Being A 1.5-10x Developer

Just launched: Build Your Own Personal Assistant Agent<br>Being A 1.5-10x Developer<br>May 26, 2026 | 4 min read<br>AIEngineeringProductivity

A lot of people seem convinced that the point of AI coding is to write low-quality code as fast as possible. Spew out barely-passable slop, open massive PRs, and merge them unvetted. Ship it!

But the thing is, LLMs are very flexible. And you can use them just as effectively to write high-quality code more slowly.

This statement seems completely obvious to me at this point, and I almost didn’t want to write this post for that reason. But there seem to be enough people convinced that LLMs are only good as slop cannons that it’s worth making the opposite case.

— Using AI to write better code more slowly

Much like Nolan, I’d like to make the case against LLMs as slop cannons. Just because there are developers out there shipping 10,000 lines of code a day doesn’t mean you have to be one of them. LLMs are a very flexible tool that you can mold how you see fit. If you prefer writing more high-quality code to shipping 10,000 lines of code a day, then you already have the tools to do so!

If I had to describe my AI code writing process in one sentence it would be “vacillating between going really fast and slowing the heck down”. I love using AI to build prototypes that validate my ideas at 10x the speed, but I can also build solid infrastructure at 1.5x the speed. I operate at every speed in between too. Some features are twice as fast, some fixes are five times faster. The trend line though is positive, which means a big boon to productivity.

People have trouble internalizing compounding growth, so I often reach for this chart to make it concrete. A 1% improvement every day adds up to nearly 3,800% over a year — which means you don’t have to make every change a 10x leap to end up with 10x returns. Instead you can be excited about writing better code you can build upon, rather than more code that will eventually slow you down.

I consider this a more balanced approach to AI coding. Sometimes it feels like Codex is omnipotent, but right now it’s more useful to treat AI coding assistants as a potent pair programmer. A really smart developer who proposes great ideas, accepts my pushback, and fixes issues much faster than I would. I suspect we’ll reach a point where it makes less sense for me to be this involved, but even if Codex never becomes more than a wildly useful coworker, we’re all in for better software development experiences.

Stop Focusing On Speed

Speed is the main benefit everyone gets excited about with AI coding, but it’s far from the only one:

Prototyping at lightning speed lets me validate or invalidate ideas much faster. People tend to think this means building features more quickly, but I also prototype API changes, speculative bug fixes, and even internal tooling I’d never otherwise justify building. I build a lot of internal tools these days that never would have existed, and the results compound.

If I explain myself well enough, I don’t have to be stuck at a computer. I can take a walk and think more while Codex is writing code for me. Making forward progress used to mean sitting in my IDE in a state of flow, but with Codex Mobile I can check in on how things are going from anywhere.

My whole style of working has changed. I “code” in bursts by prompting, and while AI is writing code I get to focus on product design, support, and growth. These are all important parts of making a successful product, and I could never give them enough attention back when coding demanded my full focus.

I can contribute to products I normally wouldn’t have the time or expertise to build from scratch. This weekend I submitted a pull request to Bluesky that adds the option to double tap your profile icon to switch accounts, much like Instagram or Threads. I’ve never written a line of React Native, but I’m a good enough developer to know what good code looks like. That qualifies me to make Bluesky a little better by guiding an agent — and to even improve on Codex’s initial implementation to make sure the code is good.

Quality > Quantity

There’s a lot more I love about AI coding, but that’s a post of its own. The most important thing to remember is this: you can use AI to write 10x the code, or, if you care about code the way I do, you can use it to write better code. You can solve hard problems, improve your app’s performance, or debug tricky race conditions.

Being a 10x developer doesn’t mean following the latest trend on X. Being a 10x developer means leveraging the tools around you to become the best version of yourself, however you see fit.<br>About The Author

Joe Fabisevich is an indie developer who spends his days building Plinky, and a teacher who helps people leverage AI with unique workshops where you learn by building your own idea.

He shares his writing about engineering, design, development, AI, and anything you need to build a company —...