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Yeah, I will say now that I've played with the AI coding tools more, it seems like there are two distinct use cases: 1 - Using coding tools in a context/langua

Yeah, I will say now that I've played with the AI coding tools more, it seems like there are two distinct use cases: 1 - Using coding tools in a context/language/framework you're already familiar with. This one I have been having a lot of fun with. I am in a good position to review the AI-generated code, and also examine its implementation plan to see if it's reasonable. I am also able to decompose tasks in a way that the AI is better at handling vs. giving it vague instructions that it then does poorly on. I feel more in control, and it feels like the AI is stripping away drudgery. For example, for a side project I've been using Claude Code with an iOS app, a domain I've spent many years in. It's a treat - it's able to compose a lot of boilerplate and do light integrations that I can easily write myself, but find annoying. 2 - Using coding tools in a context/language/framework you don't actually know. I know next to nothing about web frontend frameworks, but for various side projects wanted to stand up some simple web frontends, and this is where AI code tools have been a frustration. I don't know what exactly I want from the AI, because I don't know these frameworks. I am poorly equipped to review the code that it writes. When it fails (and it fails a lot) I have trouble diagnosing the underlying issues and fixing it myself - so I have to re-prompt the LLM with symptoms, leading to frustrating loops that feel like two cave-dwellers trying to figure out a crashed spaceship. I've been able to stand up a lot of stuff that I otherwise would never have been able to, but I'm 99% sure the code is utter shit, but I also am not in a position to really quantify or understand the shit in any way. I suppose if I were properly "vibe coding" I shouldn't care about the fact that the AI produced a katamari ball of code held together by bubble gum. But I do care. Anyway, for use case #1 I'm a big fan of these tools, but it's really not the "get out of learning your shit" card that it's sometimes hyped up to be.

saratogacx 1y ago
For case 2, I've had a lot of luck starting with asking the LLM "I have experience in X, Y, and Z technologies, help me translate this project in those terms, list anything this code does that doesn't align with the typical use of the technologies they've chosen". This has given me a great "intro" to move me closer to being able to understand. Once I've done that and piked a few follow up questions, I feel much better in diving into the generated code.
- blks 1y ago
  So you basically read some articles about how frontend works, and that helped you understand frontend code better.
  - saratogacx 1y ago
    Not quite that reductive. More of, I thought about what would be the exact page/article that, if it exists, would get me started, and used the description of that as a prompt to the LLM "Learning X for people that know Y". This is especially useful because X is now curated to what you're actually working on and Y is curated to what you already know.

saratogacx 1y ago

For case 2, I've had a lot of luck starting with asking the LLM "I have experience in X, Y, and Z technologies, help me translate this project in those terms, list anything this code does that doesn't align with the typical use of the technologies they've chosen". This has given me a great "intro" to move me closer to being able to understand. Once I've done that and piked a few follow up questions, I feel much better in diving into the generated code.

blks 1y ago
So you basically read some articles about how frontend works, and that helped you understand frontend code better.
- saratogacx 1y ago
  Not quite that reductive. More of, I thought about what would be the exact page/article that, if it exists, would get me started, and used the description of that as a prompt to the LLM "Learning X for people that know Y". This is especially useful because X is now curated to what you're actually working on and Y is curated to what you already know.