To turn the conversation around, he asked for our unpopular opinions about AI-assisted coding.
To avoid burying mine in a comment, here they are:
#1. Use AI as a calculator.
Only useful if you know what you're doing. Otherwise, it's just a cool toy.
#2. Don't let AI touch code directly.
That's my go-to rule for coding with AI.
Unproductive? Maybe. But it forces me to decompose problems and validates AI-generated code.
#3. Use AI for opposite tasks.
This is my most recent rule:
If I write code, AI reviews it. If AI generates it, I review it.
According to a recent Sonar survey, only 48% of respondents always check AI-assisted code before committing. #yolo, right? By reviewing, I'm already in the top 50%.
#4. AI is like a semi-autonomous car.
You trust it to steer, but you never take your hand off the wheel. Otherwise, AI could be a sloppy junior coder with bad memory.
AI alone won't make you a great coder. It only amplifies the skills you already have. That's why I wrote Street-Smart Coding —because you need more than syntax to stand out.