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0 pointsgodelski6mo ago0 comments

  > you learned less about everything surrounding it.

I think one of the big acceleration points in my skills as a developer was when I moved from searching SO and other similar sources to reading the docs and reading the code. At first, this was much slower. I was usually looking for a more specific thing and didn't usually need the surrounding context. But then as I continued, that surrounding context became important. That stuff I was reading compounded and helped me see much more. These gains were completely invisible and sometimes even looked like losses. In reality, that context was always important, I just wasn't skilled enough to understand why. Those "losses" are more akin to a loss you have when you make an investment. You lost money, but gained a stock.

I mean I still use SO, medium articles, LLMs, and tons of sources. But I find myself just turning to the docs as my first choice now. At worst I get better questions to pay attention to with the other sources.

I think there's this terrible belief that's developed in CS and the LLM crowd targets. The idea that everything is simple. There's truth to this, but there's a lot of complexity to simplicity. The defining characteristic between an expert and a novice is their knowledge of nuance. The expert knows what nuances matter and what don't. Sometimes a small issue compounds and turns into a large one, sometimes it disappears. The junior can't tell the difference, but the expert can. Unfortunately, this can sound like bikeshedding and quibbling over nothings (sometimes it is). But only experts can tell the difference ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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samurai_sword6mo ago

You are absolutely right. I work as Robotics Engineer at autonomous company. I use cursor and currently using gpt-5-high for coding. When I started out coding for my project 3 years ago there was no AI coding. I had to learn how to code by reading lots of docs and reading lots & lots of code(nav2 stack). This gave me the sense of how code is architected, why it is the way it is, etc. I also try to not blindly follow any code I see but every single piece of code I critically ask lots of questions(this made me crazy, good kind). This helped me to learn extremely fast. So the point is "everyone must know when their brain is being used and when not. If your brain is not being used at anytime of a project then you are probably out of loop".

The thing about AI is when it started out(coding models) they were kinda bad. But I feel any tool that provides value to time or effort is a useful tool. I use AI now mostly to add some methods, ask questions about the code base and brainstorm ideas against that code base. There are levels on how you use this tool(AI).

1. Complete trust(if its easy task and you can verify quickly). 2. medium trust( you ask questions back to AI to critically understand why it did what it did). 3. zero trust.(this is very important for learning fast, not coding. You need to stress AI to give me lots of information, right or wrong, cross-check it manually and soak it in your brain carefully. Here you will know whether that AI is good or bad.)

Conclusion: We are human beings. Any tool must be used with caution, especially AI that is capable of playing tricks with your precious brain. Build razor sharp instincts and trust them ONLY.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsgodelski6mo ago0 comments

  > you learned less about everything surrounding it.

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samurai_sword6mo ago

Conclusion: We are human beings. Any tool must be used with caution, especially AI that is capable of playing tricks with your precious brain. Build razor sharp instincts and trust them ONLY.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse