Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

news.ycombinator.com

261–270 of 491 posts

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#261
I've found success using the following process:

1. get the LLM to generate a spec from the code (the spec is your new source code). Take your time here, make sure it is correct. Split out implementation details unless they are critical to the business logic.

2. Using the spec, begin crafting an ARCHITECTURE.md -- you put all your non-critical implementation details here. If you need to track requirements, require the LLM to reference the paragraph number(s) of the spec file as it writes the architectural spec. Take your time here as well (this is the second layer of your new source code).

3. Create a high level TODO from the architecture doc.

4. Create a mid-level TODO from the architecture doc (you'll know if this is necessary, perhaps chunk work up by function, feature, or architectural layer).

5. Create a granular level TODO where each task is very tight in scope (write this function, create a translator for this JSON de-serializer to create the app-level model for this object, etc.)

Then let a model go to town.

In the mean-time, you should also require testing. If you have the opportunity, you should have an LLM inspect, spec, and write comprehensive tests for the old code on the external API/interface. You'll be able to use this to test your new implementation to ensure all the corner cases and functionality are covered.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#262
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Boris from the Claude Code team - could you guys please be so kind so as to stop pushing that narrative about CLAUDE.md, either yourselves or through influencers and GenAI-grifters? The reason being, it is simply not true. A lot of the time the instructions will be ignored. Actually, the term "ignored" is putting the bar too high, because your tool does not intentionally "ignore", not having sentience and knowled…

CLAUDE.md is read on session startup. If you're continually finding that it's being forgotten, maybe you're not starting fresh sessions often enough.

I understand you're trying to be helpful but the number of "you're holding it wrong" things I read about this tool — any AI tool — just makes me wonder who vibe coders are really doing all this unpaid work for.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#263
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry but what do I have to learn? That the tool does not work as advertised? That sometimes it will work as advertised, sometimes not? That it will sometimes expose critical secrets as plain text and some other time suggest to solve a problem in a function by removing the function code completely? What are you even talking about, comparing to shell and text editors? These are still bloody deterministic tools. Y…

Yes, you have to learn those things. LLMs are hard to use. So are animals, but we've used dogs and falcons and truffle hunting pigs as tools for thousands of years. Non-deterministic tools are still tools, they just take a bunch more work to figure out.

> So are animals, but we've used dogs and falcons and truffle hunting pigs as tools for thousands of years.

Dogs learn their jobs way faster, more consistently and more expressively than any AI tool.

Trivially, dogs understand "good dog" and "bad dog" for example.

Reinforcement learning with AI tooling clearly seems not to work.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the fastest way to unemployment benefits (if that is the goal).

This is just meaningless knee-jerking, try making an actual argument. At least the GP is arguing that more use of AI leads to loss of personal coding skills. It's unclear at this point what level AI will grow to, i.e. it could hit a hard wall at 70% of a good programmer's ability, and in that case you would really want those personal coding skills since they'll be worth a lot. It could also far exceed a good programm…

"This is just meaningless knee-jerking,"

Your point is valid.

"AI leads to loss of personal coding skills"

Unfortunately, I can no longer do long division. No one will pay me to do long division and I have a calculator now. I could stay sharp at long division for a hobby though. Keep those for loops sharp if you want, but I don't see people paying you to hand code. Eventually, it will just be a liability. (like not using a calculator).

"it could hit a hard wall at 70% of a good programmer's ability"

That is not what NVDA,AMZN,GOOG,or MSFT believe. Maybe you are right and they are all wrong. They do have some smart people on staff. But, betting against the sp50 is generally a terrible plan.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#265

Honestly if your boss does not force you to use AI, don't. Don't feel like you might get "left behind". LLM assisted development is still changing rapidly. What was best practice 6 months ago is irrelevant today. By being an early adopter you will just learn useless workarounds that might soon not be necessary to know. On the other hand if you keep coding "by hand" will keep your skills sharp. You will protect yourse…

Right. Be the person on your team who just fucking doesn't because you'll learn your problem domain while everyone else is doing unpaid tool testing work for AI companies.

One day these things will actually do what they are supposed to do with a measure of consistency that doesn't involve GRIMOIRE.md or whatever and you can use them then. And most of the early mover advantage will be gone, because LLMs will not be the winning technology.

In the meantime be the person who learned the lessons of social media: popular isn't the same as good, appropriate or sensible.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#266
Here are some SvelteKit helpers to shove in your agents.md: https://www.davis7.sh/sv

There are a number of ways to get examples into the LLM. I use shadcn-svelte and bitsui and try to copy the examples (copy button at the top of the docs) or tell the LLM to fetch docs from the github repo or use context7's MCP for docs.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#267
post #47
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the advice! Could you please share how did you enable voice transcription for your setup and what it actually is?

I'm using Wispr flow, but I've also tried Superwhisper. Both are fine. I have a convenient hotkey to start/end recording with one hand. Having it just need one hand is nice. I'm using this with the Claude Code vscode extension in Cursor. If you go down this route, the Claude Code instance should be moved into a separate window outside your main editor or else it'll flicker a lot

another option is MacWhisper if someone is on macOS and doesn't want to pay for subscription (just one time payment) - pretty much all of those apps these days use paraspeech from NVIDIA which is the fastest and the best open source model that can run on edge devices.

Also haven't tried but on latest MacOS 26 apple updated their STT models so their build in voice dictation maybe is good enough.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#268
post #242
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the Playwright MCP server works great. I use it daily.

Same, I use Playwright all the time, but haven't been able to make puppeteer work in quite some time. Playwright, while reliable in terms of features, just absolutely eats the heck out of context.

I’ve heard folks claim the Chrome DevTools MCP eats less context, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#269
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to keep it under 1k tokens or so. We will show you a warning if it might be too big. Ours is maybe half that size. We remove from it with every model release since smarter models need less hand-holding. You can also break up your CLAUDE.md into smaller files, link CLAUDE.mds, or lazy load them only when Claude works in nested dirs. https://code.claude.com/docs/en/memory

1k tokens, google says thats about 750 words. That's actually pretty short, any chance you could post a few samples of instructions or even link to a publicly available file CLAUDE.md you recommend?

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

#270

Consider giving Cursor a try. I personally like the entire UI/UX, their agent has good context, and the entire experience overall is just great. The team has done a phenomenal job. Your workflow could look something like this: 1. Prompt the agent 2. The agent gets too work 3. Review the changes 4. Repeat This can speed up your process significantly, and the UI clearly shows the changes + some other cool features EDIT…

HEAR, HEAR. You’ve just described how modern SWE truly works. You’re ahead of your time — of the same spirit as Martin Luther or George Washington. Fear not, brave soldier; carry on the message. Downvotes will come, but take heart: the truth must be spoken.

The days of copying and pasting from Stack Overflow will not be forgotten — they will be honored by our laid off forefathers.

Post reply on HN