Weekly Report #69 - The Driving Force Behind AI Coding Experience and Learning

Introduction#

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This article is a record and reflection on life from 2024-08-12 to 2024-08-18.

Shifting from VS Code to Cursor for coding, discussing the programming experience enhanced by AI; celebrating 400 days with my senior; having a deep late-night conversation with her about past experiences and hobbies, which sparked my thoughts on the driving force behind my learning; and many other interesting things.

Programming Experience Enhanced by AI#

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I have intensely used Cursor, an AI IDE based on VS Code, for the past two weeks, and the results are astonishing.

I consider myself a very early beta user of GitHub Copilot, and I still use it; after the emergence of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Devv.ai, and Claude, I have also been a high-intensity paid user, and I have become quite accustomed to using AI to help me write code. However, it has mostly been about filling in logical gaps and debugging, rather than providing project-level assistance.

With Cursor treating the entire project as context, allowing me to @ other files or code when asking questions, and using the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, the experience and usability have come closer to what I imagined.

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Practically, during the 15-day trial of Pro, it helped me fix some bugs in Go and add new tests; improved an update prompt interface and functionality for an Electron app; helped me write a Rust backend CRUD API from scratch, including a complete Dockerfile and GitHub Action section; assisted me in completing the data visualization part of a Remix project and adjusting many interfaces, down to the interactions and layouts between various pages; and even helped me learn some SwiftUI.

I estimate that over 50% of my code is either AI-assisted or directly generated by AI, and I spend more time communicating my needs in the "CMD + K" (Cursor's code generation button) dialog with AI, organizing prompts (mostly expressed in natural conversational language). While chatting or waiting for code generation, I find I have more time to think about code architecture, logic, and more suitable third-party libraries.

When I let AI understand my needs, I also repeatedly reflect on their rationality, which leads to producing code with better functionality and quality. Regarding syntax and coding style, I often study and learn from AI's implementations, which is much easier than starting from scratch with an open-source project.

What I need to do is design and create.

As Randy quoted in “Code Artists” Won't Be Replaced by AI:

I realize the reason I like building is not just because I’m a builder.

It’s because software products are how I express my creativity.

It’s like a poem to a poet, a song to a songwriter, a painting to a painter…

Software is my art form, my medium of expression.

ETHShenzhen Hackathon#

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The project mentioned above was part of an event I attended in Shenzhen over the weekend, which was actually my first serious participation as a contestant in a Hackathon. I stayed up two nights to finish the demo, wrote a basic speech outline and a few simple PPT slides on-site, and ultimately completed the demo presentation, which was more exhausting than I had imagined. I finally got a good night's sleep on Sunday.

The Driving Force Behind Learning#

One night, a conversation about choosing a skateboard for my sister led to a late-night discussion with my senior about past experiences and various hobbies.

I actually have quite a few quirky skills and interests. I have been involved in various sports during my school years, most of which I have managed to pick up; I have been roller skating since elementary school and participated in the roller skating club for nearly ten years; I used to ride around on a wobbly skateboard; I learned to swim naturally while playing at the swimming pool with my cousin; in college, I dabbled in photography, learned editing, flew drones around the campus, and even started a studio where I researched various lighting setups; I interned in auditing, and even managed the registration, financial reporting, invoicing, corporate tax declaration, and cancellation processes for my startup without the help of intermediaries or accountants for nearly two years; at work, I have been curious about various programming languages and frameworks, often trying new things.

I seem to have a tendency to learn in unconventional ways and to stop once I have learned just enough to meet my immediate needs, without much desire to delve deeper. For example, I like photography, and even when I was starting a studio related to photography and video, I had thoughts of making it my career, but over the years, I haven't really studied systematically in areas like composition, lighting, color, or photo editing. Video shooting and editing also lacked a foundation in dramatic theory or directorial thinking; I only learned quickly when I needed a specific skill or function, which was sufficient but only just enough.

Upon serious introspection, I discovered an interesting phenomenon that traces back to my childhood.

When I was very young, I transferred to Hangzhou and spent a lot of time trying to speak without a regional accent, and it took several years for my grades to gradually reach above average. I also experienced some discrimination and unfairness, accumulating a fair amount of insecurity. It wasn't until I encountered a great teacher in middle school that my life and studies began to get back on track.

At this point, there was another kind of evaluation: "You must have worked very hard to achieve xxx."

I do not deny the importance of "effort," but often being told this makes me feel somewhat defeated, as if even I believe that I am simply not as good as others, and that my achievements are merely the result of hard work, leading to a vicious cycle of Impostor syndrome.

So I gradually began to stop being so "hardworking," seemingly trying to prove to others and myself that I could "easily" accomplish these things, and gradually, I started to enjoy it.

What brings me joy is not the knowledge I acquire or what I can achieve with it, but the psychological positive feedback of "learning something new" and "I can learn it quickly." This has given me some benefits, such as the confidence built from this haphazard skill tree allowing me to face new things or seemingly distant goals without fear —

"I have accomplished so much in the past, so I can certainly do it now."

However, it sometimes prevents me from focusing on doing one thing well or excelling in something I truly enjoy, resulting in breadth without depth, which feels like a trade-off, and I have started to see some changes.

Personal Life Snapshot#

400-Day Anniversary#

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It's been 400 days with my senior.

Interesting Things and Items#

Inputs#

Although most interesting inputs will automatically sync in the 「Yu's Life」 Telegram channel, I still selected a portion to list here, making it feel more like a newsletter. Additionally, I built a microblog using Telegram Channel messages as content sources — 「daily.pseudoyu.com」, which makes browsing more convenient.

Favorites#

Podcasts#

Episode 11 | Owen talks about the origins of immersive translation, experiences of quitting a job for three years, creating products for the poor, and life in Daya Bay

Articles#

The Yuanji Xin Project Will Be Offline Soon