Why Glue Work Is Still Harmful in the AI Era
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A writer on Hacker News argued that after LLMs take on most coding, glue work has become even less important to companies than it was in the 2010s: AI agents let a single engineer take on projects that previously required a small team, reducing coordination work. The author also warned that communication with other engineers should not be handed off to LLMs, and that having people interface with your Claude Opus instance is the fastest way to ruin colleague relationships.
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- Hacker News AIGlue work is still harmful in the age of AI
The author argues that glue work is now less important to companies than in the 2010s, citing four reasons: AI reduces coordination needs, engineers require less "careful handling" after ZIRP ended, fewer juniors are hired, and write-only reports can be automated with LLMs. He warns that communicating with other engineers should not be delegated to an LLM, and advises avoiding becoming "the glue work person" while doing small amounts of tactical glue work.
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