This misses the best use of AI in my opinion, which is to gain understanding. Whst is this bit of code doing? Is there a risk of data leaking here? Are permissions enforced downstream of this function?
Code review can go much deeper now if you use AI to aggressively attack a PR combined with your human insight. Same for planning a feature:
Can I consolidate this logic to a shared function? Does the error surface to the user and are there any gaps? What preexisting functionality is affected by this PR? Can this query be made more efficient?
LLMs are great with focused questions, up and down abstraction layers and across all kinds of concerns. Stack up these focused concerns into a rich understanding of what you are doing or writing.
Understanding is the real output, code is the byproduct.
I think one of the best use cases of AI is as a natural language interface to programming. The syntax of a programming language is an opinionated part of its design that often adds to the complexity of learning the language.
“But that would be like telling a student in the 70s to pretend that calculators or computers don’t exist.”
If students of the 70s or today pretended they didn’t exist up to a certain point when they needed them to move forward, like bioinformatics or something, they 100% would be better off. There is plenty of research on off loading thinning providing a worse understanding of the material - eg side rules proving a better understanding than calculators.
Exactly. I always think about the ways consumers make terrible decisions with everyday purchases at the grocery store etc. If people could easily estimate unit costs in their head for example, a lot of predatory options would have to go away. But calculators keep people from having to get good with everyday math in their head, while those same calculators sit unused in many everyday scenarios where people don't go to the effort to use them.
Quick estimating (which is a different skill from calculating exact answers using pen and paper) is most useful there. People do carry computers with them these days and they do have calculator apps. Some shops I buy from do have unit prices for many items.
I think AI might be more of a problem, at least for some skills because it is not just doing a small unit of work. its more like the problem of doing more complex calculations. An example I have come across with calculators is students learning statistics without knowing how to calculate a variance, because they just put the numbers into a calculator. There is a failure there to learn the concept - they do not really know what a variance or SD is. I can imagine AI doing a lot of that.
Very interesting. I find this is specially applicable to people learning or perfecting coding skills, not so much for developers already proficient in coding. What do you think?
This misses the best use of AI in my opinion, which is to gain understanding. Whst is this bit of code doing? Is there a risk of data leaking here? Are permissions enforced downstream of this function?
Code review can go much deeper now if you use AI to aggressively attack a PR combined with your human insight. Same for planning a feature:
Can I consolidate this logic to a shared function? Does the error surface to the user and are there any gaps? What preexisting functionality is affected by this PR? Can this query be made more efficient?
LLMs are great with focused questions, up and down abstraction layers and across all kinds of concerns. Stack up these focused concerns into a rich understanding of what you are doing or writing.
Understanding is the real output, code is the byproduct.
Wish I could upvote twice or something
Exactly, i so wish the narratives around LLMs in most fields were around how they can enable us to be better ourselves...
I think one of the best use cases of AI is as a natural language interface to programming. The syntax of a programming language is an opinionated part of its design that often adds to the complexity of learning the language.
“But that would be like telling a student in the 70s to pretend that calculators or computers don’t exist.”
If students of the 70s or today pretended they didn’t exist up to a certain point when they needed them to move forward, like bioinformatics or something, they 100% would be better off. There is plenty of research on off loading thinning providing a worse understanding of the material - eg side rules proving a better understanding than calculators.
Exactly. I always think about the ways consumers make terrible decisions with everyday purchases at the grocery store etc. If people could easily estimate unit costs in their head for example, a lot of predatory options would have to go away. But calculators keep people from having to get good with everyday math in their head, while those same calculators sit unused in many everyday scenarios where people don't go to the effort to use them.
Quick estimating (which is a different skill from calculating exact answers using pen and paper) is most useful there. People do carry computers with them these days and they do have calculator apps. Some shops I buy from do have unit prices for many items.
I think AI might be more of a problem, at least for some skills because it is not just doing a small unit of work. its more like the problem of doing more complex calculations. An example I have come across with calculators is students learning statistics without knowing how to calculate a variance, because they just put the numbers into a calculator. There is a failure there to learn the concept - they do not really know what a variance or SD is. I can imagine AI doing a lot of that.
I don't know if this was universal, but when I was a student we weren't allowed calculators until I believe 10th grade
You learn stuff by heart, so that when you mess up with the calculator you have a feel that stuff has gone wrong
“You can use the electronic tuner once you learn to tune by ear” - any decent guitar teacher
Very interesting. I find this is specially applicable to people learning or perfecting coding skills, not so much for developers already proficient in coding. What do you think?