3 ms·

I really wish I had ChatGPT when I was teaching myself programming. I wouldn’t have failed university programming courses and would have been in the workforce y

I really wish I had ChatGPT when I was teaching myself programming. I wouldn’t have failed university programming courses and would have been in the workforce years faster.

Sakos 3y ago
Absolutely. I've been teaching myself Haskell and C++ too. For the first time in my life, learning is fun and not a dire struggle every step of the way (particularly as somebody with ADHD). Need to know how to handle building a C++ project or dependencies? No longer have to go through dozens of posts on Reddit or DO or pages upon pages of documentation. I can just ask, then focus on what I actually want to learn. Confused about some bizarre syntax in Haskell that gives me nothing on Google? Just ask. Don't understand how a function is constructed? Don't need to figure out what the correct terms are in what combination to find out what I'm looking at. Want a step by step explanation? Easy. Even though it's far from perfect and I have plenty to complain about, it's already a valuable part of my everyday life with its impact on how I learn new things and experiment.
- empath-nirvana 3y ago
  It's been _incredibly_ useful for bringing new Rust devs up to speed here.
bongodongobob 3y ago
With all due respect, if you couldn't get a passing grade in intro programming courses I'm not sure how much GPT would have helped. Additionally, if college was the first time getting your feet wet in programming, you were likely already years behind the curve. I'm not trying to be nasty, but for loops, variables, the concept of program flow etc are very elementary concepts that many children and teens are fully capable of teaching themselves, even pre-internet. I think ChatGPT could pass any intro programming course so I have a hunch that it's just going to lead to lots of cheating and poor programming skills. Did you end up sticking it out? Grats if so and you're probably better off for not having had ChatGPT hold your hand. For me, the temptation to just have it pass my classes for me would have been way too tempting. It's too good at boilerplate programming which is every programming 101 project. "Write me an employee tracking system in java." Change up the comments and boom done with the assignment.
- maroonblazer 3y ago
  When I was learning programming I was grateful for Stackoverflow and other internet resources. I couldn't imagine learning as quickly as I did without those resources. It's the same with LLMs. Now I don't have to wait hours or days for someone on SO or Reddit to read and respond to my question. Or spend who knows how long Googling for a similar - but not the SAME - question and trying to bend their solution to my problem.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

I really wish I had ChatGPT when I was teaching myself programming. I wouldn’t have failed university programming courses and would have been in the workforce years faster.

Sakos 3y ago

Absolutely. I've been teaching myself Haskell and C++ too. For the first time in my life, learning is fun and not a dire struggle every step of the way (particularly as somebody with ADHD). Need to know how to handle building a C++ project or dependencies? No longer have to go through dozens of posts on Reddit or DO or pages upon pages of documentation. I can just ask, then focus on what I actually want to learn. Confused about some bizarre syntax in Haskell that gives me nothing on Google? Just ask. Don't understand how a function is constructed? Don't need to figure out what the correct terms are in what combination to find out what I'm looking at. Want a step by step explanation? Easy. Even though it's far from perfect and I have plenty to complain about, it's already a valuable part of my everyday life with its impact on how I learn new things and experiment.

empath-nirvana 3y ago
It's been _incredibly_ useful for bringing new Rust devs up to speed here.

bongodongobob 3y ago

With all due respect, if you couldn't get a passing grade in intro programming courses I'm not sure how much GPT would have helped. Additionally, if college was the first time getting your feet wet in programming, you were likely already years behind the curve. I'm not trying to be nasty, but for loops, variables, the concept of program flow etc are very elementary concepts that many children and teens are fully capable of teaching themselves, even pre-internet. I think ChatGPT could pass any intro programming course so I have a hunch that it's just going to lead to lots of cheating and poor programming skills. Did you end up sticking it out? Grats if so and you're probably better off for not having had ChatGPT hold your hand. For me, the temptation to just have it pass my classes for me would have been way too tempting. It's too good at boilerplate programming which is every programming 101 project. "Write me an employee tracking system in java." Change up the comments and boom done with the assignment.

maroonblazer 3y ago
When I was learning programming I was grateful for Stackoverflow and other internet resources. I couldn't imagine learning as quickly as I did without those resources. It's the same with LLMs. Now I don't have to wait hours or days for someone on SO or Reddit to read and respond to my question. Or spend who knows how long Googling for a similar - but not the SAME - question and trying to bend their solution to my problem.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]