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AI coders think they’re 20% faster — but they’re actually 19% slower (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

@dgerard What fascinates me is *why* coders who use LLMs think they're more productive. Is the complexity of their prompt interaction misleading them as to how effective the outputs it results in are? Or something else?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

What fascinates me is why coders who use LLMs think they’re more productive.

As @[email protected] wrote, LLM usage has been compared to gambling addiction: https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/06/05/generative-ai-runs-on-gambling-addiction-just-one-more-prompt-bro/

I wonder to what extent this might explain this phenomenon. Many gambling addicts aren't fully aware of their losses, either, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

The reward mechanism in the brain is triggered when you bet. I think it also triggers a second time when you do win, but I'm not sure. So, yeah, sometimes the LLM spits out something good, and your brain rewards you already when you ask it. Hence, you probably do feel better, because you constantly get hits dopamine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

Most people want to do the least possible work with the least possible effort and AI is the vehicle for that. They say whatever words make AI sound good. There's no reason to take their words at face value.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Here's a random guess. They are thinking less, so time seems to go by quicker. Think about how long 2 hours of calculus homework seems vs 2 hours sitting on the beach.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This is such a wild example to me because sitting at beach is extremely boring and takes forever whereas doing calculus is at least engaging so time flies reasonably quick.

Like when I think what takes the longest in my life I don't think "those times when I'm actively solving problems", I think "those times I sit in a waiting room at the doctors with nothing to do" or "commuting, ditto".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

I know what you mean. If I'm absorbed in something I find interesting time flies. Solving integrals is not one those for me.