alt Hacker NewsA study last year concluded that while AI coding feels faster it actually isn't. At least in mid 2025.
Replies
KronisLV • today at 10:38 AM
The comments explain the nuance there pretty well:
> This study had 16 participants, with a mix of previous exposure to AI tools - 56% of them had never used Cursor before, and the study was mainly about Cursor.
> My intuition here is that this study mainly demonstrated that the learning curve on AI-assisted development is high enough that asking developers to bake it into their existing workflows reduces their performance while they climb that learing curve.
Giving people a tool, that have no experience with it, and expecting them to be productive feels... odd?
fragmede • today at 10:32 AM
6 months ago in AI development is too old to be relevant.
That's a good point. Myself is the easiest person to fool.
I knocked together a quick analysis of my commit graphs going back several years, if you're interested: https://mccormick.cx/gh/
My average leading up to 2023 was around 2k commits per year. 2023 I started using ChatGPT and I hit my highest commits so far that year at 2,600. 2024 I moved to a different country, which broke my productivity. I started using aider at the end of 2024 and in 2025 I again hit my highest commits ever at 2,900. This year is looking pretty solid.
From this it looks to me like I'm at least 1.4x more productive than before.
As a freelancer I have to track issues closed and hours pretty closely so I can give estimates and updates to clients. My baseline was always "two issues closed per working day". These are issues I create myself (full stack, self-managed freelancer) so the average granularity has stayed roughly constant.
This morning I closed 8 issues on a client project. I estimate I am averaging around 4 issues per working day these days. I know this because I have to actually close the issues each day. So on that metric my productivity has roughly doubled.
I believe those studies for sure. I think there is nuance to using these tools well, and I think a lot of people are going backwards and introducing more bugs than progress through vibe coding. I do not think I have gone backwards, and the metrics I have available seem to agree with that assessment.