I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently.
We all know ChatGPT is an amazing tool. Used for a variety of ways, its usability and capabilities increased exponentially over the course of last months. And yet, even in the latest iterations of GPT4, I feel it still struggles with a lot of things. It often lacks context to be able to solve complex programming problems. It does write code, but most of the time does not care about architecture or code structure as much as us, engineers. Maybe it just knows better?
But I digress.
For what it’s worth, ChatGPT might not generate the best code. In fact, most of the time, it generates mediocre code, and more often than not, a code that won’t even run. Maybe you’re just a better prompt whisperer than me, but that was my experience. Anything above a calculator app was too big of a request. But I still use it most days for my software engineering work. Why?
Because it’s the most accessible enabler for us ADHD folk out there.
I struggle with adult ADHD. I regularly get in that nasty stunlock state, when I just sit at the desk and can’t make myself work on the task at hand, with deadlines flying left and right. My brain just refuses to work on it, be it because the task is too hard, too mundane or maybe because I’d rather go beat that PB lap time in Forza Motorsport. Reasons are many, but the end result is often the same: me working frantically overnight because some deadlines I just can’t cross.
Recently, the above scenario happens way less often, mostly thanks to ChatGPT. Whenever I feel this black hole devouring my brain power and I can’t start working on the problem at hand, I open ChatGPT and have a quick back and forth with it about whatever I happen to be working on. More often than not, it leaves me with something to start with. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a starting point. Something clicks in my brain and with the flow state enabled, I just proceed on my own and solutions just happen to find their way through the meanders of my cortex.
From what I’ve read on Twitter, it feels like most people notice that recently ChatGPT is not generating code as eagerly as it used to, instead giving bullet points and more general advice. Due to the way I’m using ChatGPT for work, I actually like it that way more than looking at lines upon lines of code out of context, and I sure as hell am not feeding it the whole codebase, or even whole classes / structs. I can make it be my pair programmer if I want to, but I like it being my guide more. I can write code, I struggle with structure. ChatGPT gives me structure to work with.
Last but not least, it’ll patiently reply my questions even if I ask them many times over. Arguably I could talk to my coworkers whenever I’m stunlocked, but ChatGPT is always handy and most of the time not judgemental, I also won’t upset it by asking the same thing n times over. Yeah, I do that a lot.
So there you have it, this is my summary of why I find ChatGPT an invaluable tool for a software engineer struggling with ADHD like myself. Whenever you feel stuck, don’t let the panic set in. Ask ChatGPT how to proceed. You’ll be surprised how much of a help that is.