That was great and informative
Off topic but since you mentioned it, firstly I’m not a spender, secondly, monthly subscriptions is scary…
I do very similar. That’s how I know the little bit that I do. I use AI more and more in such a manner but not like
Fix it
Fix it
Fix it
But as you wrote, understand and learn and have AI as an assistant. Don’t let it replace you because it can’t (yet)
I’m waiting this because I think many users here already use AI. The issue isn’t that they should start using it but rather that they should stop trying to have it replace themselves.
But I think this can be moved to other help and opinions about AI and learning topics. Not really my point that you’re ahead of me (although it’s definitely a part of it and doesn’t change with this).
My main point was that you already put in TONS of time into it. For an outsider to come in, learn this specific codebase, what every piece of code does, why it’s necessary, why you chose one way over the other etc etc is a huge task and even once he thinks he gets it and makes a pr, since he’s not you and has his own views, he may fix stuff in a way you don’t like, like making a architectural decision you don’t agree with.
Onboarding others to your project isn’t that simple is my point. When there’s some issue, just saying can someone please try to fix it isn’t always actually doable. That’s my point.
The solution? I don’t know. But perhaps distributing the work and getting different people involved into different parts of the codebase. Like explaining to the people you’re onboarding exactly your vision, how the code does what it does, why you chose whatever you did etc till they can easily take over that part (obviously you can still supervise and review before merging…)
I’m not sure if this is the correct solution but that’s my point.. hope it’s clearer now.
(On a much smaller scale, someone gave me code to enhance my email to sms bot. He used AI. There were great parts to it but it changed the structure too much and does much too many stuff that I don’t like at all. I felt that if I wanna implement those ideas I’ll probably rewrite all that myself even though it’ll take much longer. That’s a classic example of others not understanding your codebase)
TLDR
Your codebase is huge and complex with much experience, decisions etc which make it
- Hard to come in understand and fix
- Often useless as it may not align with what you want cuz the outsider doesn’t know your reasoning behind your decisions…
