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192 points imasl42 | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.962s | source
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brap ◴[] No.45312062[source]
My process is basically

1. Give it requirements

2. Tell it to ask me clarifying questions

3. When no more questions, ask it to explain the requirements back to me in a formal PRD

4. I criticize it

5. Tell it to come up with 2 alternative high level designs

6. I pick one and criticize it

7. Tell it to come up with 2 alternative detailed TODO lists

8. I pick one and criticize it

9. Tell it to come up with 2 alternative implementations of one of the TODOs

10. I pick one and criticize it

11. Back to 9

I usually “snapshot” outputs along the way and return to them to reduce useless context.

This is what produces the most decent results for me, which aren’t spectacular but at the very least can be a baseline for my own implementation.

It’s very time consuming and 80% of the time I end up wondering if it would’ve been quicker to just do it all by myself right from the start.

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1. codingdave ◴[] No.45312874[source]
Definitely sounds slower than doing it yourself.

I am falling into a pattern of treating AI coding like a drunk mid-level dev: "I saw those few paragraphs of notes you wrote up on a napkin, and stayed up late Saturday night while drinking and spat out this implementation. you like?"

So I can say to myself, "No, do not like. But the overall gist at least started in the right direction, so I can revise it from here and still be faster than had I done it myself on Monday morning."

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2. jvanderbot ◴[] No.45313088[source]
The most useful thing I've found is "I need to do X, show me 3 different popular libraries that do it". I've really limited my AI use to "Lady's Illustrated Primer" especially after some bad experiences with AI code from devs who should know better.
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3. z3c0 ◴[] No.45316708[source]
I don't even frame my requests conversationally. They usually read like brief demands, sometimes just comma delimited technologies followed by a goal. Works fine for me, but I also never prompt anything that I don't already understand how to do myself. Keeps the cart behind the horse.
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4. scuff3d ◴[] No.45320394{3}[source]
I've started putting in my system prompt "keep answers brief and don't talk in the first/second person". Gets rid of all the annoying sycophancy and stops it from going on for ten paragraphs. I can ask for more details when I need it.