How our leadership "saved" the company by banning the tools that worked
Hello, Earth. I'm transmitting from planet Astra. I'd like to share a small problem with you. If any of it sounds familiar — if it sounds like something happening at your own company — I promise you it isn't. This happened on Astra. Any resemblance is a coincidence of the cosmos. Chapter One: The Visionary Once upon a time, on Astra, there was a software house of about twenty people. It had a…
On the planet Astra, a software company faced challenges after its leader banned external AI tools. Initially, using AI as a "buddy" helped the company develop software efficiently. However, when "vibe coding" emerged, it led to a shift where each developer worked on separate projects with a subscription, expecting faster completion times. But, large projects with unclear requirements and developers at different career stages slowed down progress despite the initial speed boost.
The company then adopted local LLMs, leading to a ban on external AI. The leader purchased a powerful machine to run local models for all developers, expecting faster work. However, arithmetic revealed the setup was insufficient. One machine could not handle twenty developers working daily, as tasks required more than simple file edits. The workflow relied on planning, implementing, and testing, which the local AI could not handle effectively.
Developers found that external AI was better for planning and reasoning across codebases, while the local AI excelled in small tasks. Despite this, using the company's AI too much was deemed inefficient, leading to a rule that discouraged excessive use of local AI. This setup resulted in the continued reliance on external AI for major tasks and the local AI for minor ones, causing inefficiencies and a contradiction in the leadership's narrative.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
