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A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

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Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#571

Post by draxil »

bandrami wrote: post #536
ryanjshaw wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and can at any point look at the source and tell you why it did what it did Even years later? Most people can’t unless there’s good comments and design. Which AI can replicate, so if we need to do that anyway, how is AI specially worse than a human looking back at code written poorly years ago?

I mean, Emacs's oldest source files are like 40 years old at this point, and yes they are in fact legible? I'm not sure what you're asking -- you absolutely can (and if you use it long enough, will) read the source code of your text editor.

Well especially the lisp parts!

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#572

Post by direwolf20 »

Ronsenshi wrote: post #468
atonse wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you say that. Because I have never enjoyed management as much as being hands on and directly solving problems. So maybe our common ground is that we are direct problem solvers. :-)

For some reason this makes me think of a jigsaw puzzle. People usually complete these puzzles because they enjoy the process where on the end you get a picture that you can frame if you want to. Some people seem to want to get the resulting picture. No interest in process at all. I guess that's the same people who went to all those coding camps during their hay day because they heard about software engineering salari…

When I last bought a Lego Technic set because I wanted to play with making mechanisms with gears and stuff, I assembled it according to the instructions, which was fun, and then the final result was also cool and I couldn't bear to dismantle it.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#573

Post by squidbeak »

einrealist wrote: post #55

> It's so interesting to watch an agent relentlessly work at something. They never get tired, they never get demoralized, they just keep going and trying things where a person would have given up long ago to fight another day. It's a "feel the AGI" moment to watch it struggle with something for a long time just to come out victorious 30 minutes later. Somewhere, there are GPUs/NPUs running hot. You send all the neces…

> you most likely do not pay the actual costs. It might become cheaper or it might not

Why would this be the first technology that doesn't become cheaper at scale over time?

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#574

Post by jbjbjbjb »

> do generalists outperform specialists?

Depends what we mean by specialist. If it frontend vs backend then maybe. If it general dev vs some specialist scientific programmer or other field where a generalist won’t have a clue then this seems like a recipe for disaster (literal disasters included).

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#575

Post by pards »

striking wrote: post #118
daxfohl wrote: post #65

I worry about the "brain atrophy" part, as I've felt this too. And not just atrophy, but even moreso I think it's evolving into "complacency". Like there have been multiple times now where I wanted the code to look a certain way, but it kept pulling back to the way it wanted to do things. Like if I had stated certain design goals recently it would adhere to them, but after a few iterations it would forget again and g…

It's not just brain atrophy, I think. I think part of it is that we're actively making a tradeoff to focus on learning how to use the model rather than learning how to use our own brains and work with each other. This would be fine if not for one thing: the meta-skill of learning to use the LLM depreciates too. Today's LLM is gonna go away someday, the way you have to use it will change. You will be on a forever trea…

> I happen to rent and can't keep

This is my fear - what happens if the AI companies can't find a path to profitability and shut down?

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#576

Post by Otterly99 »

solumunus wrote: post #440
gritspants wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My disillusionment comes from the feeling I am just cosplaying my job. There is nothing to distinguish one cosplayer from another. I am just doordashing software, at this point, and I'm not in control.

I don’t get this at all. I’m using LLM’s all day and I’m constantly having to make smart architectural choices that other less experienced devs won’t be making. Are you just prompting and going with whatever the initial output is, letting the LLM make decisions? Every moderately sized task should start with a plan, I can spend hours planning, going off and thinking, coming back to the plan and adding/changing things,…

Exactly.

Once you start using it intelligently, the results can be really satisfying and helpful. People complaining about 1000 lines of codes being generated? Ask it to generate functions one at a time and make small implementations. People complaining about having to run a linter? Ask it to automatically run it after each code execution. People complaining about losing track? Have it log every modifications in a file.

I think you get my point. You need to treat it as a super powerful tool that can do so many things that you have to guide it if you want to have a result that conforms to what you have in mind.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#577

Post by chrisjj »

mlrtime wrote: post #544
chrisjj wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> exactly the way I wanted it to be built You verified each line?

What? Why would you want to? See this is a perfect example of OPs statement! I don't care about the lines, I care about the output! It was never about the lines of code. Your comment makes it very clear there are different viewpoints here. We care about problem->solution. You care about the actual code more than the solution.

> I don't care about the lines, I care about the output! It was never about the lines of code.

> Your comment makes it very clear there are different viewpoints here.

Agreed.

I care that code output not include leaked secrets, malware installation, stealth cryptomining etc.

Some others don't.

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#578

Post by zigman1 »

viccis wrote: post #213
ryandrake wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the same thing, but wasn't able to put it into words before reading that. Been experimenting with LLM-based coding just so I can understand it and talk intelligently about it (instead of just being that grouchy curmudgeon), and the thought in the back of my mind while using Claude Code is always: "I got into programming because I like programming, not whatever this is..." Yes, I'm building stupid things fas…

Same. This kind of coding feels like it got rid of the building aspect of programming that always felt nice, and it replaced it entirely with business logic concerns, product requirements, code reviews, etc. All the stuff I can generally take or leave. It's like I'm always in a meeting. >If I was intellectually excited about telling something to do this for me, I'd have gotten into management. Exactly this. This is t…

Maybe I don't entirely get it, but what is stopping you to just continue coding?

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#579

Post by jpnc »

wongarsu wrote: post #496
Loeffelmann wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever work with LLMs you know that they quite frequently give up. Sometimes it's a // TODO: implement logic or a "this feature would require extensive logic and changes to the existing codebase". Sometimes they just declare their work done. Ignoring failing tests and builds. You can nudge them to keep going but I often feel like, when they behave like this, they are at their limit of what they can achieve.

If I tell it to implement something it will sometimes declare their work done before it's done. But if I give Claude Code a verifiable goal like making the unit tests pass it will work tirelessly until that goal is achieved. I don't always like the solution, but the tenacity everyone is talking about is there

tenacity == while loop

Re: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks

#580

Post by Ronsenshi »

withinboredom wrote: post #517
Ronsenshi wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has nothing to do about ageism. This applies to any person of any age who has ego big enough to think that their knowledge of industry is relevant after they take prolonged break and be socially inept enough to brag about how they are still "in". I don't disagree with your point about fundamentals, but in an industry where there seems to be new JS framework any time somebody sneezes - latest tools are very much…

I beg to differ. I started with C in the 90s, then C# in '05, then PHP in '12, then Go in '21. The things I learned in C still apply to Go, C#, and PHP. And I even started contributing to open source C projects in '24 ... all my skills and knowledge were still relevant. This sounds exactly like ageism to me, but I clearly have a different perspective than you.

Yes, we clearly have different perspectives. I observed an arrogant person who despite their multi-year break from engineering of any kind strongly believed that they still were as capable as engineers who remained in the field during that time.

Maybe you had to be there.

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