Why I'm no longer using Copilot

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I've been using Copilot for about a year now, and initially I was impressed. However, since it became a permanent fixture in my workflow, I've noticed my own skills getting worse.
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[@dreamsofcode]

To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/DreamsofCode . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

[@nightmare_js]

Looking forward to a new nvchad 2.5 video!

[@Fanaro]

2:55 I basically refuse to believe any polls or research they show us on their own product. Conflict of interest 101.

[@georgehelyar]

There's a bias in it anyway even if it is not intentional (it probably is intentional). If you survey people who use copilot, you're going to get more responses from people that have stuck with it than people who have stopped using it. Most of the people I know that have used it, used it for a week, said this is not really worth using yet, and stopped using it, but the people who still use it are the people that liked using it.

[@rammrras9683]

Ahahah like trust me bro

[@powderypastor1242]

Agreed, same thing with ads in my book

[@Lisekplhehe]

Especially when they don't show their data, metrics and method of measurement. Pure hype for the investors.

[@caedis_]

Where copilot really shines for me is writing boilerplate code

[@rawallon]

For me is 90% on type definitions and 10% me going "make a loop that does x"

[@SIMULATAN]

THIS. `if (!canJoinTeam)` and it'll complete the if with an appropriate error response

[@gusryan]

having copilot with Golang is so nice to get around writing the if err != nil... every single time you call a function. Another thing I had recently was a huge Json schema from an aws api request which I wanted converted to a Go struct with serialisation and for that kind of stuff it can save you 20 minutes in like 10 seconds

[@vatsalyavigyaverma5494]

One alias away or keybinding away

[@luay_kelani]

This!!! That's the shortest way to describe it buddy

[@ShaneGoodson]

Someone told me really early on to disable auto complete and bind the copilot suggest to a key command, it helps a lot with only using it when really needed.

[@dreamsofcode]

This is a good idea!

[@calmhorizons]

This is what I do. It is then useful for deliberate use cases (like big chunks of repetitive boiler plate that I have already solved, but now need to repeat multiple times in other parts of the codebase - like DTOs, API Patterns etc.) - but I don't use the auto complete as it is too prone to suggesting bad ideas that I can't then unsee putting me in the wrong solution space for the problem I am solving.

[@simonschneider5913]

shockingly obvious when I read your comment - now I feel rather stupid for not thinking of that myself! :)

[@LesserAndrew]

That's great advice. I'm a data scientist. I do a lot of custom ML work where Copilot is rubbish. But I love it when I type ggplot( and Copilot creates a decent visualization of my data without having to think about it. The autocomplete just gets in the way, the hotkey is the better option.

[@theonewhobullies]

copilot in generic tasks that are present in its dataset - bing bong boom done, anything that requires >2% imagination - i halluce

[@Microphunktv-jb3kj]

i used cody... wich prevented me finishing my mini project 2 days faster... literally debugging whats wrong with the app, since LSP didnt gibe any errors eventually realized the ai was hallucinating and kept rotating and changing my .env variables .. and when use autocomplete it suggested wrong auto-completes... not the same names ive defined... took me a while to realize that lol.. not going to use any AI, if they are not reliable as auto-completers even... isnt there like claim that even the most efficient code ai assistant... gets it right only 17% time? seems like its just holding people back, not helping anyone... only positive use ive found for them is to select a block and auto-describe/comment what the block does... took me 2 days of using AI to realize, it will create a religious-type of blind trust into ai-complete... extra bad was that its personal project, so i didnt use typescript... the ai kept thinking im using mongodb for orm as well... when i was using actually some other db wich also has API like db.method() never used copilot, but is it better than cody (sourcegraph) ? ai pretty decent tho at "describe this block" , whats happening , if u check some foreign codebase and auto-commenting block of code , generally describes it pretty well

[@archerhosford2620]

Yeah, I think Copilot is being pushed as this tool that will KILL programmers! Like no, it's good at the fundamentals and for learning concepts, but it can and will hamper your developmental progress.

