For me, I’d say a lot of my gains come from asking AI questions rather than generating code directly.
This is often the case for me as well. I often work on solo side projects and use Claude to think out loud. This lets me put on different hats, just like when pair programming, including: design mode, implementation mode, testing mode, and documentation mode.
I rarely use generated code as-is, but I do find it interesting to look at. As a concrete example, I recently implemented a game engine for the board game Azul (and multithreaded solver engine) in Rust and found Claude very helpful for being an extra set of eyes. I used it sort of a running issue tracker, design partner, and critic.
Now that I think about it, maybe the best metaphor I can use is that Claude helps me project myself onto myself. For many of my projects, I lean towards “write good, understandable code” instead of “move fast and break things”. This level of self-criticism and curiosity has served me well with Claude. Without this mentality, I can see why people dismiss LLM-assisted coding; it certainly is far from a magic genie.
I’ve long had a bias toward design-driven work (write the README first, think on a whiteboard, etc), whether it be coding or almost anything, so having an infinitely patient conversational partner can be really amazing at times. At other times, the failure modes are frustrating, to say the least.
This is often the case for me as well. I often work on solo side projects and use Claude to think out loud. This lets me put on different hats, just like when pair programming, including: design mode, implementation mode, testing mode, and documentation mode.
I rarely use generated code as-is, but I do find it interesting to look at. As a concrete example, I recently implemented a game engine for the board game Azul (and multithreaded solver engine) in Rust and found Claude very helpful for being an extra set of eyes. I used it sort of a running issue tracker, design partner, and critic.
Now that I think about it, maybe the best metaphor I can use is that Claude helps me project myself onto myself. For many of my projects, I lean towards “write good, understandable code” instead of “move fast and break things”. This level of self-criticism and curiosity has served me well with Claude. Without this mentality, I can see why people dismiss LLM-assisted coding; it certainly is far from a magic genie.
I’ve long had a bias toward design-driven work (write the README first, think on a whiteboard, etc), whether it be coding or almost anything, so having an infinitely patient conversational partner can be really amazing at times. At other times, the failure modes are frustrating, to say the least.