When AI Over-Engineers: Why 'Dumb' Copy-Paste is Sometimes the Smartest Solution
As developers, we are trained to abhor repetition. The DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself ) is drilled into us from day one. When we see three files that need the same update, our instinct is to ...
Source: DEV Community
As developers, we are trained to abhor repetition. The DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself ) is drilled into us from day one. When we see three files that need the same update, our instinct is to write a script, create a component, or build an abstraction. Recently, while working on DevCrate — a suite of privacy-first, browser-based developer tools — I encountered a situation where this instinct, amplified by an AI assistant, led to a cascading series of failures. The solution turned out to be the exact opposite of what we are taught: a literal, manual copy-paste. This is a story about the over-engineering bias inherent in AI agents, and why sometimes the "dumbest" solution is actually the smartest. The Problem: Visual Inconsistencies DevCrate consists of over a dozen individual tool pages (JSON formatter, JWT debugger, REST client, etc.). During a recent audit, we noticed visual inconsistencies in the hero sections of three specific pages: the CSV tool, the JWT Builder, and the HTTP
