[captain_coffee]

> in 2026 devs write 90% of the code using natural language, through an LLM.

That is literally not true - is the author speaking about what he personally sees at his specific workplace(s)?

If 90% of the code at any given company is LLM-generated that is either a doomed company or a company doesn't write any relevant code to begin with.

I literally cannot imagine a serious company in which that is a viable scenario.

[PaulHoule]

I can believe LLM generated after being cut up into small slices that are carefully reviewed.

But to have 20 copies of Claude Code running simultaneously and the code works so well you don't need testers == high on your own supply.

[justarandomname]

Sadly, I'm seeing a LOT of this kinda of usage. So much so, I know a couple people that brag about how many they have running at time same time, pretty much all the time.

[s1mplicissimus]

> high on your own supply.

reminds me of a bar owner who died of liver failure. people said he himself was his best customer

[20k]

Its insane to me seeing this kind of thing. I write 100% of my code by hand. Of developers I know, they write >95% of code by hand

>We are entering an era where the Brain of the application (the orchestration of models, the decision-making) might remain in Python due to its rich AI ecosystem, but the Muscle, the API servers, the data ingestion pipelines, the sidecars, will inevitably move to Go and Rust. The friction of adopting these languages has collapsed, while the cost of not adopting them (in AWS bills and carbon footprint) is rising.

This is the most silicon valley brain thing I've seen for a while

We're entering an era where I continue to write applications in C++ like I've always done because its the right choice for the job, except I might evaluate AI as an autocomplete assistant at some point. Code quality and my understanding of that code remains high, which lets me deliver at a much faster pace than someone spamming llm agent orchestration, and debuggability remains excellent

90% of code written by devs is not written by AI. If this is true for you, try a job where you produce something of value instead of some random silicon valley startup

[ravenstine]

That depends on how you define "doomed". Most screwed up companies don't go belly up overnight. They get sold as fixer-uppers and passed between bigger firms and given different names until, finally, it is sold for parts. The way this works is that all parties behave as if the company is the opposite of doomed. It's in a sense correct. The situation hardly seems doomed if everyone has enough time to make their money and split before the company's final death twitches cannot be denied, in which case the company accomplished its mission. That of course doesn't mean everything from its codebase to its leadership didn't lack excellence the whole time.

[bartread]

Yeah, I would say it's pretty variable, and it depends on what you mean by the word write.

I've recently joined a startup whose stack is Ruby on Rails + PostgreSQL. Whilst I've used PostgreSQL, and am extremely familiar with relational databases (especially SQL Server), I've never been a Rubyist - never written a line of Ruby until very recently in fact - and certainly don't know Rails, although the MVC architecture and the way projects are structured feels very comfortable.

We have what I'll describe as a prototype that I am in the process of reworking into a production app by fixing bugs, and making some pretty substantial functional improvements.

I would say, out of the gate, 90%+ of the code I'm merging is initially written by an LLM for which I'm writing prompts... because I don't know Ruby or Rails (although I'm picking them up fast), and rather than scratch my head and spend a lot of time going down a Google and Stackoverflow black hole, it's just easier to tell the LLM what I want. But, of course, I tell it what I want like the software engineer I am, so I keep it on a short leash where everything is quite tightly specified, including what I'm looking for in terms of structure and architectural concerns.

Then the code is fettled by me to a greater or lesser extent. Then I push and PR, and let Copilot review the code. Any good suggestions it makes I usually allow it to either commit directly or raise a PR for. I will often ask it to write automated tests for me. Once it's PRed everything, I then both review and test its code and, if it's good, merge into my PR, before running through our pipeline and merging everything.

Is this quicker?

Hmm.

It might not be quicker than an experienced Rails developer would make progress, but it's certainly a lot quicker than I - a very inexperienced Rails developer - would make progress unaided, and that's quite an important value-add in itself.

But yeah, if you look at it from a certain perspective, an LLM writes 90% of my code, but the reality is rather more nuanced, and so it's probably more like 50 - 70% that remains that way after I've got my grubby mitts on it.

[WD-42]

This is exactly how I use AI as well in codebases and languages I’m not familiar with.

I’m a bit concerned we might be losing something without the google and stack overflow rabbit holes, and that’s the context surrounding the answer. Without digging through docs you don’t see what else is there. Without the comments on the SO answer you might miss some caveats.

So while I’m faster than I would have been, I can’t help but wonder if I’m actually stunting my learning curve and might end up slower in the long term.

[captain_coffee]

So let me get this straight - you vibe code, make what you consider as necessary changes to the LLM-generated code, create PRs that get to be reviewed by another AI tool (Copilot), potentially make changes based on Copilot's suggestions and at the end, when you are satisfied with that particular PR you merge it yourself without having any other human reviewing it and then continue to the next PR.

Did I get that right or did I miss anything?

[AstroBen]

This seems like a really short-sighted view. 6 months from now you'll be much more inexperienced than if you just went through the initial struggle (with an LLM's help!)

[happytoexplain]

It seems like it may be true, but pointlessly true. I.e. yes, 90% of code is probably written by LLMs now - but that high number is because there is such a gigantic volume of garbage being generated.

[monero-xmr]

The problem is not coding (for me). The problem is thinking for a long time about what to code, then the execution is merely the side effect of my thinking. The LLM has helped me execute faster. Is not a silver bullet, and I do review the outputs carefully. But I won’t pretend it hasn’t made me much more productive.

[ekidd]

If there's a human in then loop, actually reading the plans and generated code, then it's possible to have 90% of me code generated by an LLM and maintain reasonable quality.

[neya]

In my experience, most of the NodeJS shops do this. Because, LLMs on the surface seemingly are good at giving you a quick solution for JS code. Whether it's a real solution or patchwork is up for debate, but, for most mid-level to junior devs, it's good enough to get the job done. Now, multiply this workflow 10x for 10 employees. That's how you end up with a complete rewrite and hiring a senior consultant.

[liveoneggs]

they just have to keep repeating it