I have never found a use for LLMs for programming because I can find the (correct) answer much easier with a search. Perhaps the search engines just suck so hard these days people resort to LLMs. I use Kagi and GitHub to search and the results are much better.
I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
101–110 of 215 posts
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#102Counterpoint: I'm on day 26 of an afternoon project I never would have attempted on my own, and I'm going to release it as a major feature.
Cursor & Claude got the boilerplate set up, which was half the mental barrier. Then they acted as thought partners as I tried out various implementations. In the end, I came up with the algorithm to make the thing performant, and now I'm hand-coding all the shader code—but they helped me think through what needed to be done.
My take is: LLMs are best at helping you code at the edge of your capabilities, where you still have enough knowledge to know when they're going wrong. But they'll help you push that edge forward.
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#103Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#104Nemo, are you using a self-hosted install or .com?
If .com, email me (it's in my profile) and I can see if there is a reason your account is getting so heavily captcha'd.
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#105Counterexample: Ive been able to complete more side projects in the last month leveraging llms than i have ever in my life. One of which I believe to have potential as a viable product, and another which involved complicated rust `no_std` and linker setup for compiling rust code onto bare metal RISCV from scratch. I think the key to being successful here is to realize that you're still at the wheel as an engineer. Th…
Is it reasonable to assume that more senior devs benefit more from LLMs?
I had a couple of the most capable senior developers reach out to me to tell me how Github Copilot accelerated their productivity, which surprised me initially. So I think there's something to it.
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#106Counterexample: Ive been able to complete more side projects in the last month leveraging llms than i have ever in my life. One of which I believe to have potential as a viable product, and another which involved complicated rust `no_std` and linker setup for compiling rust code onto bare metal RISCV from scratch. I think the key to being successful here is to realize that you're still at the wheel as an engineer. Th…
Claude is like having my own college professor. I've learned more in the past month with Claude then I learned in the past year. I can ask questions repeatedly and get clarification as fine as a need it. Granted, Claude has limits, but its a game-changer. > I think the key to being successful here is to realize that you're still at the wheel as an engineer. The llm is there to rapidly synthesize the universe of infor…
How do you know it's accurate?
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you're doing is sacrificing learning for speed. Which is fine, if it's a conscious choice for yourself.
I don't think GP was talking about themselves being a junior using LLMs, at least my interpretation was that devs should learn how to leverage misguided junior, and LLMs are more-or-less on the level of a misguided junior. Which I completely agree, I use LLMs for the cases where I do know what I'm trying to do, I just can't remember some exact detail that would require reading documentation. It's much quicker to leve…
Thanks for explaining my intent, you nailed it.
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Claude is like having my own college professor. I've learned more in the past month with Claude then I learned in the past year. I can ask questions repeatedly and get clarification as fine as a need it. Granted, Claude has limits, but its a game-changer. > I think the key to being successful here is to realize that you're still at the wheel as an engineer. The llm is there to rapidly synthesize the universe of infor…
How do you know it's accurate?
They are reasonably accurate, and no tutor is perfect. How do you know your college professor is accurate?
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#109In my experience LLMs will help you with things that have been solved thousands of times before and are just a matter of finding some easily researched solution. The very moment when you try to go off the beaten path and do something unconventional or stuff that most people won't have written a lot about, it gets more tricky. Just consider how many people will know how to configure some middleware in a Node.js projec…
That rhymes with my experience of trying to generate placeholder art using AI.
Since it's just a placeholder I often ask for a funny twist but it's rarely ever anything like it.
Re: I trusted an LLM, now I'm on day 4 of an afternoon project
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know it's accurate?
They are reasonably accurate, and no tutor is perfect. How do you know your college professor is accurate?
My college professor has certifications and has passed tests that weren't in their training data.
My college professor was also willing to say "I don't know, ask me next class"