[@ChosunOne]

I used AI tools like copilot and tabnine before and felt that once you start having to do more than actual boilerplate the ai just gets in the way and leads you down the wrong paths. I stopped and don't miss it!

[@saiphaneeshk.h.5482]

Yup, experienced the same here. They help a lot where boilerplate is present. But when just typing away things in my mind they just get in-between.

[@Mememaxing]

I'm quite new and I also expirece the same thing.

[@noisycarlos]

Same here! The worst for me is when it makes a mistake so subtle that looks good when you read it, but gives a weird error that takes longer to debug than if I'd written it in the first place. I cancelled copilot, but still use Codeium for boilerplate

[@daze8410]

I've not found an AI that is actually good. It regularly will give me wrong information and when I explicitly tell it to not do something, it still does. I asked it, "Why do you answer so confidently when given a question with so much ambiguity, wouldn't it make sense to ask for clarification?" to which it responded, "I'm sorry let me clarify..."

[@mwwhited]

I found them often wrong and very slow. I’ve tried but they just slow me down even with looking up docs.

[@sainsay]

I have been running copilot since very early access, and I used to do the same thing and wait. At some point, I started to ignore it and only used it for boilerplate code, for which I did not have a template. But lately, I have noticed that, at least in VSCode, where the copilot implementation is the most integrated, copilot will present its reply even if I continue typing as long as it is the same as what I typed. This means that there is no longer a delay for me, and it will usually present code that is in the direction I was heading anyway. I also no longer accept full replies and instead use the ctrl + right arrow to accept words, and this is the same shortcut as my "accept lsp prompt", as they are all marked as inline suggestions. I am a naturally slow/deliberate programmer so for me this way of working with copilot did speed up my work and made it drastically more enjoyable

[@Wock__]

Thanks for the ctrl+right arrow tip. I usually end up hitting tab then deleting 90% of the suggestion

[@StevenAkinyemi]

Cmd + Right if you are on mac

[@sferavel]

if you don't write code on a piece of paper and then transfer it to punch cards, I don't think you can be considered a programmer

[@ChrisAthanas]

Programming is not typing, it just looks that way from the outside at first

[@vatsalyavigyaverma5494]

Lmao

[@kodedart2311]

True developers memoize everything.

[@MrYerak5]

I file gears by hand

[@YarPirates-vy7iv]

My cpus are just rats trained to carry messages to each other.

[@frustratedalien666]

I've always turned off the auto complete prompts. What really gives me value is Copilot chat. 90% of the time I use it to understand what the legacy code actually tries to accomplish and it does a decent job in most languages. The other 10% of the time I'm asking questions about how to structure a project in a language that I'm not particularly familiar with, or asking it to generate boilerplate code, where it does a decent enough job.

[@jamess.2491]

Really? I feel like copilot chat kinda sucks ass compared to just using GPT-4

[@MantasXVIII]

@@jamess.2491 it's directly integrated into IDEs though, and can be accessed with a hotkey. Maybe that's why he prefers it over GPT4? Don't know

[@DEBO5]

@@jamess.2491 yea literally only good for autocompleting boilerplate

[@levanivashadze]

Yeah copilot chat often just ignores what I tell it or forgets what I told it in the message before

[@zshall48]

I like Copilot a lot when it comes to pattern completion. If I write functions to accomplish some task and then have a related task that isn’t quite the same it will generally outline new code in the same style as the previous code I wrote. If I write CSS for a red gradient of a specific shade for instance I’ve been able to autocomplete code for a blue gradient that matches the same saturation and lightness as the red one, and continue the pattern for green, yellow, etc. On solo projects I feel like Copilot gives me the power of two people. I just need to be prepared to guide it and review the code and not rely on it for anything too complicated.

