Hacker News Reader

Comment by Buttons840 | Hacker News Reader

I'm probably suffering undiagnosed ADHD, and will get stuck and spend minutes picking a function name and then writing a docstring. LLMs do help with this even if they get the code wrong, because I usually won't bother to fix their variables names or docstring unless needed. LLMs can reliably solve the problem of a blank-page.

View on HN

This. I have ADHD and starting is the hardest part for me. With an LLM it gets me from 0 to 20% (or more) and I can nail it for the rest. It’s way less stressful for me to start now.

very much agree. although lately with how good it is i get hyperfocused and spent more time then i allocated because i ended up wanting to implement more than i planned.

It’s a struggle right? First world LLM problems.

Been suffering the same, I'm used to having so many days (weeks/months) when I just don't get that much done. With LLMs I can take these days and hack around / watch videos / play games while the LLM is working on background and just check the work. Best part is it often leads to some problematic situation that gets me involved and often I'll end up getting a real day of work out of it after I get started.

> LLMs can reliably solve the problem of a blank-page.

This has been the biggest boost for me. The number of choices available when facing a blank page is staggering. Even a bad/wrong implementation helps collapse those possibilities into a countable few that take far less time to think about.

Yeah, keeping me in the flow when I hit one of those silly tasks my brain just randomly says "no let's do something else" to has been the main productivity improving feature of LLMs.

Yes! So many times my brain just skips right over some tasks because it takes too much effort to start. The LLM can give you something to latch onto and work with. It can lay down the starting shape of a function or program and even when it's the wrong shape, you still have something to mold into the correct shape.

The thing about ADHD is that taking a task from nothing to something is often harder than turning that something into the finished product. It's really weird and extremely not fun.

This is the complete opposite for me! I really like a blank page, the thought of writing a prompt destroys my motivation as does reviewing the code that an LLM produces.

As an aside, I'm seeing more an more crap in PRs. Nonsensical use of language features. Really poorly structured code but that is a different story.

I'm not anti LLMs for coding. I use them too. Especially for unit tests.

So much this, the blank page problem is almost gone. Even if it's riddled with errors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com