The magic analogy works really well here. That bit about how Teller spent unimaginable hours perfecting tricks feels spot on when thinking about software polish. I've noticed the same tension where AI lets me prototype super fast but then I end up spending twice as long figuring out why somthing breaks in edge cases. The whole "cajole it and yell at it in all caps" part made me laugh becuase it's so accurate.
That's what loses some of the magic for me as much as I love using claude code. I still have to be directly involved in sanding edges and screenshotting like crazy to make it behave exactly as I want.
Yeah, that's the thing - you still have to be just as pedantic and picky as before. But, it does make it possible for more people to do it, I think. And as someone who was on that line - who couldn't make a very nice thing before, and can...maybeee kindaaa...do it now, there is something still pretty cool about that.
Love the idea that “magic” is invisible endurance rather than novelty. One thing I’m still thinking about , though, is that AI doesn’t just increase temptation …: it seems it genuinely removes a lot of the grind !
So that means it shifts the work upward: less time on mechanical toil, more time on judgment, restraint, and deciding what not to build as much as what to build.
I definitely think AI shifts the work, though I'm not so sure it moves it upward, exactly. There still is a lot of toil, it's just toil telling a thing to fix the margins rather than toil of parsing the css for margins yourself. Or to put it in more grandiose Silicon Valley terms, it feels like it makes everyone Steve Jobs - he still seemed to toil obsessively over details, but didn't do the work himself. So like, it takes our hands of the controls of the machine, for sure, but it's still in the weeds.
The magic analogy works really well here. That bit about how Teller spent unimaginable hours perfecting tricks feels spot on when thinking about software polish. I've noticed the same tension where AI lets me prototype super fast but then I end up spending twice as long figuring out why somthing breaks in edge cases. The whole "cajole it and yell at it in all caps" part made me laugh becuase it's so accurate.
yeah, that's the thing - "think we ought to clean this up? No, move to another floor!" https://youtu.be/P-Hz6QIbCt0?si=G1PWXXRnz9Ry-Yrh&t=124
Liked this article and magic comparison, really thoughtful piece.
That's what loses some of the magic for me as much as I love using claude code. I still have to be directly involved in sanding edges and screenshotting like crazy to make it behave exactly as I want.
Yeah, that's the thing - you still have to be just as pedantic and picky as before. But, it does make it possible for more people to do it, I think. And as someone who was on that line - who couldn't make a very nice thing before, and can...maybeee kindaaa...do it now, there is something still pretty cool about that.
Love the idea that “magic” is invisible endurance rather than novelty. One thing I’m still thinking about , though, is that AI doesn’t just increase temptation …: it seems it genuinely removes a lot of the grind !
So that means it shifts the work upward: less time on mechanical toil, more time on judgment, restraint, and deciding what not to build as much as what to build.
thanks! and yeah, it's a good quote.
I definitely think AI shifts the work, though I'm not so sure it moves it upward, exactly. There still is a lot of toil, it's just toil telling a thing to fix the margins rather than toil of parsing the css for margins yourself. Or to put it in more grandiose Silicon Valley terms, it feels like it makes everyone Steve Jobs - he still seemed to toil obsessively over details, but didn't do the work himself. So like, it takes our hands of the controls of the machine, for sure, but it's still in the weeds.
Great stuff 🙌