How I Code With LLMs These Days

The evolution of AI coding assistants from simple tab completion tools in 2021 to the more powerful models of 2025 has significantly impacted software development practices, though skepticism remains among some developers due to past experiences with free, less reliable versions. The author emphasizes the importance of choosing robust AI models, like Claude, and developing skills to effectively utilize these tools, as they can vary in effectiveness depending on the type of code being written. The article suggests that AI assistants are particularly useful for tasks with rapid feedback cycles and encourages a dynamic, iterative development process that involves building context and making incremental code changes. The future of programming may shift towards higher abstraction levels, focusing more on defining goals and experiments rather than writing code, despite current technical and systematic challenges.