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I think it depends on your personality - I prefer to fix code than to write it from scratch. Maybe it's an ADHD thing but I can be much more productive working

I think it depends on your personality - I prefer to fix code than to write it from scratch. Maybe it's an ADHD thing but I can be much more productive working like this than I can working in a void. (well - a void that has access to Stack Overflow etc)

ghaff 4y ago
It's probably the same thing as with writing text. If you find starting from a blank page is anxiety-producing, a page of generated text may be useful even if you end up rewriting a lot of it. On the other hand, while ChatGPT is useful for some definitional boilerplate and some possibly correct listicle type of stuff, as an editor, it also guides you in a certain direction you may not want to go. I'm also used to being somewhat respectful of what humans have written, so long as it's not incorrect, even if it's not the way I would have written something.
- jhonof 4y ago
  > It's probably the same thing as with writing text. If you find starting from a blank page is anxiety-producing, a page of generated text may be useful even if you end up rewriting a lot of it. This is a pretty cogent insight, I much prefer having a draft of, for example, an email and then completely rewriting it, rather than starting an email from scratch. I'm not sure why, but it makes it seem much more approachable to me. That being said, I have found GPT-4 code not useful for anything but boilerplates or small functions. It often gets large blocks of code so wrong that it is just much faster to write it from scratch. What I have found useful so far is asking for a commented outline of what I'm asking for with just variable names filled in, but no implementation. It often gets that correct, and then I do the implementation correct.
sh4rks 4y ago
Same. Call me weird, but I actually enjoy reviewing and reading other people's code, because I'm good at spotting errors. When I code from scratch, I suffer from the programmer's equivalent of writer's block.

ghaff 4y ago

It's probably the same thing as with writing text. If you find starting from a blank page is anxiety-producing, a page of generated text may be useful even if you end up rewriting a lot of it. On the other hand, while ChatGPT is useful for some definitional boilerplate and some possibly correct listicle type of stuff, as an editor, it also guides you in a certain direction you may not want to go. I'm also used to being somewhat respectful of what humans have written, so long as it's not incorrect, even if it's not the way I would have written something.

jhonof 4y ago
> It's probably the same thing as with writing text. If you find starting from a blank page is anxiety-producing, a page of generated text may be useful even if you end up rewriting a lot of it. This is a pretty cogent insight, I much prefer having a draft of, for example, an email and then completely rewriting it, rather than starting an email from scratch. I'm not sure why, but it makes it seem much more approachable to me. That being said, I have found GPT-4 code not useful for anything but boilerplates or small functions. It often gets large blocks of code so wrong that it is just much faster to write it from scratch. What I have found useful so far is asking for a commented outline of what I'm asking for with just variable names filled in, but no implementation. It often gets that correct, and then I do the implementation correct.

sh4rks 4y ago

Same. Call me weird, but I actually enjoy reviewing and reading other people's code, because I'm good at spotting errors. When I code from scratch, I suffer from the programmer's equivalent of writer's block.