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I'm going back to writing code by hand

blog.k10s.dev

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Re: I'm going back to writing code by hand

#651

Post by nathanielks »

senordevnyc wrote: post #543
hunterpayne wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which defeats the purpose of using a LLM in the first place. Same as writing by hand but with a bill for tokens.

This is a fun new position to move the goalposts too, I suppose, but it doesn’t make much sense to me. If I can use AI to plan, implement, test, document, refine, release, and maintain a feature, with review, in 20% of the time it would take me without AI, how exactly does it “defeat the purpose” of using an LLM? My purpose for using the LLM is to solve problems faster, and it does that. What’s yours?

Exactly this. So far it's helped identify blind spots in my thinking, as well as educate me further on the techniques and frameworks I'm already using. It's been tremendously helpful at developing very well thought out _and tested_ software.

Re: I'm going back to writing code by hand

#652

Post by chrz »

staplers wrote: post #49
snowe2010 wrote: post #34

> The other change is simpler: I'm doing the design work myself, by hand, before any code gets written. Not a vague doc. Concrete interfaces, message types, ownership rules. That’s the hard part of coding. If you have an architecture then writing the code is dead simple. If you aren’t writing the code you aren’t going to notice when you architected an API that allows nulls but then your database doesn’t. Or that it d…

You need to be checking every thing it does. This is what seems to be lost on so many. As someone with relatively little code experience, I find myself learning more than ever by checking the results and what went right/wrong. This is also why I don't see it getting better anytime soon. So many people ask me "how do you get your claude to have such good output?" and the answer is always "I paid attention and spotted…

beware of illusion of learning by looking at ready solutions

Re: I'm going back to writing code by hand

#653

Post by K0balt »

pron wrote: post #650
K0balt wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t had this problem. Maybe it’s because of the language I’m using (C++) or maybe it’s because of the strict enforcement of modularity and public vs private interfaces, etc that I use? Also, the code is tested against the hardware with every change. Idk if that’s why my experience has been different from yours or not. My workflow also requires a discussion of the architecture and methodology of each addition or…

I don't think our experience is different. Letting the agent work on pieces no bigger than a couple hundred lines at a time and checking if there's something fishy or not and that the code is legible and logical is close human supervision. This is very much not what the people who wish AI could build products for them do or can do at the rate they're moving.

Lol I guess you’ve got a point , but honestly it’s not more supervision than I would give a junior dev, at least until they had developed at least a few months track record of good judgement.

I guess the problem is the blind assumption of competence?

I just think of AI as being a lot like my late friend Henry. Henry had several PHDs, was an accomplished polymath in a bunch of other subjects, and spoke more than 20 languages with reasonable fluency. He was for sure one of the smartest people I ever met.

He was also prone to drinking, and he when he was on a tear, you could barely tell except he would confidently say some of the most outrageous shit, or start speaking some other language without noticing. So you always took Henry with a grain of salt, and if it was important you’d double check. Even so, he was still an amazing resource to bounce things off of.

Re: I'm going back to writing code by hand

#655

Post by autorun »

This is similar to what happened with smartphones and the people going back to cellphones without touchscreen.

AI coding hurts your ego. People keep forgetting this is just a tool that accelerate what you want to do. If you leave decisions to the AI you'll be probably disappointed or surprised.

Re: I'm going back to writing code by hand

#656

Post by jplusequalt »

autorun wrote: post #655

This is similar to what happened with smartphones and the people going back to cellphones without touchscreen. AI coding hurts your ego. People keep forgetting this is just a tool that accelerate what you want to do. If you leave decisions to the AI you'll be probably disappointed or surprised.

>This is similar to what happened with smartphones and the people going back to cellphones without touchscreen.

Agreed. Both technologies create unhealthy dependencies that many people would prefer to cut out.

>AI coding hurts your ego. People keep forgetting this is just a tool that accelerate what you want to do.

Are drummers propping up their egos for not using drum machines? There's a class of developer who genuinely enjoys the act of programming.

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