 hours a day and don't have a minute they want to spend on writing guides because of the opportunity cost. One of the rare resources I found recently was the OpenClaw guys interview on Lex. He drops a few bangers that are really valuable and will save you having to spend a long time figuring it out. Also there's a very strong disincentive for anyone to write right now because we're competing against the noise and the slop in the space. So best to just shut the fuck up and create as fast as we can, and let the outcome speak for itself. You're going to see a lot more products like OpenClaw where the pace of innovation is rapid, and the author freely admits that they're coding agentically and not writing a single line. I think the advantage that Peter has (openclaw author) is that he has enough money and success to not give a fuck about what people say re him writing purely agentically, so he's been very open about it which has been great for others who are considering doing the same. But if you have a software engineering career or are a public figure with something to lose, you tend to STFU if you're doing pure agentic coding on a project. But that'll change. Probably over the next few months. OpenClaw broke the ice.
	▲	oofbey 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Here’s some practical tips: Start small. Figure out what it (whatever tool you’re using) can do reliably at a quality level you’re comfortable with. Try other tools. There are tons. If it doesn’t get it right with the first prompt, iterate. Refine. Keep at it until you get there. When you have seen some pattern work, do that a bunch. It won’t always work. Write rules / prompts / skills to try to get it to avoid making the mistakes you see. Keep doing this for a while and you’ll get into a groove. Then try taking on bigger chunks of work at a time. Break apart a problem the same way you’d do it yourself first. Write a framework first. Build hello world. Write tests. Build the happy path. Add features. Don’t forget to make it write lots of tests. And run them. It’ll be lazy if you let it, so don’t let it. Each architectural step is not just a single prompt but a conversation with the output being a commit or a PR. Also, use specs or plans heavily. Have a conversation with it about what you’re trying to do and different ways to do it. Their bias is to just code first and ask questions later. Fight that. Make it write a spec doc first and read it carefully. Tell it “don’t code anything but first ask me clarifying questions about the problem.” Works wonders. As for convincing the AI haters they’re wrong? I seriously do. Not. Care. They’ll catch up. Or be out of a job. Not my problem.

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appcustodian2 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How do you figure anything out? You go use it, a lot.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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