[@weeb3277]

it's just a fancy autocomplete often it would give a completely wrong answer but you'd still have to spend time reviewing the code only to find out it was incorrect

[@MarthinusBosman]

Exactly, replace copilot with intellisense and every argument stays the same. They're bad arguments

[@hermes6910]

Except that it's much more useful. You can do an initial code review, check for errors and explore solutions. It helps you immerse yourself in a new code base and documents what's not... Copilot is therefore an excellent tool to complete your toolbox

[@asdakuhi8h]

its also trained on old data iirc it does not know about react18 yet

[@corviraptor]

​@@MarthinusBosman i think this is a rather reductive argument. the point about Copilot being trained on older versions of code and using newer versions of libraries incorrectly still stands, whereas with traditional code completion it's usually based on analysis of the existing API. traditional code completion systems are also fundamentally different regardless; if they weren't, why would people use copilot in the first place? a code completion system that doesn't go further than the language server, static analysis, and the documentation doesn't try to solve problems for you, and it's much harder to write code that you don't understand with it.

[@XistenceX1]

Copilot is just intellisense+ and that's amazing when I hate boilerplate.

[@FritsStegmann]

I've taken it out as well, missed it in the beginning, but I'm happier without it now. I think it's a bit to much of a crutch, you are better of developing the "muscle memory" in the long run.

[@dreamsofcode]

Agreed!

[@farqueueman]

My sentiments exactly. I hate having to tweak the code that it produces that I find I may have well just have written the damn thing myself to begin with. It's good for getting up to spead with frameworks and using it as a source of quickly finding documentation tho.

[@Galahad54]

Reminds of a junior programmer I had to work with. I'd written some code that regexed the entire code base to make it Y2K correct and consistent. No further edits required or desired. He edited it, which meant I ended up manually touching 70K lines of code. I'd rather write my own co-pilot.

[@mortvald]

@@Galahad54 I'm genuinely curious, was there no version control in place? or does your company don't do commits for each input?

[@cookiemonster208]

I find copilot useful for writing basic, non-critical functions which I don't have time and interest to figure out. (For instance, I recently asked it for a function to determine whether a text color is light or dark, so I can place it on a contrasting background.) In cases like these, the amount of time is saves is tangible and well worth it. I also find the chat useful - it helps me to do quick research. What I don't like is the automatic code completion. It is often wrong and interrupts my thought process. And I've been fighting with it instead of disabling it (which surely there must be a way to do - I'm about to find out). Thanks for making me examine my copilot use.

[@g-ay]

i have had quite a similar experience especially the frustration of not having copilot afterwards (despite doing just fine before ai really took over) i do miss it when writing tedious bits of code but i much rather keeping and enhancing my skills over saving time

[@BusinessWolf1]

I remember when I turned off the autocomplete and suggestions on my phone's keyboard. I was suddenly a bumbling fool making tons of mistakes. I stuck with it though, and I'm glad I did. I have no technical reasons for why I stopped, I just felt like I should be in complete control of my thought patterns, and that receiving suggestions would likely influence where my thoughts went so I wouldn't have to type so much.

[@conaticus]

Totally agree! Using AI is great for quick prototypes or working around a new language (if you don't care for the privacy issues), however over using it can suck away the creative process of writing code, and writing good code. Awesome video as always

[@matthartstonge]

Beta Cody was the best thing I used - they had a pre-step which would tokenise selected private/public repos and then your context was based on that. Holy hecka, once it had all the context it was great, but then they nerfed it to have the same context as copilot. Definitely get the “copilot pause” and have been thinking of ditching it myself. Though has sometimes kept me focused while I talk off topic during a webinar and I’ve added a code comment of what to do next and it autocompletes the thing 😂

[@addcoding8150]

The best experience I've had recently, was writing C on my job, where I'm not allowed to install anything. It was just a basic Vim (not neovim) setup and the C compiler. Showed me how little you actually need to have fun programming.

[@MrAlanCristhian]

Also, man pages of c can replace google search.

[@mudi2000a]

For me that’s not really fun. I mean, it is enough for sure depending on what you are doing. But ever since I first used the first IDE (Turbo Pascal in 1992) I don’t like working in a non-ide setting. Of course I think back then it could not do more than what vim could now. But I never used vim for development, I’m an Emacs person…

[@MrAlanCristhian]

nano + tmux master race

[@Zerahu]

@@MrAlanCristhianno way man nvim nowadays is the meta

[@Noname-67]

I'd hate that. I can't live without my neovim setup anymore.

