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Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#31

Post by compacct27 »

I’ve had a big need for abstract algebra in a side project and ChatGPT 4 has been The Best tutor (on top of several books and YouTube videos). Gives examples on the spot for your specific needs in any way you want. Gives broad overviews of a subject so you can make deeper dives elsewhere (Google, Math Stackexchange). Relates concepts to other parts of math. Implements math in my programming language of choice.

I’m sure it’s hallucinated a few times, but I’m at such an early level that it’s typically fine. I learn either way in a way that’s set me way ahead of where I’d have been without it

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#32

Post by hipposec »

I use it to improve work emails. Often time my messages read like a series of bullet points strung together, and ChatGPT will rewrite to make it flow a little more naturally.

At work we get pressured to write comments backing up our ratings on performance appraisals. Not just the overall performance, but aspects such as if the employee communicates effectively, works well with others, etc.. ChatGPT is good at generating those without sounding too repetitive.

I've also occasionally used it to generate a meal plan following a my diet.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#33

Post by salil999 »

lexicality wrote: post #20

Generally I use it to try and waste as much of Open AI and Microsoft's money as I possibly can. I try and get it to use the absolute maximum number of tokens as I possibly can for free doing pointless tasks, I use the image generation to produce the weirdest art I can without triggering the censorship and when I'm bored I just tell it as many lies as possible and make it treat them as truth. I don't know if this is f…

Why?

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#34

Post by rogual »

Whenever I have to write boilerplate code in a language or library I don't know well.

For example, "Give me a quick Python script that opens a window with PyQt5", or "Split a string on spaces in Emacs Lisp".

It's pretty much flawless for basic stuff like that.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#36

Post by fhd2 »

jimsimmons wrote: post #22

Don't use it. I tried using it for coding but it made up APIs constantly or had subtle errors. I don't know what people mean when they say it works for them. I can see it help as an icebreaker though. It just helps me get in the mood sometimes. Other factual stuff ex nutrition questions, health stuff, historic events etc it's quite useless. I am an LLM skeptic. I think there're a lot of people who're claiming that th…

People's brains work differently. I enjoy starting from an empty file, it was never an issue for me. But I know quite a few people who struggle until they have some kind of draft in front of them. I also know enough people with programming jobs that struggle with writing code, remembering all the keywords and everything. They're OK at reading it though.

Personally I'm in the same camp as you - I don't use it. It wasn't able to really help me do anything I do. But I can appreciate that it works for people different from me, good for them.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#37

Post by JD557 »

jimsimmons wrote: post #22

Don't use it. I tried using it for coding but it made up APIs constantly or had subtle errors. I don't know what people mean when they say it works for them. I can see it help as an icebreaker though. It just helps me get in the mood sometimes. Other factual stuff ex nutrition questions, health stuff, historic events etc it's quite useless. I am an LLM skeptic. I think there're a lot of people who're claiming that th…

> I tried using it for coding but it made up APIs constantly or had subtle errors.

This has been my experience so far as well. I also find it very tiring to have to review all the iterations of the code.

I do find GitHub Copilot quite valuable at work, especially when it recommends one liners (they are easy to review, so I just feel like I'm writing faster).

To be fair to ChatGPT, on one of my recent experiment it actually said something along the lines of "you need to integrate with the library/API yourself", and it only started spewing garbage after I insisted to write the code. I see a lot of people online complaining that GPT is getting lazy, but I would rather have it lazy than wrong.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#38

Post by muditmudit »

lexicality wrote: post #20

Generally I use it to try and waste as much of Open AI and Microsoft's money as I possibly can. I try and get it to use the absolute maximum number of tokens as I possibly can for free doing pointless tasks, I use the image generation to produce the weirdest art I can without triggering the censorship and when I'm bored I just tell it as many lies as possible and make it treat them as truth. I don't know if this is f…

Wow! This feels very...weird, especially since, on top of wasting your own time and their resources, you go out of your way to actively ruin this service for others as well.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#39

Post by hnrodey »

giarc wrote: post #10

A few use cases... -I use it to clean up emails for work (paste in email, ask it to formalize it or make it more clear) -My wife used it yesterday to create a rhyming scavenger hunt for the kids -create Chrome extensions (tip, make sure it uses manifest version 3) -I use it to create themed Teams video backgrounds -Used it to create survey questions for Work From Home feedback for my staff. Lots of other random uses…

Care to elaborate on the extensions? I just started building an extension this past week and have been heavily relying on ChatGPT for help getting going. Just curious on your idea.

My first extension is effectively a real time cheater for Wordle in the browser. I will have it published by the end of the month and fingers crossed I can make this cross platform as well as iOS app. If nothing else, I just want to learn more about building browser extensions.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using ChatGPT for yourself?

#40

Post by victor106 »

franze wrote: post #5

besides coding, data analysis and creating my presentations an awkward chrismas card generator https://chat.openai.com/g/g-yzSEhwyJM-awkward-sweet-christma... Christmas Dev Support https://chat.openai.com/g/g-4AoVA5xhf-christmas-free-dev-sup... My Personal Doctor https://chat.openai.com/g/g-2v2gNkuad-doctair-free-medical-a... My Yoga Buddy https://chat.openai.com/g/g-SpeE49i2D-swami-vivekananda-gpt

Can it make Christmas cards by including some of your own pictures?
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