I’ve been experimenting with AI-assisted programming, namely “vibe coding” with Github Copilot in VS Code.

1. I completely agree with the recent observation that AI-assistance makes you feel faster, but actually go slower. There were moments where it definitely made me slower. I couldn’t predict Copilot’s behavior, but a simple request could make it hang for what felt like 30 seconds. Other times, much more complicated requests were resolved immediately. Maybe, it requires a more reliable experiment with a locally installed AI assistant. ⌚

2. Do I regret getting slower in those moments? Definitely, no! AI still saved me mental capacity on writing boilerplate, the capacity I used for creative decisions. 🔥

3. It requires discipline to interleave code behavior changes with code structure changes. AI messiness quickly gets out of hand. At some point, the code is so messy that it’s more tempting to close your eyes and keep adding features. Instead, I forced myself to review the code from time to time, and ask Copilot to do structural changes – extract methods, reduce duplication, remove CSS styles from JS code. 🧠

4. Knowing the technical domain (Chrome Extensions) immensely helped to formulate requests more precisely. There was a moment when Copilot couldn’t suggest a good solution, so I had to look at my old hand-crafted code to remember how I solved it myself. 😑

Interestingly, this last discovery is what Kent Beck has been advocating for in his blog and in his “Tidy First?” book. So, my assumption is that AI-assisted coding will require the same skills as ordinary disciplined programming.