100% agree with this article. You will always need to lead the vision and architecture.
Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
131–140 of 209 posts
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#132I have a good story to share that I came across recently. Around 2 years ago I had to clean up a mess because someone who doesn't really know what they're doing designed an instancing system for a game. They heavily used AI to design every part of it and it was awful. Data corruption, performance problems, lost items, race conditions everything you can think of was an issue. It took me 2 weeks just to get it to an "a…
> AI is only as good as the person using it
Nailed it.
That said, it couldn't have possibly been that bad if you got it to "acceptable" in 2 weeks.
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#133Re: "the attaboy problem". I strongly disagree that this is a problem. What we have is a anthropomorphism problem. AI is a tool. It needs to be subservient. You actually can get it to point out issues in your design, if you just put enough humility and uncertainty in your prompt formulation, but more importantly, we have all seen that Claude makes mistakes. The title of this post is that it's a poor architect. Imagin…
Humans’ general inability to entirely divorce social instincts, responses, and mores while using human language to communicate, especially with something that pantomimes it back, is one of the reasons current chat interfaces are fundamentally flawed. This is working against innate behavior … not something that can be easily switched off. I’ll bet most of the people that can really do it have a hard time intuitively n…
I think you've accurately identified one of the most important skills of a software engineer in these new AI enabled times. Or at least one of the most important skills that wasn't important previously for this profession. The part where it's not easily switched off is a important part of what justifies my salary: I have learned this skill.
It took some effort, and I agree that there very likely are those who will not learn to selectively disengage this innate behaviour. That's why you should pay me a ton of cash each month instead of using Claude directly ;)
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I actuate the chain on my chainsaw to move, it’s obeying me unquestionably, in the same way that when I press a key on my keyboard it obeys me unquestionably. What exactly is the difference?
It’s just a chain reaction. Obeying requires agency (the choice to follow the direction or not). LLMs and chainsaws don’t have it.
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Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#135Re: "the attaboy problem". I strongly disagree that this is a problem. What we have is a anthropomorphism problem. AI is a tool. It needs to be subservient. You actually can get it to point out issues in your design, if you just put enough humility and uncertainty in your prompt formulation, but more importantly, we have all seen that Claude makes mistakes. The title of this post is that it's a poor architect. Imagin…
>anthropomorphism problem. AI is a tool. It needs to be subservient. Suggesting it should be 'subservient' is also anthropomorphizing. I think your callout is correct, but you still can't help but refer to it in terms we use for other people or living entities. This is by design from the AI companies.
Yup! I'm very much included in this particular problem! My self awareness has not yet been sufficient to solve the problem, but I've heard that knowing you have a problem is half the battle, so I guess that's something at least.
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#136I think the article has the correct message, but I disagree with this: > It’s just incapable of the thing that makes a real architect valuable: saying “no.” From my experience Claude is excellent at saying "no". It won't say "no" if the prompt doesn't call for it (it won't say "no" to your direct request to do something, usually). But it offers good critique and happily pushes back if you make it clear that that's a…
It actually got quite snippy with me, when I was trying to get it to debug some issues. It kept on saying that the "burn rate" wasn't progressing and "we" should refocus our efforts somewhere else. Eventually I got something like "I have told you three times now that this is not the best approach to be taking to reduce the burn-rate and you have not taken that advice". And it stopped helping out. So I was blunt, and…
> It kept on saying that the "burn rate" wasn't progressing and "we" should refocus our efforts somewhere else.
It sounds like a boss. How soon will it be?
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#137The irony is that this is the most AI generated, agreeable and no substance article. And the only ones who are upvoting it are the people who are against those.
Does so many people in HN just upvote by title?
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are people just that easily overcome by confident voices? Back in high school, my AP calculus class did some experiments with our teacher's blessing. We'd send a kid out to walk around during class and see how long it took for them to get sent back. Anyway, it ends up that walking around purposely with a piece of paper or envelope, like you're on a mission to deliver it, was a very successful tactic.
I've seen internet comments similar: "put on a yellow vest and carry a clipboard and you can enter any building, anywhere." Confidence is scary, and often misleading.
This is a dumb meme that has been in so many movies and reposted so many times since I first saw it on 1980s BBSes that it has become true in the imaginations of people who love reading The Anarchist Cookbook and fantasize about this kind of thing, but would never actually do it.
Confidence is a spectrum and security is situational. In some places, a yellow vest adds to the con. In others, everyone has to be signed in. In others, the wrong kind of yellow vest makes you stick out like a sore thumb. The right kind of yellow vest can also make you stick out: "Oh shit the inspector is here, somebody get the boss!"
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
>anthropomorphism problem. AI is a tool. It needs to be subservient. Suggesting it should be 'subservient' is also anthropomorphizing. I think your callout is correct, but you still can't help but refer to it in terms we use for other people or living entities. This is by design from the AI companies.
Yup! I'm very much included in this particular problem! My self awareness has not yet been sufficient to solve the problem, but I've heard that knowing you have a problem is half the battle, so I guess that's something at least.
In retrospect my comment feels a bit nitpicky, I appreciate your levelheaded approach!
Re: Claude is not your architect. Stop letting it pretend
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans’ general inability to entirely divorce social instincts, responses, and mores while using human language to communicate, especially with something that pantomimes it back, is one of the reasons current chat interfaces are fundamentally flawed. This is working against innate behavior … not something that can be easily switched off. I’ll bet most of the people that can really do it have a hard time intuitively n…
> I’ll bet most of the people that can really do it have a hard time intuitively navigating real social interactions Bingo. Hi that’s me. I’ve been trying to teach people how to use LLMs effectively not just dump shit in them but actually talk to them like you would expect a computer to understand and it totally breaks peoples brains I’m quite successful in helping people get somewhere usable that they weren’t…but to…
Do you use skills like superpowers and spec-kit in your teachings ?