P(ai)r Programming

Over the last 2 months with Claude Pro I've reached the point where I work with AI the way I work with humans. I'm working on a fairly non-standard app - it's got a long living foreground service and interacts with the device from that service. And I'm surprised how helpful it has been for this non-standard use case.

Simple tasks

First, for simple tasks, I tell the AI what to do and ask it explicitly not to write code. We first review what it's going to do before letting it code. It takes us about 2 to 3 iterations, and then it codes. For most tasks, it's really good.

The reviewing started as a way to work around Claude's tight token limit, but now it's just a really good tool to make sure Claude and I are on the same page.

This is exactly what I do at work with my team. Every meeting is us writing high level bullets of what they will work on, and once we're on the same page, I just review their code - which usually takes them 1-2 days to come back with.

With AI, that 1-2 days reduces to minutes.

Designing architecture

Second, it's scary how much of the "thinking" and designing part it does. It's no longer just me, the human, telling the AI what to do and then it writes code - I actively bounce ideas the way I do with humans.

I start by giving it the context and problem statement, and tell it to give me its ideas, without writing any code.

It usually gives me 2/6 alternatives, and they're usually fairly involved. I then choose what feels right to me, and ask it to go in that direction, with a simpler solution.

Debugging

Third, I debug with it. When I don't know why there's a bug, I upload relevant files, and tell it where I think things are off. And then we do the usual back and forth of our hypotheses. Just the way I do with humans.

The AI is essentially my constant companion to do pair programming with. So, if you thought it's just junior engs getting laid off, think again. Human software engineers don't go entirely out of the loop just yet, but it's hard to make a case there'll be many of us needed in the future.