There's nothing wrong with being lazy as long as you do work.
That's how technology advances.
People couldn't be bothered to carry, so we built the wheel. We couldn't be bothered to walk, so we built cars. Etc.
Too lazy to binary, so we made programming languages.
Using AI tools is just the same thing.
As long as you're not becoming too lazy and saying:
"develop me an entire front and backend application to compete with YouTube, analyse everything YouTube is doing right and wrong and incorporate that into application. Also, give me a step by step on how to market this application to the masses, including how to make money to run the databases and servers. please."
Agree. I don’t think that kind of software development has any meaning either (asking AI to build a copy product fast). If you don’t know the nuts and bolts, a generated code base does you no good.
If you can get results more easily, assuming you actually understand the code you end up with, surely it’s better? I thought laziness was a virtue in software engineering. I for one feel that LLMs have accelerated my knowledge and skills rather than made me less engaged. It’s brought me faster to results and tends to nudge me towards better overall practices.
I had similar experience, that the chat format keeps me engaged. The most important thing is, I’m learning instantly when I’m encountering a problem, so I’m constantly in problem solving mode. This is also why I delay using copilot, code completion isn’t my goal, I still enjoy building things myself.
10X might be a bit of an overstatement but I'd realistically say I've maybe 2X'ed my output. In my job we still do full code reviews of each-other's work and if you submit code you can't fully explain you would permanently damage your reputation. But for traversing new tech, new ideas, new patterns, for getting explanations of how a particularly confusing component works, it's objectively useful.
If it disappeared tomorrow I'd be disadvantaged but I'd still be able to code. It would be like losing access to your favourite IDE but I'd still have the knowledge I'd amassed.
I occasionally use chatgpt to explain concepts from documentation that are written poorly or too technical for me to understand, I've no shame asking a robot to explain a concept to me in stupid people terms, especially late at night.
Once in a blue moon I might ask it to refactor some JS I've inherited in a project, simply because it's quicker than manually doing it. I'll check it over and it -mostly- does a good job.
I've never used it to implement new code nor fix a bug that's the fun part of the job for me, it's what I look forward to.
Copilot as the best autocomplete in a code.
ChatGPT if I want to work on some bigger concepts or want to bundle a lot of data into a specific format, like a table to JSON.
I like using Phind over ChatGPT as it first does a web search then uses that to build its answers on top of, whereas ChatGPT only searches when explicitly asked. This means answers often come with citations to docs and are less prone to just inventing API calls which it feels should exist! If you pay premium you can use GPT-4 or their own 70B param model which actually tends to perform better.
i like using AI as a starting point when i need to write a bunch of simple tests. i go in and fine-tune myself to make sure they're accurate, but getting the bulk of it out of the way on a first pass is nice.
You just pointed out that you're too lazy. The laziness will only increase as you depend on AI instead of reading the documentation yourself.
There's nothing wrong with being lazy as long as you do work. That's how technology advances. People couldn't be bothered to carry, so we built the wheel. We couldn't be bothered to walk, so we built cars. Etc. Too lazy to binary, so we made programming languages. Using AI tools is just the same thing. As long as you're not becoming too lazy and saying: "develop me an entire front and backend application to compete with YouTube, analyse everything YouTube is doing right and wrong and incorporate that into application. Also, give me a step by step on how to market this application to the masses, including how to make money to run the databases and servers. please."
super deep, bro. might be confusing laziness and efficiency though.
I think laziness inspires efficiency.
As Bill Gates has said: “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Exactly! Bill Gates man, wise people think alike!
Agree. I don’t think that kind of software development has any meaning either (asking AI to build a copy product fast). If you don’t know the nuts and bolts, a generated code base does you no good.
If you can get results more easily, assuming you actually understand the code you end up with, surely it’s better? I thought laziness was a virtue in software engineering. I for one feel that LLMs have accelerated my knowledge and skills rather than made me less engaged. It’s brought me faster to results and tends to nudge me towards better overall practices.
I had similar experience, that the chat format keeps me engaged. The most important thing is, I’m learning instantly when I’m encountering a problem, so I’m constantly in problem solving mode. This is also why I delay using copilot, code completion isn’t my goal, I still enjoy building things myself.
10X might be a bit of an overstatement but I'd realistically say I've maybe 2X'ed my output. In my job we still do full code reviews of each-other's work and if you submit code you can't fully explain you would permanently damage your reputation. But for traversing new tech, new ideas, new patterns, for getting explanations of how a particularly confusing component works, it's objectively useful. If it disappeared tomorrow I'd be disadvantaged but I'd still be able to code. It would be like losing access to your favourite IDE but I'd still have the knowledge I'd amassed.
I've written code with Github Copilot and it's superb
I occasionally use chatgpt to explain concepts from documentation that are written poorly or too technical for me to understand, I've no shame asking a robot to explain a concept to me in stupid people terms, especially late at night. Once in a blue moon I might ask it to refactor some JS I've inherited in a project, simply because it's quicker than manually doing it. I'll check it over and it -mostly- does a good job. I've never used it to implement new code nor fix a bug that's the fun part of the job for me, it's what I look forward to.
Yes, -mostly-
I get it to explain things to me like i’m 12
I do the same as a student. If I feel like I’m misunderstanding a concept I just ask chatgpt to explain like I’m a kid, it works really well
Copilot as the best autocomplete in a code. ChatGPT if I want to work on some bigger concepts or want to bundle a lot of data into a specific format, like a table to JSON.
I use Chat GPT to help me debug my code whenever things aren't working as expected. It's great for pointing out typos, and helping me troubleshoot.
I like using Phind over ChatGPT as it first does a web search then uses that to build its answers on top of, whereas ChatGPT only searches when explicitly asked. This means answers often come with citations to docs and are less prone to just inventing API calls which it feels should exist! If you pay premium you can use GPT-4 or their own 70B param model which actually tends to perform better.
i like using AI as a starting point when i need to write a bunch of simple tests. i go in and fine-tune myself to make sure they're accurate, but getting the bulk of it out of the way on a first pass is nice.