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    Has anyone been teaching themselves to write code with ChatGPT?

    🔨 Travis Page 🔨
    12 replies
    I'm head of product at a video production startup, and recently I've started writing react.js components with the help of GPT. It's been significantly more helpful in learning development than almost any other course I've taken AND you get to see your results right away in your product. A few product friends of mine have been doing this for the last few months, and we are wondering how common this is. Has anyone else taken this approach?

    Replies

    Chad Lynch
    Yes, I've been using ChatGPT to educate myself how to program. I found it difficult to study on my own at first, but ChatGPT has been a great help. Thanks to its comprehensive database, I've been able to experiment with various programming languages, learn about algorithmic principles, and hone my programming skills.
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    🔨 Travis Page 🔨
    @gikashin1973 @jack_jung explain any issue to it in common terms, define the language output you want, and iterate until it works :)
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    HyunGun Jung
    @gikashin1973 I should give it try too! Do you use any specific prompts?
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    HyunGun Jung
    @gikashin1973 @travis_page Thank you so much for the tip! Will try indeed
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    Chris Sarca
    I wouldn't rely 100% on its replies, sure it could save time, and for simple stuff it's decent enough, but it is better to double-check the official documentation when learning.
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    🔨 Travis Page 🔨
    @chris_sarca Its been incredibly helpful for dSYM files and general debugging/crashes.
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    Daniel Do
    Do you have a previous experience in coding? I think starting right from scratch might not be that helpful. How do you create the prompts or what kind of prompts do you find helpful?
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    🔨 Travis Page 🔨
    @pm_optimizer I have rudimentary experience in coding, but have worked in product for long enough that I know how most things "work" and interact with one another. I don't think of coding as learning a bunch of random functions, but more how to solve problems fundamentally. It similar to learning a spoken language: you arent just learning a ton of random words and then figuring out how to string them together. I dont have go-to prompts, I just explain requirements in common terms and define a language/framework.
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    Steve Daniels
    Thats a difficult one, am i using it to write code yes..... but am i taking it in? a whole other question. I think its teaching me slowly how to understand what to look for in a general sense. But im far short of being able to write anything from scratch.
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    🔨 Travis Page 🔨
    @steve_daniels2 its actually great for creating boiler plate in the terminal. For example, if I have the problem where I know I need to create a React.js application BUT I have no idea where to start, I can ask GPT "How do I create a React.js app with my mac?" and it will give me commands step by step. It will often give you wrong answers, but typically those wrong answers will be followed by a terminal error that you can then plug back into GPT and ask "whats going on/how do I fix?"
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    Steve Daniels
    @travis_page oh absolutely! i guess i was framing it around actually "learning" to code. Id struggle to write something from scratch but i could absolutely troubleshoot almost anything using it. I mean, since it came out ive learned the basics of Chrome extensions, ive killed it on the salesforce api and built the basis of a chatgpt integration. Its hard to not see the value!
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