Preface#
This article is a record and reflection on my life from 2024-08-12 to 2024-08-18.
From switching to coding with Cursor from VS Code, to discussing the programming experience with AI; being together with my senior sister for 400 days; having a late-night conversation with my senior sister about past experiences and hobbies, which triggered my thinking about the source of my learning motivation; and many other interesting things.
Programming Experience with AI#
In the past two weeks, I have been using Cursor intensively, an AI IDE based on VS Code, and the results are amazing.
I have been one of the very early beta users of GitHub Copilot, and I am still using it now; and after the emergence of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Devv.ai, and Claude, I have also been a high-intensity paying user, and I have become accustomed to using AI to help me write code. However, most of the time, it is used to supplement partial logic and debug bugs, and it cannot provide project-level assistance.
With Cursor, the whole project is used as context, and I can mention other files or code when asking questions. After using the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, the user experience and usability have become closer to what I imagined.
In practice, during the 15-day trial of Pro, I solved some bugs and added tests for Go in my work; improved an update prompt interface and functionality for an Electron application; wrote a backend CRUD API for a Rust project from scratch, including a complete Dockerfile and GitHub Action part; helped me complete the data visualization part of a Remix project and made adjustments to many interfaces, down to the interaction and layout between each page; and by the way, it also helped me learn some SwiftUI.
More than 50% of my code is now assisted or directly generated by AI. With more time spent on discussing requirements with AI in the dialog box of "CMD + K" (Cursor's code generation button), organizing prompts (mostly expressed in natural language), and waiting for code generation, I have more time to think about code architecture, logic, and more suitable third-party libraries.
When AI understands my needs, I also repeatedly think about their rationality, and I can produce code that is more functional and of better quality. As for syntax and code style, I often directly study and learn from the implementation of AI, which is much easier to get started with than reading an open-source project from scratch.
What I need to do is design and create.
As Randy quoted in the article "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#
The project mentioned above is an event I participated in Shenzhen over the weekend. It can be considered as the first Hackathon event I participated in as a formal contestant. I completed the demo after two nights of overnight work, wrote a basic speech outline and a few brief PPTs on-site, and finally delivered the demo speech. It was more tiring than I expected, and I finally had a good sleep on Sunday.
The Source of Learning Motivation#
One night, the topic of skateboarding was brought up when I was helping my sister choose a skateboard. I had a late-night conversation with my senior sister about past experiences and various hobbies.
In fact, I have quite a few strange skill trees and hobbies. During my school years, I have participated in various sports, most of which I have mastered to some extent. I have been roller skating since elementary school and persisted in joining the roller skating club for nearly ten years. I also used those twisty skateboards to skate around the streets. I went to the swimming pool with my cousin and naturally learned how to swim. After college, I played photography, learned editing, flew drones throughout the school, and even set up a studio to study various lighting and scenes. I have done internships in auditing, and even started a company by myself, handling the registration, financial taxation, invoicing, corporate liquidation, and other processes for nearly two years without the help of intermediaries and accountants. In my work, I am also curious about various programming languages and frameworks, and I often try them out.
It seems that I have always had a tendency to learn in an unconventional way and stop when I have learned enough to meet my needs. For example, I like photography, and even when I started a studio for photography and video-related work, I had the idea of making it my career. However, over the years, it seems that I have not really learned systematically about composition, lighting, color, and photo editing. I have not laid a foundation in video shooting and editing from the perspective of drama theory and director's thinking. I only learn quickly when I need to use a certain technique or function. It is enough, but only just enough.
I carefully analyzed my inner thoughts and discovered some interesting phenomena, which can be traced back to my childhood.
When I was very young, I transferred to Hangzhou and spent a lot of time making myself speak without a local accent. It took several years for my grades to gradually reach the upper-middle level, and I also experienced some discrimination or unfair treatment, which accumulated a lot of self-doubt in my heart. With the help of a good teacher in junior high school, my life and studies gradually improved.
At this time, there was another kind of evaluation, "You must have worked hard to achieve xxx."
I do not deny the importance of "hard work," but I often hear this evaluation, and I always feel a bit frustrated. It seems that even I myself think that I am not as good as others, but I have achieved more just because I work hard. This leads to a vicious cycle of Impostor syndrome.
So I slowly started to not work so "hard" and seemed to prove to others and myself that I can easily do these things. Gradually, I also enjoyed it.
What brings me joy is not the knowledge I have learned or what I have achieved with it, but the psychological positive feedback of "learning something new" and "being able to learn it quickly." This has brought me some benefits, such as the confidence accumulated from a long-term accumulation of skills, which makes me less afraid when facing new things or many seemingly distant goals.
"I have achieved so much in the past, so I can definitely do it now."
But sometimes I can't concentrate on doing one thing well, or do the things I really like to the best of my ability. I have breadth but lack depth. It feels like a trade-off, and there have been some changes gradually.
Personal Life Highlights#
400 Days Anniversary#
It has been 400 days with my senior sister.
Interesting Things and Events#
Highlights#
Although most interesting highlights are automatically synchronized in the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I will list some of them here, which feels more like a newsletter. I have also set up a microblog using Telegram Channel messages as the content source - "daily.pseudoyu.com", which makes browsing more convenient.
Favorites#
- GitHub - lokalise/i18n-ally: 🌍 All in one i18n extension for VS Code
- electric-capital/crypto-ecosystems
- omarespejel/starknet-star-tracker
Podcasts#
Articles#
Videos#
- 【IGN】10 Minutes, "Black Myth: Wukong" Review: Overcoming Difficulties and Achieving Greatness
- I Went to Switzerland and My Mental State Collapsed
- Vlog #69 | Learning Records of a Programmer After Work | Where Attention Flows, Energy Goes | Reading "Lies on the Treatment Chair" and "Buffett's Letter to Shareholders" | Daily English Learning | Finished Writing a Diary 🎉