Tag: AI

As I get older, I find that time is the most valuable commodity I have. It’s the one thing that I need more of, but I can’t get it. Even if I find more efficient ways of doing things, it seems there’s an endless list of things at work and on the ranch that need to be done.

It seems to be the same for most of my friends in other jobs, whether in medicine, law, or any other position; they’re often overloaded with more work than they can get done in a week. Arguably, it’s not all important work, as sometimes we might tackle a task, only to have our boss throw the work away or delay the project. That’s annoying, but I also understand priorities change.

Mostly, I understand people ask for a lot of things they don’t really need, but because it’s easy to ask. Over time, they may forget about their request or realize they don’t need it anymore. So I tend to do the work I’m asked and then not worry about if it’s really needed.

However, that’s not what this piece is about. Let’s say that you have a useful AI Assistant that can truly produce better code, faster than you can. You trust the coding agent (under your guidance), and it saves you time. Let’s say that this agent reduces your coding load by 30%. Forget the issues with the agent stealing your joy.

A number of studies show that the average developer only codes around 2-3 hours a day. Some might say 4, but that’s just 50% of your workday (I hope). If you save 30% of that time, then you’re saving 1:20 a day, 6:40 a week. That’s a nice chunk of change, but what will you do with the time? Or maybe more importantly, what will your boss expect you to do?

A lot of management might see 30% and expect you to get 30% more coding done (of 40 hours), asking for 12 hours more of work. I see that a lot as management somehow things that developers work 8 hours a day and should get 8 hours worth of code written. When that doesn’t happen, and it never does, they often schedule more meetings to check on your progress. Hence to 2-3 hours worth of actual work.

The smarter group of managers might think that you could get 5 hours more work done (30% of 3/day), and the really smart group of managers might use that time to improve the coding skills of the staff. That’s more than a 10% allocation of time and if focused, could help developers write more efficient code (especially SQL), improve their secure coding knowledge, and perhaps even tackle some technical debt with refactoring of existing problem areas. Maybe you could learn to better judge AI-produced code.

I know that many people are skeptical of AI assistance in coding. I think it’s a tricky thing, but even if the AI doesn’t produce production code, but allows me to conduct a lot of quick experiments that can prove out a hypothesis, I think it can help developers become more productive.

If they learn to use it as a tool and management doesn’t expect it will turn every developer into a 10x (or even 2x) engineer.

If you had more time, what would you do in your work day?

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

Take a moment and think about how much work you do each day. If you write code, how much time do you actually spend writing code around meetings, admin work, and other tasks. If you manage systems and develop scripts, how often do you get to work on a script, change it, upgrade it, or add a new feature? I bet it’s a minority of time for most of you. Studies show that many developers spend only an hour or two writing code each day. I would guess it’s lower for sysadmins or DBAs who incorporate coding into their jobs.

Now think about how much you enjoy each thing you do. I assume meetings aren’t the most exciting thing you work on, nor is updating a document for others to read. When I wrote code as the main part of my job, solving the problem, trying different algorithms, experimenting with enhancements, those were the fun times.

Now imagine having a competent AI assistant that works with you. What if the AI does the coding and leaves you with the meetings and writing of specifications? It could happen. While it might be fun to direct a team of agents, you still need to understand software architecture and development, but you might not want to get away from writing code.

As more developers start to use AI agents to get work done, there is rising dissatisfaction among developers because the AI can do quite a bit of the coding, which is the thing that most developers love. The AI doesn’t help with any of the other busy work, though AI agents might do a better job of ensuring docs match committed code (or released code).

What I’d really like is an AI that would take my place at meetings. Maybe do a report for me or take a summary back, get some action items for me. An AI agent could handle things that wouldn’t necessarily be fun for me. Not all tedious things, but it could free up more time for coding.

However, that’s not what the GenAI agents are being positioned to do. They’re stealing the joyous part of development. At least, if managers have their way, that’s the place they’ll use GenAI most.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.