I'm looking for a new job, so I've been grinding leetcode (oof). I'm an experienced engineer and have worked at multiple FAANGs, so I'm pretty good at leetcode.
Today I solved a leetcode problem 95% of the way to completion, but there was a subtle bug (maybe 10% of the test cases failing). I decided to see if Claude could help debug the code.
I put the problem and the code into Claude and asked it to debug. Over the course of the conversation, Claude managed to provide 5 or 6 totally plausible but also completely wrong "fixes". Luckily, I am experienced enough at leetcode, and leetcode problems are simple enough, that I could easily tell that Claude was mistaken. Note that I am also very experienced with prompt engineering, as I ran a startup that used prompt engineering very heavily. Maybe it's a skill issue (my company did fail, hence why I need a job), but somehow I doubt it.
Eventually, I found the bug on my own, without Claude's help. But leetcode are super simple, with known answers, and probably mostly in the training set! I can't imagine writing a big system and using an LLM heavily.
Similarly, the other day I was trying to learn about e-graphs (the data structure). I went to Claude for help. I noticed that the more I used Claude, the more confused I became. I found other sources, and as it turns out, Claude was subtly wrong about e-graphs, an uncommon but reasonably well-researched data structure! Once again, it's lucky I was able to recognize that something was up. If the problem wasn't limited in scope, I'd have been totally lost!
I use LLMs to help me code. I'm pro new technology. But when I see people bragging on Twitter about their fully automated coding solutions, or coding complex systems, or using LLMs for medical records or law or military or other highly critical domains, I seriously question their wisdom and experience.
I'm looking for a new job, so I've been grinding leetcode (oof). I'm an experienced engineer and have worked at multiple FAANGs, so I'm pretty good at leetcode.
Today I solved a leetcode problem 95% of the way to completion, but there was a subtle bug (maybe 10% of the test cases failing). I decided to see if Claude could help debug the code.
I put the problem and the code into Claude and asked it to debug. Over the course of the conversation, Claude managed to provide 5 or 6 totally plausible but also completely wrong "fixes". Luckily, I am experienced enough at leetcode, and leetcode problems are simple enough, that I could easily tell that Claude was mistaken. Note that I am also very experienced with prompt engineering, as I ran a startup that used prompt engineering very heavily. Maybe it's a skill issue (my company did fail, hence why I need a job), but somehow I doubt it.
Eventually, I found the bug on my own, without Claude's help. But leetcode are super simple, with known answers, and probably mostly in the training set! I can't imagine writing a big system and using an LLM heavily.
Similarly, the other day I was trying to learn about e-graphs (the data structure). I went to Claude for help. I noticed that the more I used Claude, the more confused I became. I found other sources, and as it turns out, Claude was subtly wrong about e-graphs, an uncommon but reasonably well-researched data structure! Once again, it's lucky I was able to recognize that something was up. If the problem wasn't limited in scope, I'd have been totally lost!
I use LLMs to help me code. I'm pro new technology. But when I see people bragging on Twitter about their fully automated coding solutions, or coding complex systems, or using LLMs for medical records or law or military or other highly critical domains, I seriously question their wisdom and experience.