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Comment by iparaskev | Hacker News Reader

> The real breakthrough came when I stopped thinking of AI as a code generator and started treating it as a pairing partner with complementary skills.

I think this is the most important thing mentioned in the post. In order for the AI to actually help you with languages you don't know you have to question its solutions. I have noticed that asking questions like why are we doing it like this and what will happen in the x,y,z scenario, really helps.

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My experience is that each question I ask or point I make produces an answer that validates my thinking. After two or three iterations in a row in this style I end up distrusting everything.

yes, this. biggest problem and danger in my daily work with llms. my entire working method with them is shaped around this problem. instead of asking it to give me answers or solutions, i give it a line of thought or logical chain, and then ask it to continue down the path and force it to keep explaining the reasoning while i interject, continuing to introduce uncertainty. suspicion is one of the most valuable things i need to make any progress. in the end it's a lot of work and very much reading and reasoning.

This is very true. Constant insecurity for me. One thing that helps a little is asking it to search for sources to back up what its saying. But claude has hallucinated those as well. Perplexity seems to be good at being true to sources, but idk how good it is at coding itself

This is a good point. Lately I have been experimenting with phrasing the question in a way that it makes it believe that I prefer what I am suggesting, while the truth is that I don't.

For example: - I implement something. - Then I ask it to review it and suggest alternatives. Where it will likely say my solution is the best. - Then I say something like "Isn't the other approach better for __reason__ ?". Where the approach might not even be something it suggested.

And it seems that sometimes it gives me some valid points.

Which is why I read books and articles instead. The information inside them is isolated from my experience. The LLM experience is like your reflection in a deformed mirror talking back to you.

I'm addition, I frequently tell it to ask clarifying questions. Those often reveal gaps in understanding or just plain misunderstanding that you can then bip in the bud before it has generated a million tokens.

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