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Comment by skybrian | Hacker News Reader

When I got out of school I went to work for Oracle and decided to read the database manuals, even though I wasn't working on database stuff. When I left I read other database manuals and was able to help people code database stuff, not because I was a real database expert, but because I had read the manuals and they hadn't.

I think something similar is going on here? For some subjects and some questions, ChatGPT acts like a co-worker who has read all the manuals, and that's enough.

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Yes - from the examples I've seen, it appears that we're heading towards the Star Trek bridge computer. Even back in the days when TNG aired I don't think anyone really considered the computer "intelligent", just extremely capable and with a magical ability to fill in the blanks while also having a perfect memory for facts. Even without true intelligence (whatever that really is), there is no denying that having your own bridge computer would be great.

Of course, we're going to find some way to fuck it up with advertising, but that's because we live in the Terran Empire timeline.

I've posted this before, but using it as a coding partner reminds me of this scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaUuE582vq8) from TNG (Geordi solves a problem on the holodeck).

that is cool!

I always viewed the Bridge Computer as non sentient, so it fits.

I was actually literally thinking about that as I worked on my solo project. This is like a coworker I can ask questions of and bounce ideas off of. It actually gives some insightful ideas. I was working on a file rotation scheme and it suggested naming the files uuid_<time in ms>_<resolution number> with the intent that resolution conflicts won’t need to be walked very often if ever optimizing the common case of file.0, file.1, etc. This isn’t like earth shattering or something I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, but it was something I would have a convo about and someone would suggest it and I would pause and consider and find value in it. This is beyond a reference material discussion, this is bouncing architectural ideas off of someone who knows their shit but occasionally hallucinates. That’s generally what I look for in coworkers and employees anyways.

Note: I’m aware UUIDs can contain the time but the intent was the UUID was invariant in the process and it would move to another file once it got to a certain size.

I mean usually the coworker wouldn’t be hallucinating at work

Only the ones I’d be caught hanging out with would

That depends, what’s the rate of hallucination compared to your coworker whose microdoses are a little too macro some days? :)

For solo dev this is such a game changer. I found it difficult to work on solo projects in the past because there is no one to talk to who understands what I am doing. Now whenever I feel "stuck" I just write my thoughts to ChatGPT and it often helps me get ideas to unstack. Also, in the past I often procrastinated when I needed to code something that is obvious and hence boring. No longer the case, somehow it just feels more natural and fun explaining it to ChatGPT in words.

I actually also feel a lot less “lonely” in that I’m not alone in my confusion and frustration. I’m not taking chatgpt out to lunch or inviting it over for my daughters birthday but it does fill a void Siri and Alexa don’t on my solo work.

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