3 ms·

Incredible how fast that went. My assistant/driver has become my go-to email, blog and newsletter writer with the use of chat GPT. This downtime makes me realiz

by neals 4y ago

Incredible how fast that went. My assistant/driver has become my go-to email, blog and newsletter writer with the use of chat GPT. This downtime makes me realize how fast our dependency on that specific system has gone and how scary that actually is.

doitLP 4y ago
How do you use it exactly? I have wanted to use it for writing narrative documents but I need to give it so much context it just gives me general platitudes. Maybe for simple emails it’s fine?
ihaveajob 4y ago
I was thinking the same. I just built a new product incredibly fast, and now I feel like I'm going at limping speed with Google only when I'm in doubt.
- tester457 4y ago
  Funny to see your comment, because other commenters had given me the impression that devs were above using chatgpt, and that the code it produces is bad. While some of its responses can be bad, being able to iterate and prototype so quickly is addictive.
  - poszlem 4y ago
    I've found that the code it produces is on par with what a mid-level developer could come up with if they were working with you, but the difference is that it generates the code in seconds rather than minutes. While you still need to keep an eye on the generated code, it saves you a ton of time and effort in typing it all out yourself. Plus, it can be a big help when you're stuck and not sure where to start, or just feeling too lazy to think through a problem. As an example, I recently needed some code to create an ASCII spinner, something I am perfectly capable of doing myself, but I just could not be bothered to do it again. The tool was able to generate working code for me almost instantly. Then, when I wanted to try out different spinner animations with different characters, I was able to easily iterate and generate new code without having to scour the internet for examples by just saying: "Give me another one with different animation". People here like to pretend that it's the end of the world if the code it creates contains errors, but in reality, with the type of work most people do - it is perfectly okay to use it. And if you work in a nuclear power plant or on life-saving code just don't. It's as easy as that.
  - qwertox 4y ago
    The code oftentimes contains errors, but specially when it's about a library which you don't know very well, it will point you in the right direction within a minute. Google is not able to do this at this speed.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
Waterluvian 4y ago
> our dependency I know I'm being pedantic, but I made a very conscious decision not to depend on this technology any time soon given how brand new it is, for this exact reason.
- tmpz22 4y ago
  Or building products on top of the early API offerings. If you build anything with serious traction they have the ability to undercut you with a better version in a very short time frame by virtue of actually understanding their system and ability to iterate on it - to say nothing of the ability to also hike prices or drop service at any moment. Building on top of the OpenAI API now is like building on top of the early Twitter API then.
layer8 4y ago
This is why we shouldn’t make ourselves dependent on centralized online services.

by neals 4y ago

doitLP 4y ago

How do you use it exactly? I have wanted to use it for writing narrative documents but I need to give it so much context it just gives me general platitudes. Maybe for simple emails it’s fine?

ihaveajob 4y ago

I was thinking the same. I just built a new product incredibly fast, and now I feel like I'm going at limping speed with Google only when I'm in doubt.

tester457 4y ago
Funny to see your comment, because other commenters had given me the impression that devs were above using chatgpt, and that the code it produces is bad. While some of its responses can be bad, being able to iterate and prototype so quickly is addictive.
- poszlem 4y ago
  I've found that the code it produces is on par with what a mid-level developer could come up with if they were working with you, but the difference is that it generates the code in seconds rather than minutes. While you still need to keep an eye on the generated code, it saves you a ton of time and effort in typing it all out yourself. Plus, it can be a big help when you're stuck and not sure where to start, or just feeling too lazy to think through a problem. As an example, I recently needed some code to create an ASCII spinner, something I am perfectly capable of doing myself, but I just could not be bothered to do it again. The tool was able to generate working code for me almost instantly. Then, when I wanted to try out different spinner animations with different characters, I was able to easily iterate and generate new code without having to scour the internet for examples by just saying: "Give me another one with different animation". People here like to pretend that it's the end of the world if the code it creates contains errors, but in reality, with the type of work most people do - it is perfectly okay to use it. And if you work in a nuclear power plant or on life-saving code just don't. It's as easy as that.
- qwertox 4y ago
  The code oftentimes contains errors, but specially when it's about a library which you don't know very well, it will point you in the right direction within a minute. Google is not able to do this at this speed.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

Waterluvian 4y ago

> our dependency I know I'm being pedantic, but I made a very conscious decision not to depend on this technology any time soon given how brand new it is, for this exact reason.

tmpz22 4y ago
Or building products on top of the early API offerings. If you build anything with serious traction they have the ability to undercut you with a better version in a very short time frame by virtue of actually understanding their system and ability to iterate on it - to say nothing of the ability to also hike prices or drop service at any moment. Building on top of the OpenAI API now is like building on top of the early Twitter API then.

layer8 4y ago

This is why we shouldn’t make ourselves dependent on centralized online services.