







My impression is that AI coding is on a "pick two of three" triangle: scope, ship speed, and correctness. Small tools are (speed + correctness) fast prototypes are (speed + scope) and big projects are (scope + correctness). Every project that tries to be all three degrades to "fast prototype."
Aug 5, 2026 at 5:09 PM
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Ars spoke to several software devs about AI and found enthusiasm tempered by unease.

AI Code
As AI Coding Agents write more code, it's more important than ever that we're intentional about the code it writes.
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I’m tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature in how we think about them.


Agent Skills
AI coding agents take the shortest path to done, which usually means skipping the specs, tests, and reviews that make software reliable at scale. Agent Skill...

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A lot of people seem convinced that the point of AI coding is to write low-quality code as fast as possible. Spew out barely-passable slop, open massive PRs, and merge them unvetted. Ship it! But t…
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The newest AI tools are accelerating basic research and scaring the general public. But many people are simply using them as toys.
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The productivity numbers look great. AI coding tools are everywhere.
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What AI coding costs you | Tom Wojcik
What's the effect of the prolonged AI usage among coders and is it tracked correctly, if it all?

AI is Creating Peak Software, Media is the Best Analogy
Let's learn more about the world's most important manufactured product. Meaningful insight, timely analysis, and an occasional investment idea.

AI | 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
84% of respondents are using or planning to use AI tools in their development process, an increase over last year (76%). This year we can see 51% of professional developers use AI tools daily.

AI for coding works so well because code has a bunch of built in self checks that allow an agent trained with reinforcement learning to find what works and what doesn’t. This will not so easily translate to eg machine design until we have way better simulations or much more “embodied AI” (robots).
My impression is that AI coding is on a "pick two of three" triangle: scope, ship speed, and correctness. Small tools are (speed + correctness) fast prototypes are (speed + scope) and big projects are (scope + correctness). Every project that tries to be all three degrades to "fast prototype."