The tool is only as good as its training data. A developer I work with was expressing some frustrations with the strong encouragement but definitely not a mandate to use AI-assisted coding tools. They were feeling gaslit because they were told this was going to 10x their productivity and instead it had led them significantly astray and ended up wasting much more time than it saved!
The developer was trying to write some brand Terraform for the project they were working on, not their area of expertise but it needed to be done. They had an experience which I recognized from my explorations with earlier models where I also just wanted the model to write some miserable Terraform resources because I didn’t want to myself. Except when prompted, it was as if I asked “write me some Terraform to provision this resource, wrong answers only.”
I also thought I must be insane and just using the magic numbers box incorrectly. Seeing the exact same situation play out for another developer, with a different model, years later, I feel like i understand the problem!
There is not enough open source use of Terraform to copy.
Plenty of great open source terraform modules exist (Putin khuylo!) but perilously few open source examples exist of using Terraform. I believe this to be because the vast majority of Terraform is closed source and therefore not scraped and ingested into these models.
If code-generating AI tools don’t want to suffer from the dead internet theory, the data has to come from somewhere.
The machine relies on code being open sourced.
LTJG Kaffee: Colonel Jessep! Did you author that code?
Judge Randolph: You don’t have to answer that question!
Col Jessup: I’ll answer the question. You want answers?
LTJG Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to them.
Col Jessup: You want answers?!
LTJG Kaffee: I want the truth!
Col Jessup: You can’t handle the truth!
Son, we live in a world that has models, and those models have to be seeded by humans who code.
Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You weep for the roadmap, and you curse the upstream. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know – that the launch delay, while tragic, probably saved time; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves time.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me feeding that model – you need me feeding that model.
We use words like “fork,” “code,” “libre.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent supporting something. You use them as a punch line.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the productivity that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.
I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up an editor and submit a PR.
Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!
LTJG Kaffee: Did you author that code?
Col Jessup: I did the job –
LTJG Kaffee: – Did you author the code?
Col Jessup: YOU’RE GOD DAMN RIGHT I DID!