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jyounker06/16/20251 replyview on HN

Yeah, you have to be really careful about how you use LLMs. I've been finding it very useful to use them as teachers, or to use them in the same way that I'd use a coworker. "What's the idiomatic ways to write this python comprehension in javascript?" Or, "Hey, do you remember what you call it when..." And when I request these things I'll try to ask in the most generic way possible so that I then get retype the relevant code, filling in the blanks with my own values.

That's just one use though. The other is treating it like it's a jr developer, which has its own shift in thinking. Practice in writing details specs goes a long way here.


Replies

sorcerer-mar06/16/2025

100% agreed.

> Practice in writing details specs goes a long way here.

This is an additional asymmetric advantage to more senior engineers as they use these tools