Readit Newstomyedwab commented on How I write code using Cursor arguingwithalgorithms.com... · Posted by u/tomyedwab
In the article, you mentioned that you've been writing code for 36 years, so don't you feel IDEs like cursor make you feel less competent? Meaning I loved the process of scratching my head over a problem and then coming to a solution but now we have AI Agents solving the problems and optimizing code which takes the fun out of it.
I do think that is a real risk, yes. I don't want to use LLMs as a crutch to guard against having to ever learn anything new, or having to implement something myself. There is such a thing as productive struggle which is a core part of learning.
That said, I think everyone can relate to wasting an awful lot of time on things that are not "interesting" from the perspective of the project you are working on. For example, I can't count the number of hours I've spent trying to get something specific to work in webpack, and there is no payoff because today the fashionable tool is vite and tomorrow it'll be something else. I still want to know my code inside and out, but writing a deploy script for it should not be something I need to spend time on. If I had a junior dev working for me for pennies a day, I would absolutely delegate that stuff to them.
tomyedwab commented on The Fourier Uncertainty Principles [pdf] (2021) math.uchicago.edu/~may/RE... · Posted by u/mindcrime
So the Fourier transform on wave functions is like integrating a normal function, like the velocity function, in Newtonian mechanics?
That sounds more complicated than what is actually happening here. The way wave functions evolve over time, their velocity of movement is proportional to the frequency of oscillation. That is why measuring the frequency component of the wave function gives you the momentum function.
You have to keep in mind that the wave function represents the many places the particle can be with some probability, as well as the many frequencies it could have, so what uncertainty means in this case is that if you constrain the function to a small area in space (with zero probability outside it) you necessarily end up with a momentum function that spreads across many different velocities.
I've been writing code for 36 years, so I don't take any of the criticism to heart. If you know what you are doing, you can ship production quality code written by an LLM. I'm not going to label it "made by an AI!" because the consumer doesn't care so long as it works and who needs the "never AI!" backlash anyway?
But to the OP: your standards are too high. AI is like working with a bright intern, they are not going to do everything exactly the way that you prefer, but they are enthusiastic and can take direction. Choose your battles and focus on making the code maintainable in the long term, not perfect in the short term.