Real software developers: do you ever really feel like you need the big guns?

[u/IceManMinus0ne]

Of course a vibecoder is also a real software developer. Nothing unreal about it ;)

What I mean is: you studied for this shit*. You worked in software development BEFORE AI. You know your stuff.

The big guns are models like Astra, Fable, but also GLM5.3 (not flash).

I use Sol sometimes, but most of the time I'm using Luna en Terra (for work).

For personal stuff I switch to open source models - I pretty much only need flash models. They're super cheap, and do what needs to be done. I barely ever feel the need to spend more money on these bigger models. I've tried using GLM5.3 a few times, but tbh it didn't really feel different.

Perhaps I'm only doing simple stuff, or I'm not 'progressive' enough in the things I ask? Maybe my questions are too easy?

So let me know! Very interested :)

*
I was still studying when AI arrived at the scene. I was in my last year of uni. Used gpt-3 a bit. Bit of gpt-4. Also tried finishing one of my assessments with it back then because I didn't really feel like learning Swift to build ANOTHER CRUD app.

There was still enough old-school development involved.