> If they waste time by not using the debugger, adding debug log statements, or writing tests, then they're not a good fit.
Do you mean writing manual tests? Because having the LLM write tests is key in iteration speed w/o backtracking.
The only purpose of tests is the help you define good behavior and bad behavior, and keep it that way
So, when you write tests, your main job is to think (define what is good and what is bad)
As such, using IA to write tests is writing useless tests
I got a job interview this monday; I asked the guy : "do you use IA ?" He mumbled something like "yes" Then, I baited him: "It's quite handy to write tests!" He responded: yes, but no (for the above reason)
He got the job
All programming is thinking. If AI can write good code, it can write good tests. Your job – for now – is to make sure the tests are good, if only because for the time being we're still slightly better at reasoning than the AI is. Just ask Garry Kasparov if that'll ever change.
Who is Garry Kasparov ? wikipedia hits a chess player
Chess saw no innovation since hundreds of years or something
I get your point: with IA in charge, the world will stagnate
What I do not share is your belief that this is a good outcome
One-time world chess grandmaster, who lost to Deep Blue (a chess AI) in 1997 after beating it in 1996. This marked the first time an AI beat a human on the world stage in a game of pure reasoning.
I don't believe AI will cause the world to stagnate at all. I think it will unleash humanity's creativity in a way orders of magnitude greater than history has ever seen.
The scope of the ‘not’ is also unclear here. I think they’re saying that you waste time if you don’t do all the things in the list, but it could also be read as saying that not using the debugger is a waste of time, and that adding debug log statements and writing tests is also a waste of time.
Unit tests only tell you that a function isn't working, not what's happening. Convincing actual people to just throw a print statement in the middle of a method to see what something is doing, or what data it's seeing, can be like pulling teeth.
That's what the debugger is for
Yes. Sometimes just chucking a print is more convenient.
But yeah, debugger is your friend
Typo on my part. I completely agree. Back pressure is everything.
Edit: I've just updated the post.
Nice.
FWIW, since I just realized my only main comment was a criticism, I found your article very insightful. It baffles me how many people will disagree with the general premise or nit-pick one tiny detail. The only thing more surprising to me than the rate at which AI is developing is the number of developers jamming their heads into the sand over it.
Ah, I wrote a blog post specifically about this. Some engineers are not going to make it. https://ghuntley.com/ngmi
Oh, I read this the other day on HN and agreed strongly. I hadn't realized this was the same blog. Nice!