← Back to context

Comment by pkoiralap

2 hours ago

I think the 'better than googling' part is less about the final code and more about the friction.

For example, consider this game: The game creates a target that's randomly generated on the screen and have a player at the middle of the screen that needs to hit the target. When a key is pressed, the player swings a rope attached to a metal ball in circles above it's head, at a certain rotational velocity. Upon key release, the player has to let go of the rope and the ball travels tangentially from the point of release. Each time you hit the target you score.

Now, I’m trying to calculate the tangential velocity of a projectile from a circular path, I could find the trig formulas on Stack Overflow. But with an LLM, I can describe the 'vibe' of the game mechanic and get the math scaffolded in seconds.

It's that shift from searching for syntax to architecting the logic that feels like the real win.

The downside is that you miss the chance to brush up on your math skills, skills that could help you understand and express more complicated requirements.

...This may still be worth it. In any case it will stop being a problem once the human is completely out of the loop.

edit: but personally I hate missing out on the chance to learn something.