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lazy_afternoonsHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

We have 100k DAU for a consumer crud app

… We have 100k DAU for a consumer crud app. We built and maintain everything in-house with 3 engineers. This would have taken atleast 10 engineers 3-4 years back. We don't have a bug list. We are not "vibe coding" , 2 of us understand almost all of the codebase. We have processes to make sure the core integrity of codebase doesn't go for a toss. None has touched the editor in months. Even the product folks can raise a PR for small config changes from slack. Velocity is through the roof and code quality is as good if not better than when we write by hand. We refactor almost A LOT more than before because we can afford to. I love it.

Original discussionAsk HN: How is AI-assisted coding going for you professionally?616 source comments · at import
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svaraHN

Comment sections on AI threads tend to split into "we're all cooked" and "AI is useless." I'd like to cut through the noise and learn what's actually working and what isn't, from concrete experience. If you've recently used AI tools for professional coding work, tell us about it. What tools did you use? What worked well and why? What challenges did you hit, and how (if at all) did you solve them? Please share enough context (stack, project type, team size, experience level) for others to learn from your experience. The goal is to build a grounded picture of where AI-assisted development actually stands in March 2026, without the hot air.

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karmasimidaHN

HN is in denial, which is understandable AI is already better at understanding code than 99.99% of human, the more I use it the more I believe this is true. It can draw connections between dots far quicker and accurate than a human could ever be. At very least, AI is going to be a must even as a co-supervisor to your project What in doubt right now, is whether AI can manage a codebase fully autonomously without bring it down, which I doubt it can at the moment. Be it 4.6 or 5.4, they always, almost always, add code instead of removing them, the sheer complexity will explode at certain point. But that is my assessment for models TODAY, who knows where they will end up being in 6 months. AI is entering the recursive self improvement phase, that roadmap is laying in front our eyes, what it can and would unlock is truly, truly unpredictable. I am both intrigued and scared.

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bdangubicHN

100k DAU - you’ll lose 98% within 6-9 months once 1-2 person team clones it as sells it for 10% of what you are charging

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make_it_sureHN

most developers are still in denial. Many are afraid of job loss or the corporations are forcing AI without clear scopes and proper implementation, which results in a mess. Small teams for small-medium products are productive as hell with AI.

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