>>But then way more often it’s like having someone looking over my shoulder, telling me what they think I want to do, disrupting my thoughts.
Right way to use AI agents to code is to write the solution in plain english and let AI implement it for you. Note, when you do this, you can't expect it to write full functions for you. You have to dictate small easy to do solutions.
Split this string based on spaces and pick the 3rd element
Iterate over this and and remove all new lines
This sort of thing.
As atomic as you can dictate, the better.
Don't outsource your thinking to AI.
The way to go about AI is 'Here is the solution, write the code for it'. Not 'Here is the problem, invent a solution for it'.
You must be doing the thinking, AI must be doing the manual work on writing code. Don't let AI do the thinking while you are fixing its bugs.
Depends on how easily and quickly you can touch type though. I agree with you not many people are good at speaking their thoughts in English. In fact even in the Googling era, bulk of the masses never really benefitted from it all that much as writing and composing small, atomic questions and moving upwards(Socratic method) is not something that comes naturally to a lot of people.
This is true with Programmers too. I realised that a massive chunk of programmers didn't like or even get books like The Little Schemer Which quite literally deals with this sort of a workflow.
If you are one of those people, you are specifically cursed in the AI coding era. People who can compose small atomic questions, and build upwards stand to benefit disproportionately in these times. This is a workflow you have to get used to.
On a tangent, I was watching some videos on Youtube on how to think like a Chess Grandmaster. Sure there is a lot of theory and Knowledge base they are aware of. But what stands out is they have a strong internal monologue, and in many videos they speak it aloud. Like How do I want to deal with this piece, what if I move that piece, in what angles can the opponent approach this piece. In the next few moves can X, Y, Z happen etc etc.
This is sort of thinking is called progressive thinking. It involves making the most minimal atomic change to a thing, and then building a outcome tree out of it, and then judging the best way to go about it given all the options.
This strong internal monologue is something I have seen some legendary coders have as well. Like in English.
I guess somethings you just have to learn, adapt, improve. Its a new way/workflow of working, and I find it liberating to learn new methods of working and thinking.
Right way to use AI agents to code is to write the solution in plain english and let AI implement it for you. Note, when you do this, you can't expect it to write full functions for you. You have to dictate small easy to do solutions.
Split this string based on spaces and pick the 3rd element
Iterate over this and and remove all new lines
This sort of thing.
As atomic as you can dictate, the better.
Don't outsource your thinking to AI.
The way to go about AI is 'Here is the solution, write the code for it'. Not 'Here is the problem, invent a solution for it'.
You must be doing the thinking, AI must be doing the manual work on writing code. Don't let AI do the thinking while you are fixing its bugs.