Comment by sleepy_keita
17 hours ago
Humans can work with these cases better though because they have access to better memory. Next time you see "iteration_count", you'll know that it actually has a sum, while a new AI session will have to re-discover it from scratch. I think this will only get better as time goes on, though.
Unfortunately, so far coding models seem to perform worse and break in other ways as context grows, so it's still best practice to start a new conversation even when iterating. Luckily, high-end reasoning models are now catching when var names don't match what they actually do (as long as the declaration is provided in context).
You are underestimating how lazy humans can be. Humans are going to skim code, scroll down into the middle of some function and assume iteration count means iteration count. AI on the other hand will have the full definition of the function in its context every time.
You are underestimating the importance of attention. You can have everything in context and still attend to the wrong parts (eg bad names)
Improving AI is easier than improving human nature.
Or you immediately rename it to avoid the need to remember? :)