Phil Reynolds

I find it very funny when anyone feels confident that they've figured out agentic programming, even funnier when they're trying to teach others how to do it. I've been working on OpenCode since May of last year and I still have days (like yesterday) where I'm not even sure any of this is a good idea lol I end up landing on "yes, these models are an incredible tool" but it's still all very confusing, lots of tangled thoughts and emotions and realities. I badly miss the mundane coding tasks that broke up my days/weeks, the ones where you put on the headphones and just bang out 600 lines of code. But, no question, replacing those hours of my time with a few minutes of waiting on an agent is a boost and worth being excited about, despite the mixed emotions. Then there's the distance that can creep in between you and the codebase if you start getting apathetic. I think it's pretty common at this point to make even small changes by prompting the models. It's less friction than finding the relevant code and making the change yourself. And less friction seems to win, must be some law of the universe or some shit. When most or all of your interactions with a codebase start flowing through the models, you start to lose track of where things live, which abstractions/components are carrying the weight, etc. It's a scary feeling to wake up and realizing you can't even reliably @<mention> a precise file for a change you want to make, and you have to get more vague, leaning harder on the model. It all creeps up on you, there's an undeniable dopamine hit from using these things, and the resulting come down is predictable, like coming off a sugar high. On the positive side, it's really nice seeing other devs go through the same cycles, knowing we're all in this together and we'll ultimately figure it out.