Ask the Agent

I've lost count of how many times since starting these coding projects that I've asked my partner for help with something and he's fired back "ask the agent"! Yes, it's annoying. And yes, I do have to be careful not to just blindly accept anything the agent says to me - we've all heard the horror stories. Having said that, this is a part of my learning curve, and it isn't a bad thing for me to get more comfortable with the practice.

Have I mentioned that this whole thing is way out of my comfort zone? Maybe just a few times! It took me a while to start reading the AI summary at the top of every web search - when they first put it there I thought "why would I need that?" Now I confess I read it quite often, though I try to make sure I don't rely on it for important things. I will admit that asking AI can be easier than asking a web browser. I guess that's why it's taking the world by storm.

I am concerned, and justifiably I believe, with quite a few aspects of AI. Not least the copyright issues, the evidence of over-reliance leading to self-harm, the sometimes wild hallucinations, the privacy problems. However, it's definitely also been a bit of a revelation.

I don't know which company structure is best for Raspberry Moose… I ask the agent. It talks me through the Australian standards and makes sense of the legal stuff for me. I want to make sure that all the fonts on my website show up correctly on all devices and I have no idea how to make that happen… I ask the agent. It gives me some options, and then talks me through each step when I've picked the one I think will work best. And so on…

Why do I find it annoying when he tells me to ask the agent? Because what I want in that moment is to talk to a real person, and to learn something from him. I maintain there's something in that. However, asking the agent actually is a better idea as a first step. And then, if I remain confused, I'm lucky because I have an expert to fall back on. It's also nicer to have another person give feedback once a project starts to come together, to be able to talk through creative things with him. If the agent can take care of some of the boring technical things, all the better.

I'm trying to make this change. I don't always manage it; sometimes the agent can't figure it out either, and sometimes I just really want to talk to a person. But I'm moving in a positive direction towards bringing these tools into my workflow, and becoming more comfortable with them in the process.