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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 24, 2026, 11:43 AM
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
Likewise, with GenAI coding, if you over-commit to code up front, you have *already* created technical debt, in the first hour of a project! But something that has gotten really good with top-end models is planning modes. I write my spec, then I have it poke at it, then we go into an extensive planning phase. I ask it to ask me all the questions it can think of; even my "good spec" can inspire 15-20 follow-ups. No code early. ↵
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 24, 2026, 11:44 AM
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
This is a model that works especially well, and what I'm also teaching to my students. We do high-level planning, then we go over all the data structuring (eg, what tables, what indices, what cross-references, why aren't those two tables one, why isn't this table two, etc.), types in the code, intended key function signatures, etc., etc. Planning doc iteratively improved to 20-30 items. THEN you "let it cook". ↵
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 24, 2026, 11:46 AM
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
So the same GenAI that can lead to slop code can actually lead to *really good specs*. And as a result, much higher-quality software. Certainly a combination of me, a planning document, the agent's memory, and a checklist/todo list can accomplish orders of magnitude more than I can alone, while producing much richer and maybe even (*shudder*) higher-quality software than me alone. ↵
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 24, 2026, 11:47 AM
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
But please, let's not pretend that the average or even super-average programmer ever wrote great specs. Or, even more so, *maintained* them (one of the oldest and most persistent problems in SE). Once past textbook problems, specs are complicated, messy, contested, incomplete, inconsistent, and wrong. A good GenAI model will actually *help you find those issues*. If you have the patience to correct them, you get vastly better SE.
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Dan Frumindif@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 24, 2026, 11:59 AM
@shriramk @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif interesting to hear about your experience, and it does confirm what i have seen: the main component is still located between the keyboard and the chair
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Marco Devillerssprout@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 26, 2026, 7:24 PM
@shriramk @dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif I can see generative AI generating code for an underspecified spec ('I want a game'), but I am not convinced it will generate correct code for a full spec. I find it more likely that it'll hallucinate some best approximation. But I am ready to be proven otherwise.
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 26, 2026, 7:31 PM
@sprout @dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
Come on, it's 2026, are we still doing this?
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Marco Devillerssprout@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 26, 2026, 8:07 PM
@shriramk @dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif Sure we are, we need evidence. It's only 2026, and we're still in the early days of agentic AI. But I am ready to be surprised.
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 26, 2026, 11:00 PM
@sprout
Okay, feel free to believe that.
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
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Marco Devillerssprout@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 26, 2026, 11:11 PM
@shriramk @dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif Hey! I don't need your permission to believe anything? Anyway, we'll find out.
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Shriram Krishnamurthishriramk@mastodon.social
Sep 26, 2026, 11:56 PM
@sprout
It's called a figure of speech. Even an LLM would understand that.
@dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif
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Marco Devillerssprout@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 26, 2026, 11:57 PM
@shriramk @dif @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif I am not an LLM.
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Dan Frumindif@mathstodon.xyz
Sep 28, 2026, 12:38 PM
@sprout @shriramk @sandorspruit @nicoformanek @spdegabrielle @dimitriselectif that's exactly what an LLM would say :)
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