Starting Point

I recently wrote about the way AI is making it possible to build software essentially for free. That’s not exactly true – at least not yet.

Starting work on a new project is hard. It’s the classic blank page problem. While AI doesn’t yet do such a great job of programming, one thing that it’s great at is giving me a starting point.

From there, it’s much easier for me to say “that sucks, it should be done this way instead”, and rewrite the whole thing.

I was chatting with a friend of mine, Aaron West, about this phenomenon just now, while he worked on fixing a whole bunch of poorly generated React components. He put it this way:

The review and edit workflow is much easier than building everything from scratch. Even if it means you end up rewriting the whole thing.

I’ve found this to also be true for writing. Occasionally I might ask ChatGPT to write something for me, only to find that the attempt inspires me in what not to do. I’ll read it, abandon it, and feverishly begin my attempt to show the LLM how a real person does it.

Take that, ChatGPT.

I don’t ever take that approach with this blog, since I only write what I’m inspired to write. I do occasionally prompt with “this paragraph doesn’t quite work, can you fix it?” or “finish this thought…”. Even then, I take the suggestions and run with something entirely different.

AI hasn’t yet proven itself as a great writer or programmer, but it’s an excellent tool for getting the creative ball rolling.