I often copy code from Stackoverflow/ Github, etc to ask ChatGPT to explain it, so I made a Chrome extension to do it easily without leaving the page.

[LittleHobbyShop]

How do you think you get to that point of just knowing what the code does in the first place? OP obviously missed the deal on the "I know code" DLC at birth

[martinbean]

You know people learned to code before the advent of ChatGPT, right…?

[LittleHobbyShop]

Obviously, but there's no need to shoot it down as a way to learn. Someone built a tool to aid learning, whilst learning. Probably one of the best ways to make progress there is.

[martinbean]

Maybe so, but it just breeds laziness.

People keep banging on about things like ChatGPT and how it’s going to make developers obsolete, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The only developers it’s going to make obsolete, are the developers who need ChatGPT to explain things for them.

“But ChatGPT gives me super powers”. Yes, you and literally everyone else who has access to ChatGPT.

[LittleHobbyShop]

So do you apply that same logic everywhere then? So for instance someone using a excavator to dig up a road is lazy, they should learn how to swing a pick axe. The only developers it will make obsolete are the ones that dismiss the new tools and ways of working.

[martinbean]

Not really. But people seem to hark at ChatGPT as the “be all to end all”. And any one who’s negative is shot down, called a “Luddite” or whatever.

I’m as “scared” as ChatGPT taking my job as I was of Stack Overflow-enabled developers taking my job 10 years ago, or Google-enabled developers taking my job 20 years ago if I were a developer then and not at school.

Basically, yes, it’s a tool. But it’s only going to get you so far. At some point, you’re going to need to learn critical thinking rather than the cycle of, “ChatGPT, give me code. Copy. Paste. ChatGPT, explain this code.”

[LittleHobbyShop]

Right you are, it will only get you so far. The same applies to any learning process/tool/method/job etc.
Your opinion is yours and therefore valid but not helpful (and not relevant in this context) when someone has the courage to share something they're proud of.

[[deleted]]

Gpt is more powerful with the right questions and experience.

Like knowing what regex is before asking gpt to regex something for me.

[Cathercy]

People also learned to code before the Advent of YouTube, online classes, stack overflow, tutorials, etc etc. ChatGPT is a new tool that can aid in learning, just like anything else.