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I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

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Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#271

Post by smallerfish »

computerdork wrote: post #247
smallerfish wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm not doing leetcode or algorithm questions - it's basically "build a [tiny] product to specs", in a series of steps. I'm evaluating candidates on their process, their effectiveness, their communication (I ask for narration), and their attention to detail. I do review code afterwards. And, bear in mind that this is only round 1 - once I talk with the ones who do well, I'll go deep on a number of topics to under…

Haven't coded for a couple years (but have been a dev for two decades) and haven't used LLM's myself for coding (not against this), so am really just curious, wouldn't you want to know if a dev can solve and understand problems themselves? Because it seems like tougher real-world technical problems (where there are tons of dependencies with other systems in addition to technical and business requirements) needs for t…

> Haven't coded for a couple years (but have been a dev for two decades) and haven't used LLM's myself for coding (not against this), so am really just curious, wouldn't you want to know if a dev can solve and understand problems themselves?

Yes, definitely, though I lean more on the 1:1 interviews for that. I understand the resistance to this from developers, but there's a lot of repetition across the industry in product engineering, and so of course it can be significantly optimized with automation. But, you still need good human brains to make most architectural decisions, and to develop IP.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#272

Post by atonse »

101008 wrote: post #242
ddawson wrote: post #236

I do not know how to code, nothing beyond the simplest things but I am obsessed with AI development. Several month’s ago I decided to see if Claude could do the work for me. My test was to create a tower defense game that would run in a web browser. It took me about eight prompts, each time refining it, including agreeing to the suggesting that Claude recommended and seeing Claude agree with me on the bugs that I poi…

Honesty question, and leaving aside implications about what's possible and all of that, what was particular positive about the experience? You didn't do anything, just asked a different entity to do it for you. And nothing noble or original, just a copy of existing games. I see no difference between this and getting a $500 coupon to use at Fiverrr and ask a freelance engineer to do the same while you chat with them.

Is there anything inherently noble about programming if not to solve a real world problem?

If they were doing it for an exam where their skills were being evaluated, that’s one thing. But if they were doing it as a means to an end, does it matter if they found a more efficient way to do it?

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#273

Post by 101008 »

atonse wrote: post #272
101008 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honesty question, and leaving aside implications about what's possible and all of that, what was particular positive about the experience? You didn't do anything, just asked a different entity to do it for you. And nothing noble or original, just a copy of existing games. I see no difference between this and getting a $500 coupon to use at Fiverrr and ask a freelance engineer to do the same while you chat with them.

Is there anything inherently noble about programming if not to solve a real world problem? If they were doing it for an exam where their skills were being evaluated, that’s one thing. But if they were doing it as a means to an end, does it matter if they found a more efficient way to do it?

But copying an existing game is not solving a real world problem. You may do it to see if "I can make it", during a learning process, or as a challenge. But when you ask something/someone else to do it for you, what's the purpose?

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#274

Post by christophilus »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #266
anon22981 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems more like trying to find out the most proficient LMM users than anything else. I’ve never done interviews but I imagine I’d be hard pressed to skip candidates solely because they aren’t using LLMs. Each to their own and maybe their method works out, but it does seem whack.

The thing is, when you're doing frontend, a human programmer can't write 4,000 lines of React code in 1 hour. A properly configured LLM system can. This is why I wouldn't hire a person who doesn't know how to do this.

What are you doing where 4000 lines of LLM-generated code per hour is a net positive? Sounds like a techdebt machine to me.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#275

Post by computerdork »

smallerfish wrote: post #271
computerdork wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't coded for a couple years (but have been a dev for two decades) and haven't used LLM's myself for coding (not against this), so am really just curious, wouldn't you want to know if a dev can solve and understand problems themselves? Because it seems like tougher real-world technical problems (where there are tons of dependencies with other systems in addition to technical and business requirements) needs for t…

> Haven't coded for a couple years (but have been a dev for two decades) and haven't used LLM's myself for coding (not against this), so am really just curious, wouldn't you want to know if a dev can solve and understand problems themselves? Yes, definitely, though I lean more on the 1:1 interviews for that. I understand the resistance to this from developers, but there's a lot of repetition across the industry in pr…

Ah, I see, round 1 is just the initial weeder, while on top of this, you'd like devs that are using LLM's for automation. Sounds like a good balance:)

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#276

Post by timewizard »

develoopest wrote: post #4

I must be the dumbest "prompt engineer" ever, each time I ask an AI to fix or even worse, create something from scratch it rarely returns the right answer and when asked for modification it will struggle even more. All the incredible performance and success stories always come from these Twitter posts, I do find value in asking simple but tedious task like a small refactor or generate commands, but this "AI takes the…

Oh. That's because he's clearly lying.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#277

Post by mhh__ »

rs186 wrote: post #40

A single tweet with lots of analogy, with no screenshot/screen recording/code examples whatsoever. These are just words. Are we just discussing programming based on vibe?

> vibe

People do literally call it vibe coding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding (it turns out there is a wikipedia page already although suspect it'll be gone soon)

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#278

Post by dilap »

develoopest wrote: post #4

I must be the dumbest "prompt engineer" ever, each time I ask an AI to fix or even worse, create something from scratch it rarely returns the right answer and when asked for modification it will struggle even more. All the incredible performance and success stories always come from these Twitter posts, I do find value in asking simple but tedious task like a small refactor or generate commands, but this "AI takes the…

Yeah I gave Claude Code a try at about 5 different things, with miserable results on all of them (insult to injury -- each time it charged me about a buck!). I wonder if because it was C# with Unity code, maybe not so heavily represented in the training set?

I still find lots of use for LLMs authoring stuff at more like the function level. "I know I need exactly this."

Edit: I did however find it amazing for asking questions about sections of the code I did not write.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#279

Post by espdev »

elcomet wrote: post #144
hleszek wrote: post #55

I must have been a little too ambitious with my first test with Claude Code. I asked it to refactor a medium-sized Python project to remove duplicated code by using a dependency injection mechanism. That refactor is not really straightforward as it involves multiple files and it should be possible to use different files with different dependencies. Anyway, I explain the problem in a few lines and ask for a plan of wh…

I'm wondering if you can prompt it to work like this - make minimal changes, and run the tests at each step to make sure the code is still working

This thing can "fix" tests, not code. It just adjusts tests to incorrect code. So you need to keep an eye on the test code as well. That sounds crazy, of course. You have to constantly keep in mind that LLM doesn't understand what it is doing.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#280

Post by bikamonki »

abxyz wrote: post #26
develoopest wrote: post #4

I must be the dumbest "prompt engineer" ever, each time I ask an AI to fix or even worse, create something from scratch it rarely returns the right answer and when asked for modification it will struggle even more. All the incredible performance and success stories always come from these Twitter posts, I do find value in asking simple but tedious task like a small refactor or generate commands, but this "AI takes the…

I think it's probably the difference between "code" and "programming". An LLM can produce code and if you're willing to surrender to the LLMs version of whatever it is you ask for, then you can have a great and productive time. If you're opinionated about programming, LLMs fall short. Most people (software engineers, developers, whatever) are not "programmers" they're "coders" which is why they have a positive impres…

Right on point. The same principle applies when deciding whether to use a framework or not. Coders often marvel at the speed with which they can build something using a framework they don’t fully understand. However, a true programmer seeks to know and comprehend what’s happening under the hood.
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