Going Down the Developer's Rabbit Hole

Having the penchant for details that I have, when I set out to learn a new language or whatever, I find myself getting bogged by studying all the details. I have read that good developers have an innate ability to hone in and learn just what they need to, to get the programming job done. Is there a way that this new AI trend can help me from going down the developer's rabbit hole?

Introspection is a good thing. I know that I am not the greatest programmer. Great designer of systems, yes. I walk into an enterprise. Take one look. I know what they need. I know what has to be done and how. Sit down to program it and get lost for days in trying to remember a command. I know it exists. I read the entire manual but, I can't remember where or exactly how to do it. The experts, friends and colleagues, have no idea if that's possible. So, I sit for 2-3 days, reread the manual and find the command. Only to realize, this is not what I need or want for the task or; it isn't the best way. But, I had lost sight of everything else. I got so wrapped up in finding that command and the correct syntax. My friends and colleagues - are in shock. "I didn't know you could do that in Java!"

There is a way that this new AI trend can help me from going down the developer's rabbit hole. Just thought of it.

While recently playing with AI, I found that it was excellent for telling me what the flags in a Unix command do. So much more simple than the old school way of dumping a man page and reading through all those flags and; no examples! Bard has examples!

Recently, while studying cybersecurity and pentesting, I built some docker containers for attack sites. Again, I used AI to study the docker commands.

See a pattern?

Then, I had my epiphany. If I ask the right question, I will get the correct answer. The prompt to use is: "What are the most commonly used commands in <pick your computer language / software>?" Voila! You have a cheat sheet with all the most commonly used commands. No need to read entire books to find one command. See the trees through the forest.

When I was in college, taking a networking course, the professor said, in a discussion, that while there are many commands, many of them redundant, no one knows them all or uses them all. They know about a dozen commands and do everything they need to do with those commands. There are limits to human memory and this is how humans work. For this, AI is a good tool, that allows us to focus and learn quickly on how to program or use a computer software.

Courtesy #Bard. The #AI that I having been using for these endeavors.