undefined | Better HN

0 pointsngai_aku1y ago0 comments

You’re solving novel problems all day every day?

0 comments

dmd1y ago

Pretty much, yes. My job is pretty fun; it mostly entails things like "take this horrible file workflow some research assistant came up with while high 15 years ago and turn it into a newer horrible file format a NEW research assistant came up with (also while high) 3 years ago" - and automate this in our data processing pipeline.

fireflash381y ago

If you've got clearly defined start input format and end output format, sure it seems that it would be a good candidate for heavy LLM use. But I don't know if that's most people.

dmd1y ago

If it were ever clearly defined or even consistent from input to input I would be overjoyed.

delusional1y ago

If I understand that correctly you're converting file formats? That's not exactly "novel"

llm_trw1y ago

This is exactly the type of novel work that llms are good at. It's tedious and has annoying internal logic, but that logic is quite flat and there are a million examples to generalise from.

What they fail at is code with high cyclomatic complexity. Back in the llama 2 finetune days I wrote a script that would break down what each node in the control flow graph into its own prompt using literate programming and the results were amazing for the time. Using the same prompts I'd get correct code in every language I tried.

Der_Einzige1y ago

Due to WFH, the weed laws where tech workers live, and the fast tolerance building of cannabis in the body - I estimate that 10% of all code written by west coast tech workers is done “while high” and that estimate is likely low.

portaouflop1y ago

Do tech workers write better or worse code while high ?

throw3108221y ago

Should copilot be renamed to "designated driver"?

gitaarik1y ago

If we weren't, we (as in developers) weren't needed, right?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

dmd1y ago

fireflash381y ago

If you've got clearly defined start input format and end output format, sure it seems that it would be a good candidate for heavy LLM use. But I don't know if that's most people.

dmd1y ago

If it were ever clearly defined or even consistent from input to input I would be overjoyed.

delusional1y ago

If I understand that correctly you're converting file formats? That's not exactly "novel"

llm_trw1y ago

This is exactly the type of novel work that llms are good at. It's tedious and has annoying internal logic, but that logic is quite flat and there are a million examples to generalise from.

Der_Einzige1y ago

portaouflop1y ago

Do tech workers write better or worse code while high ?

throw3108221y ago

Should copilot be renamed to "designated driver"?

gitaarik1y ago

If we weren't, we (as in developers) weren't needed, right?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse