Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

431–432 of 432 posts

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#431

Post by yarekt » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

kybernetikos wrote: post #416

skue wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm guessing you don't do it often (understandable if its not working for you). For me pair programming accelerates development to much more than 2x. The value of pair programming is inversely proportional to the expertise of the participant. Junior devs who pair with senior devs get a lot out of it, senior devs not so much. GP is probably a more experienced dev, whereas you are the type of dev who says things like…

I don't agree with this at all. Pairing where there's a big skill gap isn't proper pairing, it's more like mentoring or hands on training. In pair programming as I learned it and as I have occasionally experienced it, two individuals challenge each other to be their best selves while also handing off tasks that break flow so that the pair as a whole is in constant flow. When it works this is a fantastic, productive,…

Exactly this. And I did mean equal skill when i said “more than 2x” implying that you get more done together than if you were separate.

One interesting thing is skill levels aren’t really comparable or equatable. I find pairing is productive where skills only partially overlap, meaning the authority on parts of implementation flows between participants, depending on the area you’re in.

I have some examples where I recently paired with a colleague for about 2-3 weeks nearly every day. i’m confident that what took us a month would be near impossible just working on our own

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#432

Post by yarekt » Sun, Feb 16, 2025, 4:58 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #373

yarekt wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's such a mechanical way of describing pair programming. I'm guessing you don't do it often (understandable if its not working for you). For me pair programming accelerates development to much more than 2x. Over time the two of you figure out how to use each other's strengths, and as both of you immerse yourself in the same context you begin to understand what's needed without speaking every bit of syntax between…

> As much as it may fake it, AI isn't learning anything while you're chatting to it. What's your definition of 'learn'? An LLM absolutely does extract and store information from its context. Sure, it's only short term memory and it's gone the next session, but within the session it's still learning. I like your suggestion to update your original prompt instead of continuing the conversation.

When working together with a colleague, after some weeks each of you understand more how the other works, what they need to be productive, how to communicate better and achieve good results. Same with the domain context you’re working on, as your mental model grows more detailed, your performance goes up.

with LLMs that leaning is only context, and in case of “chat ai” is the chat backlog. It’s easy for the LLM to get stuck, and there aren’t many tools yet that help you change and morph that context to be more like shared understanding between two colleagues.

There is research going on in this area, eg “chain of thought”, so we’ll see, maybe things will get better

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