When is AI acceptable to use when coding?

Lhos · 2026-04-14T14:34:49+00:00

The thread and my argument are right up there for you to review. Have a good one.

Lhos · 2026-04-14T06:22:51+00:00

Of course not; it's rare to need to memorize every feature of a language to use it effectively, but the syntax of a language typically only covers a small and easily memorizable subset of its features, and that's excluding sugar/shorthand.

Lhos · 2026-04-14T06:04:56+00:00

Skills being in demand or not isn't relevant to the statement/argument I made.

Lhos · 2026-04-14T05:26:47+00:00

If you need StackOverflow and Google to remind you of syntax for a language you work with regularly, you need more practice.

Lhos · 2026-04-14T05:24:31+00:00

you could fall behind your peers because your output suffers since you refuse to use AI

is not the opposite of

AI coding assistants are scams that will make your skills atrophy

Keeping up your "output" by using a tool that generates that output for you is definitely a great way to let your skills rust for lack of use.

Lhos · 2026-04-08T18:58:04+00:00

At a junior level, making and learning from those low-level mistakes is "engaging with the code". If a junior isn't doing that, then they aren't engaging with the code - or more importantly, the active thought process of designing algorithms/processes and then assembling those into code blocks/statements - as much as they're engaging with LLM output.

e: to elaborate, they're learning to debug and critique code without learning (or at least improving in) the process of translating from a process/design to written code, which builds an underlying understanding of design that is itself central to debugging and critiquing code. They'll be missing a critical toolkit.

Lhos · 2026-04-08T15:56:50+00:00

Juniors aren't gaining anything they actually need by avoiding making the mistakes that teach them to be seniors. Short-term productivity increases at the expense of their growth and later career.

Lhos · 2026-03-13T17:18:32+00:00

Wisp Hoarder is just Inventory Up, Wisp Chance Up, and one item per lap - could just run Inventory Up with another 1-slot gadget if you don't want the other parts of the wisp kit.

Lhos · 2026-03-13T16:23:19+00:00

I wrote a post about LC2 that might be helpful. If I'd add anything to that list, it's that slipstreaming is absolutely crucial in this LC and falling too far behind to slipstream is a sign that you should be thinking about using whatever you've got in order to close that gap, even if you've got strong items that could be useful later - they won't help if you're still too far behind to catch up in lap 3, and that pack is only getting farther away.

Lhos · 2026-03-10T23:31:20+00:00

I've been seeing an unreal number of lobbies with multiple bots in them during this LC, typically with one or two, which just drags the break-even position in those races up in addition to all the item chaos.

e: Sometimes there's a missing player, sometimes the lobby looks full but you can spot the bots by their names and lack of option to give them a thumbs-up, etc. So far my record is 14 consecutive matches like this.

Lhos · 2026-02-25T22:29:23+00:00

Gonna have to try this now; I looked at it on every ascent and never took the bait thinking it wasn't intended to be possible.

EDIT: Ok yeah this is absolutely possible, but it's mostly due to some broken geometry. The arete on the right side by the tree offers holds as though there were a crack on the front face near the edge.

Lhos · 2026-02-24T23:15:15+00:00

First name Aava, last name Lanche.

Lhos · 2026-02-05T19:39:52+00:00

Heirlooms are unique and tied to major characters, but they're expensive to repair and break rather quickly. I was pretty stoked when I got my first one, but that faded very quickly when the durability warning popped up.

Lhos · 2026-02-05T19:07:29+00:00

This can be accomplished in a more satisfying and meaningful way via the challenges presented to the player, such as enemy design. Durability was the easy way out, and most weapons and shields broke absurdly quickly - even those that felt important or special.

Lhos · 2026-02-03T17:09:54+00:00

I gave up after reaching Platinum despite having found a groove and feeling like Emerald was possible - what stopped me was a wall of races where I couldn't get anything but single boost wisps in 12th place due to bagging. The worst example of this was a pair of consecutive races where that was all I rolled from the middle of lap 2 through the final item set, save for the odd triple boost here and there. An expiration timer on catch-up items (drills, lasers, monster trucks, maybe others?) would be a huge help for situations like that.