[@ejenkins132]

If you have the discipline, a good middle ground it to have a keybinding to quickly toggle suggestions on and off. I find that when I'm learning something or working on something niche, I turn copilot off so I'm not distracted by the output it gives. But if I'm working on something repetitive like unit testing, it's really nice to be able to toggle copilot back on to quickly add test cases.

[@dreamsofcode]

This is a really good idea. Saves the whole "copy and paste" feel of copilot.

[@PureDizzi]

Programmers like us will be getting the higher salary jobs. Our approach is superior.

[@notjoemartinez4438]

I think the biggest issue is that when you tab complete your way through a project you stop thinking about the problem you're trying to solve. The editor will write the code off of an assumption and when it's wrong you have no idea why. You end up creating more bugs than if you just typed the code yourself. I still use the chat feature because it's like a pair programmer or rubber ducky that gives you feed back while solving the problem.

[@nelind3]

I've never actually tried copilot for basically all the reasons you've outlined here. I write code (mainly) for fun. I don't have any paid jobs that involve programming (only volunteer work) so when I write I want to have fun. For me that is deeply linked with learning and problem solving which are exactly the things copilot tries to "make efficient" but like you say that feels like it ends up being copilot writing and me reviewing and that's not what I'm after. Then there's boilerplate which certainly is neither about problem solving or learning so copilot could shine very brightly for me here. But the closed source, sends snippets to microsoft nature of the beast really puts me off using it for that alone. Especially when things like templates and snippets exist. Boilerplate is not that bad not to the point i want to give up my privacy even more than I'm already forced to.

[@PJ-PeA]

Thank you for these videos. Keep up the good work you do. I was interested in running a local LLM and use it to help me write boilerplate code. It is not yet integrated to code editor. So yes this topic would interest me. Have a nice easter

[@dreamsofcode]

Thank you! You too

[@dernetterick]

Exactly my thoughts, specifically when it comes to losing the ability to solve problems because you more and more rely on such tools. Also, I hated it when I wanted to think about what to write next just to see copilot already suggesting „something“… can’t count how many times I immediately pressed the escape key to make sure I am in charge of solving the next piece of the puzzle 😊

[@MeteoricMoney]

My first video of yours Im watching and I really love how buttery smooth all your graphics and animations are especially in 4k 60. Pure eye candy. I hope mine can get to that level some day. The icing of the cake of some great content. Thank you!

[@dreamsofcode]

Thank you! I'm playing with the idea of starting up another channel dedicated to motion graphics

[@MeteoricMoney]

@@dreamsofcode I'd subscribe for sure.

[@MeteoricMoney]

@@dreamsofcode BTW, where did you get that keyboard? I'd like to buy one.

[@TheBswan]

Would be better to have an integrated chatgpt style UI which has your editing context + RAG w/ latest docs on libraries being used. No more auto inline complete or out of date suggestions, but can easily pump out boilerplate or consult when stuck

[@steveaguay]

I agree with you far more than I thought I would when going in and I'm considering the same. Although I have found having a chat bot is helpful. It can be used as a rubby ducky and if I have a question it's quick to give an answer. If I need more I go to the docs. The chat bot kinda takes away the middle step of googling the question.

[@JuanGonzaloCarcamo]

As with all your other videos, very clearly explained. I often find myself in the loop of accepting copilot’s suggestions and re-writing what doesn’t work for me. I wonder if I’d be better off writing my stuff from scratch but in my particular case, I feel like I benefit from “one man’s pair programming”. Where copilot is the first one to ride, and then I go and work on that idea.

[@yugalkhanal6967]

I need the new neovim setup please

[@neelg7057]

fr

[@debajyatidey9468]

Hey why don't check out mine

[@dreamsofcode]

Coming soon!

[@MaxJM711]

Before moving to Neovim full-time I used to use Copilot in VSC. I was still learning programming in baby steps back then, and felt that it giving me (sometimes wrong) code was going to deeply hinder my learning and problem solving in the long run. LSP+cmp is all I need and more, I have to understand what I'm going to do and cmp saves me a few seconds, proper win-win!

