No, AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive
August 18, 2025
A few months ago I went through a bit of a mental slump. I’ve always been confident of my abilities as an engineer, but I couldn’t help but feel like my skills were falling hopelessly behind as I scrolled places like LinkedIn and Twitter. If these sources were to be believed, engineering had moved on from the medieval practice of typing code into an editor. Real engineers were now 10-100x more productive than I was. I’m writing this hoping to help others who are feeling similar anxieties.
It’s fair to say we’re reasonably positive about the impact of large language models on software engineering. But that’s not to say we don’t think there isn’t a lot of ludicrous hype around the uses of these technologies as well. As we’ve recently quoted Cal Newport: “No one knows anything.” Which probably slightly overstates the case. But it’s certainly true that we’re still very much stumbling around, working out how best to work with these technologies.
Here’s a more sceptical take on some of the more overblown claims about how much more productive generative AI might be making developers. It’s detailed and thoughtful, and I think we need more of that when it comes to this whole area of practise.
