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Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

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Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#191

Post by unclebucknasty »

andai wrote: post #102

This isn’t just about individual laziness—it’s a systemic arms race towards intellectual decay.[0] With programming, the same basic tension exists as with the more effective smarter AI-enhanced approaches to conceptual learning: effectiveness is a function of effort, and the whole reason for the "AI epidemic" is that people are avoiding effort like the plague. So the problem seems to boil down to, how can we convince…

>the whole reason for the "AI epidemic" is that people are avoiding effort like the plague.

I think AI is being driven most by those interested in the "promise" of eliminating workers altogether.

But, if by "AI epidemic", you more mean the increasing uptake of AI by workers/devs themselves (versus the overall frenzy), then I think the characterizations of "avoiding effort" and "laziness" are a bit harsh. I mean, of course people don't generally want to take the path of most resistance. And, there's value in efficiency being an "approach to life".

But, I think there's still more from the human side: that is, if the things you're spending your time on have less value of the sort emphasized in your environment, then your interest will likely naturally wane over time. I think this is especially true of something tedious like coding.

So, I believe there's a human/social element that goes beyond the pressure to keep up for the sake of job security.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#192

Post by eMPee584 »

nerdponx wrote: post #64
motorest wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's going to be interesting to see the AI generation arriving in the workplace, ie kids who grew up with ChatGPT, and have never learned to find something in a source document themselves. I am from the generation whose only options on the table were RTFM and/or read the source code. Your blend of comment was also directed at the likes of Google and StackOverflow. Apparently SO is not a problem anymore, but chatbot…

> Your blend of comment was also directed at the likes of Google and StackOverflow. Apparently SO is not a problem anymore And it kind of was a problem. There was an underclass of people who simply could not get anything done if it wasn't already done for them in a Stackoverflow answer or a blog post or (more recently and bafflingly) a Youtube video. These people never learned to read a manual and spent their days fl…

.. for the brief period of time before machines will take care of the whole production cycle.

Which is a great opportunity btw to drive forward a transition to a post-monetary, non-commercial post-scarcity open-source open-access commons economy.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#193

Post by brulard »

pknerd wrote: post #79
tymonPartyLate wrote: post #77

I asked it once to simplify code it had written and it refused. The code it wrote was ok but unnecessary in my view. Claude 3.7: > I understand the desire to simplify, but using a text array for .... might create more problems than it solves. Here's why I recommend keeping the relational approach: ( list of okay reasons ) > However, I strongly agree with adding ..... to the model. Let's implement that change. I was k…

Claude is mostly opinionated and gives you feedback where it thinks it is necessary.

My experience is, that it very often reacts to a simple question with apologizing and completely flipping it's answer 180 degrees. I just ask for explanation like "is this a good way to do x,y,z?" and it goes "I apologize, you are right to point out flaw in my logic. Lets do it the opposite way."

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#194

Post by eMPee584 »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #85
motorest wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's going to be interesting to see the AI generation arriving in the workplace, ie kids who grew up with ChatGPT, and have never learned to find something in a source document themselves. I am from the generation whose only options on the table were RTFM and/or read the source code. Your blend of comment was also directed at the likes of Google and StackOverflow. Apparently SO is not a problem anymore, but chatbot…

I think it's unwise to naively copy code from either stack overflow or an AI, but if I had to choose, I'd pick the one that had been peer-reviewed by other humans every time.

Ooh, the quality of "review" on SO also varies a whole lot..

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#195

Post by dagw »

buckyfuller wrote: post #61
dagw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently from what I've read, universities are already starting to see this. More and more students are incapable of acquiring knowledge from books. Once they reach a point where the information they need cannot be found in ChatGPT or YouTube videos they're stuck.

How does this make sense when you can put any book inside of an LLM?

Just because you can put information into an LLM, doesn't mean you can get it out again.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#197

Post by sam_goody »

cm2187 wrote: post #21

It's going to be interesting to see the AI generation arriving in the workplace, ie kids who grew up with ChatGPT, and have never learned to find something in a source document themselves. Not even just about coding, about any other knowledge.

Kinda like the kids who only learned to drive with Waze.

When they are stuck without it, they get hopelessly lost. They feel strangled, distracted, and find it hard to focus on the road. For about 3 days. Then they pretty quickly get up to speed, and kinda remember where they used to make the left turns when they had GPS, and everything is dandy.

But it happens so infrequently, that it's really not worth the time thinking about it.

And the truth is, I am just guessing what happens after 3 days - since anyone who grew up with GPS will never be that long without it.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#198

Post by nonrandomstring »

andai wrote: post #102

This isn’t just about individual laziness—it’s a systemic arms race towards intellectual decay.[0] With programming, the same basic tension exists as with the more effective smarter AI-enhanced approaches to conceptual learning: effectiveness is a function of effort, and the whole reason for the "AI epidemic" is that people are avoiding effort like the plague. So the problem seems to boil down to, how can we convince…

> against the basic human (animal?) instinct to take the path of least resistance.

Fitness. Nobody takes a run because they're needing to waste a half hour. Okay, some people just have energy and time to burn, and some like to code for the sake of it (I used to). We need to do things we don't like from time to time in order to stay fresh. That's why we have drills and exercises.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#199

Post by fransje26 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #110
andai wrote: post #102

This isn’t just about individual laziness—it’s a systemic arms race towards intellectual decay.[0] With programming, the same basic tension exists as with the more effective smarter AI-enhanced approaches to conceptual learning: effectiveness is a function of effort, and the whole reason for the "AI epidemic" is that people are avoiding effort like the plague. So the problem seems to boil down to, how can we convince…

> With programming, the same basic tension exists as with the more effective smarter AI-enhanced approaches to conceptual learning: effectiveness is a function of effort, and the whole reason for the "AI epidemic" is that people are avoiding effort like the plague. That's not true. Yes, you can get more effective at something with more effort, but you can get even more effective at it if you find a way to get results…

> [..] but you can get even more effective at it if you find a way to get results without actually doing the work yourself in the first place.

No. In learning, there is no substitution to practice. Once you jump to the conclusion, you stop understanding the "why".

Throughout various stages of technological advancement, we've come with tools to help relieve us of tedious efforts, because we understood the "why", the underlying reason of what the tools were helping us solve in the first place. Those that understood the "why" could build upon those tools to further advance civilization. The others were left behind to parrot about something they did not understand.

But -and, ironically in this case- as with most things in life, it is about the journey and not the destination. And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter if we take a more efficient road, or a less efficient road, to reach a life lesson.

Enjoy your journey!

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#200

Post by miroljub »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #183
TeMPOraL wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, the closest parallel for #2 I can think of us plagiarism in an academic setting. You didn't do the work, which means you didn't actually learn the material, which means this isn't actually progress (assuming we continue to value #2 (...) Plagiarism is a great analogy. It's great because what we call plagiarism in academic setting, in the real world work we call collaboration, cooperation, standing on the s…

>most software is throwaway That's only webdev and games.

... and that's already most software.
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