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[return to "Measuring the impact of AI on experienced open-source developer productivity"]
1. AvAn12+Bn[view] [source] 2025-07-10 18:50:21
>>dheera+(OP)
N = 16 developers. Is this enough to draw any meaningful conclusions?
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2. sarche+Hp[view] [source] 2025-07-10 19:04:01
>>AvAn12+Bn
That depends on the size of the effect you’re trying to measure. If cursor provides a 5x, 10x, or 100x productivity boost as many people are claiming, you’d expect to see that in a sample size of 16 unless there’s something seriously wrong with your sample selection.

If you are looking for a 0.1% increase in productivity, then 16 is too small.

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3. biophy+mw[view] [source] 2025-07-10 19:52:33
>>sarche+Hp
Well it depends on the variance of the random variable itself. You're right that with big, obvious effects, a larger n is less "necessary". I could see individuals having very different "productivities", especially when the idea is flattened down to completion time.
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4. sarche+SM2[view] [source] 2025-07-11 15:45:23
>>biophy+mw
Individuals do have very different productivities, but they are measuring the productivity difference across a single individual.
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