Totally agree. AI amplifies what's there already
"don't even bother to check it."
I have to admit it gets really exhausting to review the AI output. It comes in so fast and more and more it's quite good. So it's very tempting to get more relaxed about reviews. I guess in a sense manual coding gave you some mental downtime while writing code. With AI you don't get that anymore. It's always full speed.
The problem is that humans are badly suited to remaining attentive in these circumstances. Take the combination of “overwhelming amount of output”, “99% of the time it does the right thing in the right way” and we are basically wired for vigilance to flag.
It makes me admire people like Linus Thorvalds. His job is mostly to read code and stay on top of the contributions of many people. I don’t think I could do that.
It’s easier to remain vigilant when a large part of the contributions are bad or incorrect than when it’s a very small percentage.
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There should be people whose sole job is to do PR reviews.
The PR reviewers delegate work to programmers, the programmers delegate the work to AI; then, the programmer reviews the AIs work, and the PR reviewer reviews the PR.
Those "architects" or other idea people should be reviewing the PRs and keeping an eye on the whole system. That's their job, right?
Usually the programmers are responsible for their own work, and then also reviewing their own work, which is just weird. The context switching is very draining.
The problem is that PR reviews are viewed as a side-task, and it's a thankless job. The guy who implemented the fancy new feature will be personally thanked by the CEO and taken out to lunch, the PR reviewer who pointed out in the original PR that it would corrupt the database gets a "nice catch" comment, and that's it.
This is one of those cases where companies unfortunately misalign their interests with yours.
You will never get a promotion for reviewing other people's pull requests.
You mean you will never get a promotion for rejecting other people's bad pull requests.
Can I get a promotion for asking AI to write code for me and the putting it into a PR?
The answer is always "if you are chummy with the manager and make them feel good". Any accomplishments made is secondary as long as it can be spun to satisfy this condition.
Totally. Skip the PR and show it to a higher up manager.
when I'm working as an architect, my job is to put myself out of a job by teaching everyone to be an architect - for themselves and for each other. that admixture of high and low level concerns breeds really effective teams. with the side bonus that everyone has a chance to grow into larger responsibilities.
"my job is to put myself out of a job by teaching everyone to be an architect"
I used to do that but it's a dangerous game. If you don't make sure to still be very visible to management further up, you end up with a stalled career or being laid off.