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>I was working on some code where I didn't really understand the typescript types and fed it the crazy error messages I was getting and it made a try to underst

>I was working on some code where I didn't really understand the typescript types and fed it the crazy error messages I was getting and it made a try to understand them and didn't really, I used it as a "rubber duck" over the course of a day or two and working with it I eventually came to understand what was wrong and how to fix and I got into a place that I like and when there is an error I can understand it and it can understand it too. I have to wonder if you tried a simple google search and read through some docs if you couldn't have figured this out quicker than trying to coax a result out of the LLM.

solarkraft 1y ago
My (not GP) intuitive answer would be hell no. Typescript messages are pretty hard to google and even parse manually and the LLM suggesting multiple approaches and ways to think about the problem does seem useful. It sometimes uncovers unknown unknowns you might never find otherwise. I have had cases in which a web search and some good old fashioned thinking have yielded better results than using an LLM, but on average I’m pretty sure the LLM has the edge.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  Personally I think Stack Overflow and Google are 95% trash for that kind of problem. The answers are in (i) the Typescript documentation and (ii) the documentation of libraries that I'm using. I could get lucky with a Google search and it could be worth trying, but I wouldn't expect it to work. Personally my preference is to have a language and libraries with great documentation (Python, Java, Typescript isn't too bad [1]) and really know that documentation like the back of my hand. If I hadn't had the LLM I would have probably figured it out the same way doing experiments, I might have asked my other "rubber duck" https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113935901671533690 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113935901671533690 A tactic I didn't use, which helps in "legacy" systems where I am stuck, is start a fresh project in the IDE and try either reproducing the problem or building a tiny system which is problem free. I'm hesitant to say what speedup I got out of the "figuring out the types together with the LLM" but emotionally I felt supported and in the process I wrote a whole lot, like I was keeping track of the process in a notebook. I feel a lot times when I have good LLM conversations I wind up writing better code than I would otherwise, not necessarily write it faster -- it's like pair programming. [1] The typescript docs are great for the typescript stuff, MDN is good for Javascript and Javascript's stdlib
  - leptons 1y ago
    "felt emotionally supported by an LLM" Wow. This sounds so foreign to me. Being emotionally supported by the proverbial "tin can". If that makes you happy, then I'm happy for you, I guess?
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]

solarkraft 1y ago

My (not GP) intuitive answer would be hell no. Typescript messages are pretty hard to google and even parse manually and the LLM suggesting multiple approaches and ways to think about the problem does seem useful. It sometimes uncovers unknown unknowns you might never find otherwise. I have had cases in which a web search and some good old fashioned thinking have yielded better results than using an LLM, but on average I’m pretty sure the LLM has the edge.

PaulHoule 1y ago
Personally I think Stack Overflow and Google are 95% trash for that kind of problem. The answers are in (i) the Typescript documentation and (ii) the documentation of libraries that I'm using. I could get lucky with a Google search and it could be worth trying, but I wouldn't expect it to work. Personally my preference is to have a language and libraries with great documentation (Python, Java, Typescript isn't too bad [1]) and really know that documentation like the back of my hand. If I hadn't had the LLM I would have probably figured it out the same way doing experiments, I might have asked my other "rubber duck" https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113935901671533690 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113935901671533690 A tactic I didn't use, which helps in "legacy" systems where I am stuck, is start a fresh project in the IDE and try either reproducing the problem or building a tiny system which is problem free. I'm hesitant to say what speedup I got out of the "figuring out the types together with the LLM" but emotionally I felt supported and in the process I wrote a whole lot, like I was keeping track of the process in a notebook. I feel a lot times when I have good LLM conversations I wind up writing better code than I would otherwise, not necessarily write it faster -- it's like pair programming. [1] The typescript docs are great for the typescript stuff, MDN is good for Javascript and Javascript's stdlib
- leptons 1y ago
  "felt emotionally supported by an LLM" Wow. This sounds so foreign to me. Being emotionally supported by the proverbial "tin can". If that makes you happy, then I'm happy for you, I guess?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]