So I don't think it's a matter of form; whether the AI should or shouldn't act like a human.
> Practically speaking, I probably just need to condition myself not to get caught in the illusion of speaking with a human. Though I’m not really thrilled about a future where I need to guard against the tools I use for my job.
I think, I hope, this will be fixable to some degree, but at this moment I believe it's best to communicate in Queen's English and try to maintain the level of clarity of thought you expect of them in return.
My pet theory is that actual real conversations they were trained on with bad grammar and spelling are in general relatively starved of proper reasoning. By talking to them in this fashion you activate their lowbrow patterns and while it may not be catastrophic I can't imagine it helps.
If you cannot formulate a specification, or describe a requirement - or indeed, if you cannot fathom the difference between a spec and a requirement, and why its needed to differentiate these from each other prior to doing a proper design and implementation - then you're going to carry your bad practice into the AI realm and that AI is going to be a force multiplier of your own bad practice. Because you will never know if the specs/reqs/design chosen by the AI are actually appropriate, unless you yourself review those specs/reqs/designs, AND the code produced by the AI to fulfill those specs/reqs/designs...
AI makes the able software developer, more able.
But it also makes the unable software developer, even more unable - with the risk of exceeding the AI-users limits on the Peter Principle scale.. in fact, AI will propel you to the middle of your own Peter Principle dilemma faster than you can type, probably.
Communication and writing skills are essential, with or without AI. But reading skills are even more relevant when dealing with AI. Alas, so few people who choose to use AI, have the temerity to actually do the work - or else they wouldn't be rushing for the AI tool in the first place.
Review, review, review. Always. Read the damn code, no matter who or what wrote it. Make sure it fulfills the specs and requirements its supposed to fulfill - and even more important make sure you, the reviewer, also understand the specs and requirements.
And if you don't, fix that - don't ship it anyway, ffs!
This drives me bananas
I love writing code. There's nothing like getting into flow and just building. Reviewing code? Less interesting. Much more tedious. I do it because it's part of the job
So this AI coding shit has completely eliminated the part of the job I enjoy, and replaced it with 100x more of the part I only really tolerate
I don't want this career anymore :/
1. Even if you communicate perfectly, there's no guarantee that the LLM will "behave as instructed" and as you imagined it to. Indeed, the frustration often comes from the fact that you've said something as clear as day, yet the agent takes another path.
2. Part of the value of coding agents is exactly that you don't need to lay it all out perfectly for them. I mean, if I need to give the LLM every little implementation detail, I might as well write the code. Of course, I don't expect it to work off of "I want nice app make money", but I do expect some "intelligence" in figuring out the missing pieces.
People forget. People misunderstand clear things. Teach yourself to not judge people for being human. You'll have easier time with AI. You are not gonna be angry at 5 year old because it occasionally can't follow your instructions. AI is a 5 year old that accidentally ate all the encyclopedias in the world and is super eager to help. Be a more charitable, generous, understanding person, even in the absence of actual people.
Also try a stronger model. There is a difference. I have very good results with Codex but don't get fixated on any one, they are all "state of the art" or close but they are different and state of the art is moving ahead faster and faster.
"Be a more charitable, generous, understanding person."
Anyone making such blatantly judgemental and egotistical comments to a complete stranger has absolutely no idea what is frustrating to people. And is not being anything like a charitable or understanding person.
LLM is not a human. This implication that OP or someone else is impatient against people when they get frustrated with effin machine is completely absurd.
> AI is a 5 year old that accidentally ate all the encyclopedias in the world and is super eager to help
LLM is not 5 years old kid. It is an expensive tool.
1. Slow typist
2. Terse communicator / ambiguous "it" "that" "this"
3. Assumes conversation partners share their reality and headspace
4. Mental blocks with delegation, even to competent humans
