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@robotistry I spent a few weeks filling in for an engineering lead while he was on vacation, and reviewing AI-generated code coming from the team was EXHAUSTING.
Developers were being pressured to do more, so they couldn't spend the time getting the deep understanding of the code and solutions, and the onus landed on reviewers to try and figure it out. I just kept throwing it back at the developers to tell them to explain it better. It caused tension and they still had to do the tedious work.
"AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It"
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice,” or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.
Harvard Business Review (hbr.org)
The title is an oversimplification (it can reduce some work), but overall the points really resonated with me.
Humans are not machines. We need to pause. We benefit from thoughtful reflection. A deep understanding of our projects that comes from being hands-on is valuable. We have bad days when taking time to work on things that are gentler to our brain is important, even if AI can do it faster.
Otherwise we burn out.
