Thread | Brutkey

If you come with a complex problem to an experienced coder, he will ask you a lot strange questions.

He doesn't just want to spit out the code you requested, but to understand the core problem.

Usually those questions will annoy you. It will make your problem uglier and dirtier than you thought and will ruin the beautiful solution you have in mind. But that approach gives you the chance to get you a real solution.

The AI doesn't ask you all those pesky questions. It doesn't want to understand the problem and just spits out code.

I understand the appeal of that ... and the risks.

Bernhard Hofmann 🇬🇧

🇨🇭

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@BernhardHofmann@mastodonapp.uk

@masek@infosec.exchange thank you for changing "he" to "they". It's what I was waiting/hoping for to boost the message.

Turre
@Turre@mementomori.social

@masek@infosec.exchange Amusingly, Claude Code quickstart contains the following Pro Tip! to beginners:

"Before making changes, let Claude understand your code:"

...with examples such as "analyze the database schema".

Would you need to specifically ask for such things if there was anything resembling intelligence in the machine? Your hammer doesn't ask about the nails either.

Rowland Mosbergen
@rowlandm@disabled.social

@masek@infosec.exchange I've pissed off a lot of people over the years by asking high level questions and asking about the high level algorithm...

Image from https://figshare.com/articles/presentation/WEHI_RCP_Internship_Program_Welcome/28503338

There are three boxes stacked on top of each other on the left labelled “intern’s view of how to tackle a project” where it only has a small box for “Clarity on high level client needs” a slightly larger box for “Clarity on high level technical architecture, tools, and algotithms” and a large box that is bigger than the other two for “Implementation and Coding”. In the three boxes to the right. called “Effective view”, that are stacked on each other, the sizes are reversed, with the “Clarity on high level client needs” being the biggest and twice as big as “Clarity on high level technical architecture, tools, and algotithms” and the smallest box “Implementation and Coding”.

Chris Mills
@ambientspace@cloudisland.nz

@masek@infosec.exchange there were two questions I was regularly asked when I was new to coding and asked for help from my colleagues: “what are you really trying to do?” and “do we really need to do that?”.

I have found these two simple questions to be applicable to coding and pretty much everything else.