7 ms·

I’ve coded in many languages over the years but reasonably new to the TS/JS/Next world. I’ve found if you give your prompts a kind long form “stream of conscio

I’ve coded in many languages over the years but reasonably new to the TS/JS/Next world. I’ve found if you give your prompts a kind long form “stream of consciousness”, where you outline snippets of code in markdown along with contextual notes and then summarise/outline at the end what you actually wish to achieve, you can get great results. Think a long form, single page “documentation” type prompts that alternate between written copy/contextual intent/description and code blocks. Annotating code blocks with file names above the blocks I’m sure helps too. Don’t waste your context window on redundant/irrelevant information or code, stating a code sample is abridged or adding commented ellipses seems to do the job.

twilightfringe 2y ago
ha! good to confirm! I tend to do this, just kind of as a double-check thing, but never sure if it actually worked or if it was a placebo, lol. Or end with "from the user's perspective: all the "B" elements should light up in excitement when you click "C""
mvkel 2y ago
Going to try this! Thanks for the tip
d357r0y3r 2y ago
By the time I've fully documented and explained what I want to be done, and then review the result, usually finding that it's worse than what I would have written myself, I end up questioning my instinct to even reach for this tool. I like it for general refactoring and day to day small tasks, but anything that's relatively domain-specific, I just can't seem to get anything that's worth using.
- noahbp 2y ago
  Like most AI tools, great for beginners, time-savers for intermediate users, and frequently a waste of time in domains where you're an expert. I've used Cursor for shipping better frontend slop, and it's great. I skip a lot of trial and error, but not all of it.
  - d357r0y3r 2y ago
    I agree that it's amazing as a learning tool. I think the "time to ramp" on a new technology or programming language has probably been cut in half or more.
  - epolanski 2y ago
    ,> and frequently a waste of time in domains where you're an expert. I'm a domain expert and I disagree. There's many scenarios where using LLMs pays off. E.g. a long file or very long function are just that, and an LLM is faster at understanding it whole not being limited in how many things you can track in your mind at once (between 4 and 6). It's still gonna be faster at refactoring it and testing it than you will.

twilightfringe 2y ago

ha! good to confirm! I tend to do this, just kind of as a double-check thing, but never sure if it actually worked or if it was a placebo, lol. Or end with "from the user's perspective: all the "B" elements should light up in excitement when you click "C""

mvkel 2y ago

Going to try this! Thanks for the tip

d357r0y3r 2y ago

By the time I've fully documented and explained what I want to be done, and then review the result, usually finding that it's worse than what I would have written myself, I end up questioning my instinct to even reach for this tool. I like it for general refactoring and day to day small tasks, but anything that's relatively domain-specific, I just can't seem to get anything that's worth using.

noahbp 2y ago
Like most AI tools, great for beginners, time-savers for intermediate users, and frequently a waste of time in domains where you're an expert. I've used Cursor for shipping better frontend slop, and it's great. I skip a lot of trial and error, but not all of it.
- d357r0y3r 2y ago
  I agree that it's amazing as a learning tool. I think the "time to ramp" on a new technology or programming language has probably been cut in half or more.
- epolanski 2y ago
  ,> and frequently a waste of time in domains where you're an expert. I'm a domain expert and I disagree. There's many scenarios where using LLMs pays off. E.g. a long file or very long function are just that, and an LLM is faster at understanding it whole not being limited in how many things you can track in your mind at once (between 4 and 6). It's still gonna be faster at refactoring it and testing it than you will.