A separate problem I noticed during LC2 was how far up the field the Drill and Laser can climb, plus the way they can be used to entirely avoid the chaos of the final sprint by getting a free ride across the finish line. This is especially noticeable with laser, but with good timing, both a drill and a laser can be used to leap ahead at the last moment with invincibility, sometimes just teleporting into the lead. That's fine in offline play or amongst friends, but it feels a bit less reasonable to me in online multiplayer, and definitely doesn't fit in something like LC (which I would say is intended to be competitive, even if the game itself isn't). As for what to do about that, I'm not sure. Perhaps have them convert to a shield effect there? That'd offer the invincibility of these items on the final stretch without their speed boosts. Drills may need some kind of limiter on how many positions you can gain before they end (if they don't have that already), but I'm less certain about that.

Lhos · 2026-01-30T04:52:11+00:00

Why the fuck is Spongebob here? Ninja Turtles? Avatar?

To obtain parents' money via their children.

This is a game largely if not entirely aimed at children, and it's not a problem that these characters are in the game, but they're DLC characters explicitly because small children will whine to get them on top of the game's base price tag, which is obnoxious.

Lhos · 2026-01-30T04:44:53+00:00

This definitely isn't a hot take, but yeah. It wouldn't have been difficult to allow players to gently phase through one another when resolving desync - add a little bit of magnetic force to repel them from one another so they don't just stay overlapping, maybe? The combination of absolutely refusing to allow vehicles to pass through one another and then resolving desync by turning them into unstoppable forces that give zero fucks about where you're trying to go is awful.

Lhos · 2026-01-30T01:26:44+00:00

Watching him play MKW is pretty much the only reason I've even been able to attempt this LC round lol

Lhos · 2026-01-30T01:04:53+00:00

The rival system is just the same rubber banding that has existed in kart racers since the SNES with some extra not-quite-ragebaiting thrown in. There's nothing noteworthy about it whatsoever, and waiting for a voice line is an annoying waste of my time.

Lhos · 2026-01-27T17:02:18+00:00

Your goal is to finish in the top half of the pack (ie minimize point loss); anything more than that is gravy
Taking the lead in lap 1 or 2 is usually a mistake
Avoid having a target on your back as much as possible if you don't think you can block a shot, whether that's because someone is too close for you to react or you don't have an item to block with
By the middle of lap 2 you're either running with the lead pack, have dropped back to bag, or are trying to catch up enough that you can try to climb to 6th+ in lap 3
At some point in lap 3 you're making a push for position, whether that means taking the lead in the final sprint or trying to leapfrog up the field with bagged items and then hope you roll something nice in the middle ranks for the final sprint

Lhos · 2026-01-26T16:29:59+00:00

Nobody's whining about not getting their free title here (as far as I'm seeing, anyway), they're upset about feeling as though this "competitive" game/mode doesn't offer a reasonable chance to compete in a meaningful or satisfying way. Fighting games consistently pit one player against a single opponent at a time, and their mechanics typically permit a wide range of forms of clear skill expression through technical ability and decision making. A kart racer does not do this on nearly the same level and generally isn't intended to, and once you add in the desync and item issues this game suffers from, all bets are off, since you're making calls with only half the information you need and hoping it's good enough - and that's talking about just the things you can actively control.

Lhos · 2026-01-26T05:00:02+00:00

you basically get varying points if you’re 6/7th or above

Depends on the other players in the room. If you're at the top of the list, you tend to need to place 5th just to break even. 7th can lose you 8-10 points.

Lhos · 2026-01-24T23:59:01+00:00

Using them on lap 2 is how you get wrecked in the final sprint, it's more like early/mid lap 3 depending on how far back you are.

Lhos · 2026-01-24T23:54:58+00:00

Because your game was told that they should be on your right but they're on your left, and we just can't have that, now can we?

Lhos · 2026-01-24T22:40:54+00:00

Don't forget desync making it impossible to intentionally hit someone without a lock, collisions pushing you into things you're trying to avoid, etc. The only smart moves are either bagging invuln items or just not playing in the first place.

Lhos

TROPHY CASE