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AI is making me dumb

jpain.io

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181–190 of 328 posts

Re: AI is making me dumb

#181

Post by hirvi74 »

Perhaps my ego is preventing me from becoming too addicted to LLMs. It's not that I think the tools are incapable. Rather, LLMs are probably far more capable than me in nearly every programming metric that matters.

However, if I were to release a solution that I 'vibe-coded' into the wild, then I would feel quite a bit of shame if someone figured out that I used an LLM to write the entire thing. I know it may come off as a bit silly, but it is a feeling I cannot seem to shake. A feeling that prevents me from wanting to adopting the technology in full force because... Well, I did not truly create the software if AI did all the work. Sure, the software might have been my idea, but that does not bring me much fulfillment.

I know programming is just a means to an end, but I feel like I have put in a lot of hard work over the past decade and a half just to barely scratch the surface of mediocrity. I was attracted to this field because I saw a sense of beauty in computer science (and programming). It felt like one of the few remaining options for a creative job that was spared from the cutthroat nature of the a career in the arts.

Like the Samurai class during the early industrialization of Japan, maybe it's time for me to lay down my sword too.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#182

Post by erelong »

Ask AI how to make you smarter and use some discernment on if the suggestions would accomplish the goal or look up human-written articles on how to use AI to enhance intelligence

Re: AI is making me dumb

#183

Post by therealdrag0 »

cedws wrote: post #170
Rooster61 wrote: post #11

I can't relate that much to this. Every time I use AI to write code, I'm constantly fighting a feeling on the back of my neck that I need to look over everything it has done and supplement/alter it with my own code. That ick feeling counteracts the dopamine hit of having a working app after a few minutes of vibe coding, and I don't think that's going anywhere anytime soon. That said, I have experience. I could absolu…

The code that LLMs produce is just average IMO. I wouldn’t call myself an authority on clean code but I can tell when code is well structured. I prefer my hand written code over Claude or GPT’s every time. I once did an experiment where I generated a spec from a project I’d already written, then had an LLM blindly reimplement it from the spec, and compared code. The LLM’s version looked like vomit.

Agree, however in some cases avg code is good enough, especially when refactoring it is just a little attention and more tokens.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#185

Post by hirvi74 »

jasonjei wrote: post #74

I’m not using AI to eliminate thinking but to free me from the rote mundane code writing. AI is perfectly competent at writing code once a prototype is implemented. I do write initial proof of concept crude prototypes (not commented, hardcoded variables, etc), and AI does the productionizing of them. It has really allowed me to command a team of agents instead of keeping track of a bunch of humans of varying work eth…

What even is rote, mundane code?

How much of this rote, mundane code do you honestly have in any given project?

Re: AI is making me dumb

#186

Post by Eighth »

VikRubenfeld wrote: post #99

"That's the self-doubt that it's feeding on and what I need to fight back." Yes -- now let's talk about the correct form of fighting back. It is not "I don't want to feel self-doubt so I will suppress that feeling." It is, "The self-doubt is valuable -- it's pushing me to improve." The AI is never going to be able to say what you really mean. But it may inspire you to push harder to improve your ability to do that.

I reckon you're right. The self-doubt is a signal and I can use it a tool.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#187

Post by Eighth »

jonstaab wrote: post #110

I have been telling people lately that I feel like I'm losing my mind. And I'm not even someone who has leaned into AI coding that much either; I've just tried to learn the tools since Claude got "good". But my inherent laziness, which was always flattered as something that makes me a good programmer, has made me unable to use the tools with the required discipline. The result is that I have not thought deeply about…

The lack of refactoring when using AI tools is definitely a concern. I've only ever seen lines of code go up.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#189

Post by singpolyma3 »

I don't understand how one even uses "AI to write". Writing is the act of taking something that's been burning in my head for a time and emitting it for others. The LLM doesn't know what's in my head and therefore cannot write it...

Re: AI is making me dumb

#190

Post by Eighth »

otrv wrote: post #154

I find that a good way to battle this is to realize its not either the dev or the AI that should be coding at a given time. People needs to transform their workflow so the codes alongside themselves. I am try to be coding at all times on complex issues while I am offloading a boring, non architecture, boiler plate heavye etc. task to it in the background in a git worktree. I ask it to work in small iterations and com…

I think you're right and that's probably my mistake. I should be using it as a companion rather than an independent agent. I think enhanced auto complete or function level work is probably appropriate. However what I've been doing is having it build a full application from scratch, to the point where it's impossible to review.
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