Recently I started my freelance journey.
I have about ~4 years of experience in the world of software development; web apps (mostly fullstack), LPs, and some mobile apps. Still mostly 'young' experience compared to most of you.
After having seen the recent Github Universe, I began to quiver at the thought of my near-future career advances if I didn't submit to using the newest AI-tools like co-pilot. (Perhaps submit is the wrong word here as it could have negative connotations for some that do use it often).
What are you opinions on these new AI tools like chatgpt / co-pilot that, from the conferences and talks, seem to be able to be pretty much a pair programmer? Am I fool not using it? Why do I feel like if I do use it I won't learn as much as I do (or feel like I do) when I am having to shuffle through docs/forums for answers and questions?
Do you guys use it? How often? Any and all responses appreciated!
I took some pride in having almost 20 years of (on-and-off) programming experience, I felt that it was one of my strengths as an older CS graduate student, and I didn't look forward to trading my traditional programming workflow for "prompt engineering." I also generally avoid adopting more complex tools because I think it can lead to spending more time figuring out the tools than using them to accomplish things (i.e. "yak shaving").
But a few months ago my advisor showed me how other people are using ChatGPT to accelerate their work, like having a research assistant, and he basically said that we're falling behind if we're not using it too. Within a month of starting to use it this summer, I knew he was right. Tasks that would previously take me a week to do now take a day or even just an hour. I do worry that it's making me lazier in some cases, but I haven't stopped learning either. I mostly use the output of ChatGPT like I'd use example code from tutorials or StackOverflow; it's less copying-and-pasting exact code and more taking the examples and rewriting or modifying them to do exactly what I want.
The ability to get instant answers to my questions when I don't understand how something works, or when I'm debugging / troubleshooting, has absolutely increased my learning rather than stunting it.