Posts by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
(DIR) Post #ASRsWIyqnOPVWUDYmW by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:12:03Z
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I've been trying to look at ChatGPT from the perspective of people trying to learn programming. One thing seems clear so far: while it may be helpful to experienced developers, ChatGPT is not a reliable teacher.I used it to look up something relatively uncomplicated in Python: how to access the index of each item inside a loop.
(DIR) Post #ASRsWJjzy67lsiHDGq by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:13:38Z
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The first suggestion was the most appropriate solution. That's good, but I do note it's a pretty poor example pedagogically. Learning about enumeration using a list of integers starting at 1 is a pretty confusing approach.
(DIR) Post #ASRsWKE8A4E9OANHEm by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:15:23Z
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But then I asked it if there were other approaches, and it got much worse. It went through the standard C example. Then it showed this:It's pretty much suggesting that you use zip() to re-implement enumerate() on your own.
(DIR) Post #ASRsWKeiZDUiicoVg8 by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:19:06Z
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And check out this monstrosity. It's using enumerate() inside a comprehension, then looping over the comprehension to pull out the results of the enumeration. 🤦♂️
(DIR) Post #ASRsWL60vjKS5HaJE0 by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:21:44Z
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The worst part though, is when asked to evaluate the appropriateness of these solutions. ChatGPT does say that enumerate() is the best approach. But there's also this response.
(DIR) Post #ASRsWLZn919FZdW5dg by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:22:13Z
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People new to programming, or new to a language, *should* keep their eyes out for advanced techniques, and for situations where those techniques are appropriate. But this last approach is *never* appropriate.In this case ChatGPT is not overconfident; it's too noncommittal. That's not a good thing when you're learning.
(DIR) Post #ASRsWMBirzUPTHGNlI by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:22:32Z
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You really do need a baseline of relevant knowledge in order to make sense of the output these tools currently generate.Full article here: https://mostlypython.substack.com/p/chatgpt-is-not-a-reliable-teacher
(DIR) Post #ASRt826ry7cMCgxUW0 by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:34:15Z
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@simon > If people can learn to treat it as an unreliable teacher who has read more than them but doesn't necessarily understand any of it, I think they should be OKThat's a really nice way to put it.I've had my share of poor teachers, and I honestly haven't gotten much from them. When I've had teachers that fit this description, I've found myself better off relying on other resources, which means I've only stuck with those bad teachers because I had to.
(DIR) Post #ASRtVOPNEInO1OkiOG by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-02-07T21:35:44Z
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@simon Yes! I'm quite curious to hear stories over the coming months and years about how useful people with different backgrounds find ChatGPT and its descendants.
(DIR) Post #AUBFceDZxamensu3Um by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-03-31T16:40:37Z
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@simon @datasette Hi Simon, your enthusiasm for using these tools to dive into projects has been infectious!If you don't mind my asking, how much of your work these days is on open projects vs closed projects? How differently do you use these tools when you're working on proprietary projects?
(DIR) Post #AUBQLPTacDp3eiNJ1k by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-03-31T18:40:35Z
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@simon @datasette Thanks for that perspective. I'm really looking forward to starting to use it in my own work!
(DIR) Post #AUKSqzg2TGvjDTTvbU by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-04-05T03:21:22Z
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@simon You haven't found any way to inject custom HTML into Substack emails, have you?I know emails need to be lighter than web pages, but I'd love to have a couple more formatting options available for code blocks.
(DIR) Post #AUKTksWyEBWDGkt720 by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-04-05T03:27:47Z
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@simon That's what I thought. I had a brief conversation with one of their developers after sharing a tiny demo:https://imgur.com/a/7EZKbSEIt's on their radar, but probably not a high priority.
(DIR) Post #AUWCu4hVOHJ5PPaloO by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2023-04-10T19:18:59Z
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@simon "You can't put the genie back in the bottle" is fairly overused at this point, but seems more accurate with each passing day.When we thought you needed massive infrastructure to run a model, the idea of slowing things down seemed possible. With the ability to run models on limited hardware, it seems there's no going back, and no slowing things down. Even if there's a strong argument to do so.
(DIR) Post #B06MqSO1Y8F1WTSx1c by ehmatthes@fosstodon.org
2025-11-08T13:56:29Z
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@futurebird > That's our fault, mathematics teachers. We can't keep traumatizing the youth and alienating people from mathematical reasoning. I really feel like this is a big part of how we got here, that's hardly ever discussed. There's so much resentment on the right. If you dig into that resentment, a *lot* of it goes back to how people felt they were treated in school.When people are told at a young age they aren't smart enough, even implicitly, it stays with them for life.