Mostly to get around bad docs. I need to implement things using libraries, services, and APIs that aren't well documented, but the source code is public, and people have written code against them, and ChatGPT has read all of the things that I would read (and more) to get to the point where I can use it, so I just ask it.

The 2021 knowledge limit is pretty annoying, since libraries change so often, but it's still very useful.

It's ALSO very useful for asking stupid questions that I don't want to waste someone's time with. Like for instance, in bash, when you redirect stdout to a file with > filename it works, and when you redirect stderr to stdout with 2>&1 it works, but when you try to redirect stderr to stdout and stdout to a file, it only works when you do it in this order:

command > filename 2>&1

it doesn't work if you do

command 2>&1 > filename

which feels more natural to me, so I asked ChatGPT why that is, and it explained that you have to consider it from a filehandle perspective and that if you look in /proc/pid/fd you can see that 2>&1 is really redirecting to the terminal, and > is redirecting from the terminal to a file.

I would have had to find someone deeply steeped in unix/linux fundamentals to explain that to me, or I could just ask ChatGPT. I've done the same thing again and again - how are HSMs really different than TPMs? How are heat pumps different than ACs?

I'll read a reference to something, and immediately go to ChatGPT to learn more - "Can you give me a brief summary of the writings and opinions of Cicero?" and then I can spend 20-30 minutes learning more about stoicism, epicureanism, and whatever else I'm curious about. It's like being able to interview wikipedia.