I would have said that Harper Reed's workflow (brainstorm spec, then co-plan a plan, then execute using LLM codegen) is basically best practice today and I'm surprised that the author adds that "I’ve not been successful using this technique to build a complete feature or prototype."
I use the llm as a glorified search engine. Instead of googling I ask it stuff.
Its fine for that but its a hit or miss. Often the output is garbage and its better to just use google.
I dont use it much to generate code, I ask it higher level questions more often. Like when I need a math formula.
The space is moving so fast that, if I wrote down my workflows and workarounds just two months ago, much of it it would be stale today. I think all these recommendations need to list the models and harnesses being described front and center.
> Peer Programming with LLMs, For Senior+ Engineers
> [...] a collection of blog posts written by other senior or staff+ engineers exploring the use of LLM in their work
It seems to be by senior engineers if anything, I don't see anything in the linked articles indicating they're for senior engineers, seems programmers of all seniority could find them useful, if they find LLMs useful.
I've been experimenting with LLMs for coding for the past year - some wins, plenty of frustrations. Instead of writing another "AI will change everything" post, I collected practical insights from other senior engineers who've figured out what actually works. No hype, just real experiences from people in the trenches.
> What are some of the differences between Peer Programming with LLMs and Vibe Coding?
"Vibe Coding" is specifically using the LLM instead of programming anything, barely caring about the output. If something is wrong, don't even open the file, just ask the LLM. Basically "prompting while blindfolded" I guess you could say.
Peer programming with an LLM would be to use it as another tool in the toolbox. You still own your program and your code. Edit away, let the LLM do some parts that are either too tricky, or too trite to implement, or anything in-between. Prompts usually are more specific, like "Seems X is broken, look into Y and figure out if Z could be the reason".
I would say that the difference is taking an engineering approach to the process itself. Iterating on the context, putting the system into various states, etc. Treating the AI like a very knowledgeable intern who also has a very fixed short term memory and can’t form new long term memories but can be taught to write things down like in Memento. The thing is, though, it has a much much larger short term memory than me.
re-reading the title makes me feel like I used a wrong title.
Could be a good idea for a non-profit like you said. I know someone who’s exploring something similar but for disabled folks who aren’t tech-savvy (for-profit)
Here's an example of using this pattern with Brokk to solve a real world bug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_7MqowT638
I dont use it much to generate code, I ask it higher level questions more often. Like when I need a math formula.
I could assign the LLM the simple drudgery that I don't really want to do, such as writing tests, without feeling bad about it.
I could tell the LLM "that's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen" whereas I would not say that to a real person.
> [...] a collection of blog posts written by other senior or staff+ engineers exploring the use of LLM in their work
It seems to be by senior engineers if anything, I don't see anything in the linked articles indicating they're for senior engineers, seems programmers of all seniority could find them useful, if they find LLMs useful.
"Vibe Coding" is specifically using the LLM instead of programming anything, barely caring about the output. If something is wrong, don't even open the file, just ask the LLM. Basically "prompting while blindfolded" I guess you could say.
Peer programming with an LLM would be to use it as another tool in the toolbox. You still own your program and your code. Edit away, let the LLM do some parts that are either too tricky, or too trite to implement, or anything in-between. Prompts usually are more specific, like "Seems X is broken, look into Y and figure out if Z could be the reason".
Somebody jump on that. It's yours. :)
Could be a good idea for a non-profit like you said. I know someone who’s exploring something similar but for disabled folks who aren’t tech-savvy (for-profit)