Writing is thinking in every situation, not just limited to commit messages. This is a fact that I'm concerned people are forgetting, or worse never understood to begin with.
I don't mind farming out the more monotonous bits to AI. When I was letting an agent handle the whole implementation for me, though, I found that I was rediscovering all the pitfalls of waterfall-style development. Because I was doing waterfall-style development. I was trying to pin down all the details in a plan document up front, which is inevitably the point in time where I know the absolute least about the best way to accomplish the task. And then I let the agent do the rest for me, which undermines my opportunity to learn and understand more.
The result was continual accumulation of bad decisions and unnecessary technical debt. The only difference between now and back in the bad old days of 20 years ago is this time instead of being the put-upon code monkey I had become the boneheaded engineering manager who isn't paying attention to the code and doesn't realize what a brittle mess it's become.
And I’ll just say, after this exercise I can definitely concur that writing exposes gaps in your thinking very fast. Especially when you’re trying to explain your point to someone who is new to the topic.
"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is."
I stated this in an earlier post: "Probably what matters more is the specific process."
> Is the idea that getting enough sleep is healthy also a "meme"?
Yes actually.
> That Alzheimer and cancer suck and have no upsides?
Maybe? I don't think that qualifies, It's more like an emotional response to a disease.
> What is "memeing" in this context?
Repeating memes. In this case "writing is thinking" is a meme in the culturally transmitted idea sense. I don't think it qualifies as thinking because it's just the mechanical propagation of those memes through the culture. So if we're going to classify that and all other stuff one writes down as thought and elevate it, I don't see why prompting an AI isn't among that.
I mean sure, "writing is thinking" is shortening something, like "sharing is caring" does. Of course different things are not the same things. But it's not something people just "repeat", and when you ask them why they say it, they can't give you anything. Maybe that's why you're neither asking (why they say that, what they mean etc.) nor telling (in what way you disagree, what you think instead etc.).
> So if we're going to classify that and all other stuff one writes down as thought and elevate it, I don't see why prompting an AI isn't among that.
(IMO) of course it is, who said otherwise? Just the output isn't.
The memeing accusation wasn't technically an ad hominem, but it does at least live on that side of town.
> If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
- George Orwell
I still think there is some truth in it, just but it could be expressed less crudely and less arrogantly. For me trying to think honestly is way more important than how "sophisticated" it is.