{"id":378507,"date":"2026-01-19T14:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378507\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:47:07","slug":"10-things-i-learned-from-burning-myself-out-with-ai-coding-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378507\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever used a 3D printer, you may recall the wondrous feeling when you first printed something you could have never sculpted or built yourself. Download a model file, load some plastic filament, push a button, and almost like magic, a three-dimensional object appears. But the result isn\u2019t polished and ready for mass production, and creating a novel shape requires more skills than just pushing a button. Interestingly, today\u2019s AI coding agents<\/a> feel much the same way.<\/p>\n

Since November, I have used Claude Code<\/a> and Claude Opus 4.5 through a personal Claude Max account to extensively experiment with AI-assisted software development (I have also used OpenAI\u2019s Codex<\/a> in a similar way, though not as frequently). Fifty projects later, I\u2019ll be frank: I have not had this much fun with a computer since I learned BASIC on my Apple II Plus<\/a> when I was 9 years old. This opinion comes not as an endorsement but as personal experience: I voluntarily undertook this project, and I paid out of pocket for both OpenAI and Anthropic\u2019s premium AI plans.<\/p>\n

Throughout my life, I have dabbled in programming as a utilitarian coder, writing small tools or scripts when needed. In my web development career, I wrote some small tools from scratch, but I primarily modified other people\u2019s code for my needs. Since 1990, I\u2019ve programmed in BASIC, C, Visual Basic, PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, Ruby, MUSHcode, and some others. I am not an expert in any of these languages\u2014I learned just enough to get the job done. I have developed my own hobby games over the years using BASIC, Torque Game Engine, and Godot, so I have some idea of what makes a good architecture for a modular program that can be expanded over time.<\/p>\n


\n \"In
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

In December, I used Claude Code to create a multiplayer online clone of Katamari Damacy called \u201cChristmas Roll-Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, I used Claude Code to create a multiplayer online clone of Katamari Damacy called \u201cChristmas Roll-Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Benj Edwards<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Claude Code, Codex, and Google\u2019s Gemini CLI<\/a>, can seemingly perform software miracles on a small scale. They can spit out flashy prototypes of simple applications, user interfaces, and even games, but only as long as they borrow patterns from their training data. Much like a 3D printer, doing production-level work takes far more effort. Creating durable production code, managing a complex project, or crafting something truly novel still requires experience, patience, and skill beyond what today\u2019s AI agents can provide on their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever used a 3D printer, you may recall the wondrous feeling when you first printed something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-378507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}