In addition to reading online, talking with coworkers and friends helps a lot.
Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#32I just ignore them mostly, I find that in the space that I currently work in both ChatGPT and Bard hallucinate like crazy and I get recommendations for things that does not exist and when I ask them about this they always keep hallucinating. Python packages that doesn't exist at all, solutions that are impossible, step-by-step guides that lie straight up.
On top of that I can't really use any AI tools in my editor as that would violate work policy, so no auto-completion for work stuff.
I use GH Copilot at home sometimes for fun but mostly for generating mock data or quick examples I can give to students when I work in another role.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#33The same way I've successfully kept up on tech progress for 3+ decades now: By sitting back, doing what I know, and letting everyone else burn their energy on "keeping up". Then, when the hype has died down and I see what really has worked and stuck with people, I go learn it.
On the one hand I keep wondering if that would not have been the better approach, as keeping up with generative AI developments for the last year nearly did my head in.
On the other hand, I have a pretty good feeling for just how this is going to change things and what can be done with the current and future models.
I'm betting on easy-access UI tools never being as useful as working with raw models. If I'm wrong, oh well. I had a lot of fun tinkering.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#34By and large, just ignore them? Life's a lot easier when you don't fancy yourself a 10x programmer, accept mediocrity, and just absorb best practices by osmosis a few years after they're developed by the bigshots. This reminds me a lot of early Javascript: a thousand small companies each promising a 10% improvement to your workflow. Wait a couple years and it'll be three companies each offering 150% boosts instead, w…
I don't get that take, wouldn't most people use a tool if it made you even 5% or 10% more efficient at your job after a little bit of research? Sure digging for the tool and task use case takes time but it'll more than pay back itself
Not accounted for in the initial calculation is cost of adoption needing to learn how to apply them in your workflow in the most effecient / least disruptive way to realize the 5% improvement
I don't think anyone's against self improvement, but the cognitive overload of continually juggling multiple 5% improvements vs a possibly more-disruptive (but in reality usually more streamlined) 25% improvement down the line just doesn't make sense if you value your own time, especially if you have to essentially embed yourself as an expert into the domain to be able to follow improvements
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#35The same way I've successfully kept up on tech progress for 3+ decades now: By sitting back, doing what I know, and letting everyone else burn their energy on "keeping up". Then, when the hype has died down and I see what really has worked and stuck with people, I go learn it.
Great as an employee approach. Not as good as a founder approach.
Are you founding something in "AI-assisted programming"?
Because if you're not, it sounds like you're distracting yourself with shiny things instead of focusing on your industry, on your investors, on your leads and clients, on your team, etc. While common, that sounds like a terrible founder approach.
AI-assisted programming may be something that your engineers bring into your company because they find it improves their work. But like any other tool one's staff may prefer, your role as a leader doesn't involve "keeping up on the advances". At best, it involves sourcing trusted perspectives when you face a decision point (authorizing a request, perhaps), making the choice, and then moving on to other leadership tasks.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#36I read about the standout parts after the fact. I find any other approach (for any newish topic - not just AI) is unsustainable.
E.g. I see a lot of similar comments with multiple replies specifically about Copilot - but that's exactly what I'm talking about. ChatGPT, DallE, Copilot - these are the standout things that everybody not keeping up with AI knows about.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#37What techniques do you need? Just talk to gpt4 explain your problem and ask for a solution.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#38By and large, just ignore them? Life's a lot easier when you don't fancy yourself a 10x programmer, accept mediocrity, and just absorb best practices by osmosis a few years after they're developed by the bigshots. This reminds me a lot of early Javascript: a thousand small companies each promising a 10% improvement to your workflow. Wait a couple years and it'll be three companies each offering 150% boosts instead, w…
Thank you for this, well articulated.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#39By and large, just ignore them? Life's a lot easier when you don't fancy yourself a 10x programmer, accept mediocrity, and just absorb best practices by osmosis a few years after they're developed by the bigshots. This reminds me a lot of early Javascript: a thousand small companies each promising a 10% improvement to your workflow. Wait a couple years and it'll be three companies each offering 150% boosts instead, w…
I don't get that take, wouldn't most people use a tool if it made you even 5% or 10% more efficient at your job after a little bit of research? Sure digging for the tool and task use case takes time but it'll more than pay back itself
If it was the case, most developers would take a few hours to learn how to use regular expressions to search faster in their code. But they don’t.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep up with advances in AI-assisted programming techniques?
#40By and large, just ignore them? Life's a lot easier when you don't fancy yourself a 10x programmer, accept mediocrity, and just absorb best practices by osmosis a few years after they're developed by the bigshots. This reminds me a lot of early Javascript: a thousand small companies each promising a 10% improvement to your workflow. Wait a couple years and it'll be three companies each offering 150% boosts instead, w…
> absorb best practices by osmosis a few years after they're developed by the bigshots Better yet, ignore the concept of "best practices" and learn what different software development practices have to offer in different contexts, from your personal experience and from nuanced reports from people you (at least somewhat) trust. There are a lot of ideas flying around about how to do software development better, in my e…
Yeah, Copilot is worthwhile. You need to keep an eye on it, I've definitely been sent down the wrong path plenty of times, but all in all it's been enough help enough times.
The trick is knowing when to have it off and when to have it on.
I particularly like Copilot Chat. Really nice to have there in the IDE.