[@committedcoder3352]

as others have expressed, I like it for writing things with awkward syntax, most commonly flattening a 2D ArrayList in java. anything else and I typically type it faster than I'm able to get a result and process that it gave (or anything big enough that it can beat me - I wouldn't trust enough to take anyway)

[@maherf768]

I'm an old fella.. I've seen many fads come and go. although AI have some value, right now it's over hyped and overused. and when it comes to software, I like minimal fast setups that help me DO THE JOB. I'm amazed by how some devs are willing to avoid actual learning and work using overkill solutions for the simplest of tasks. I knew from day one that AI is not for me but I think it can be very helpful in many situations.

[@Zerahu]

Ai has been quite useful for me when I have to write code or modify something in a language I don't really know, like the other day I needed to convert a yml file to toml and I had pretty much no clue of the file structure of either but chatgpt could just convert the entire thing for me. Saved a lot of time and got a working answer. If I write in a language I know I tend to write my code myself and use chatgpt to refactor it or make it nicer and more readable + add comments

[@maherf768]

@@Zerahu I do find it amazingly helpful in personal projects and filling minor gaps. but sadly some people are committing code they don't completely understand which is very dangerous and irresponsible. if you use it as a jumpstart and actually learn what it did. and preferably why and what other solutions it might have missed then power to you. but I hope you understand that the fastest answer is not always the best answer

[@zyriab5797]

@@ZerahuTOML is so nice!

[@cbaesemanai]

I am also, I hve been writing code for over 25 years. That was then this is now. You will either use it and the productivity bost it provides or you will fall by the side of the road. I am a old dog but I am learning the new tricks.

[@CreepToeJoe]

Interesting perspective! I can relate to that.

[@Jarvis2077]

Co Pilot is a blessing as a freelancer where I do repetitive ui and common features implementation. I would definitely not use it on personal projects or when learning. But I use it my full time and freelance work.

[@daryladhityahenry]

Wow! I already want to stop my copilot subscription for about a year.. But, sometimes I use it for generating boilerplate and some conversion so I just not typing too much.. Your video making me wanted to stop subcription as soon as possible. It's also not that useful for me, it's just like fast autocomplete etc. And I even can't use that much potential of it because of what all you said in this video. lol. Nice video :). I also think about self hosted AI that I train to code with my style, or really as I need... Hope to see your video on that since you're step ahead of me in this direction :D.

[@fourcoding3198]

I really like your videos and animations. Could you share your general creation process of these? What tools do you use for editing and animation?

[@dreamsofcode]

Absolutely! I mostly use Davinci Resolve for like 95% of my work but will use After Effects to do some things faster (like the particle smash effect).

[@fourcoding3198]

​@@dreamsofcodeAwesome, thank you!

[@tuatec]

In my view it is just another tool, which has some limitations like all tools. I am using it since one or two days and struggle way more then before with the escape key to avoid introducing the code suggestions. Also it felt to me like a fight, I am a Visual Studio user and Intellisense gives you also suggestions... and Copilot as well. 😅 As you said in the video it might be outdated or in my case often wrong. But where it really helps in my view is when you're sitting in a front of a empty document. Or to give you a draft for a function documentation. Or to write boilerplate code. Looks like the good old days with a plain text editor might come back soon.

[@Nerdimo]

I don’t use copilot, but I have used codeium. It’s pretty much copilot without the privacy issues. So far it’s been good, but I do notice I wait for the autocomplete when I could just type it myself. I’m going to keep using it, I just know I need to ignore it when I’m writing something a bit more complex/intensive.

[@victorjamet6861]

Hey, what keyboard are u using ? I would appreciate knowing. Thanks in advance

[@Rerbun]

Interesting video. I am not allowed to use AI tools for my current work, but for my exciting hobby projects (which I put very little time in) I do use it. For my hobby projects I usually only start writing in my editor when I know exactly what I want to put down, and just seeing it show up, while I'm in the middle of writing it, exactly like how I had it in mind, is very exciting and fun to me.

[@LardBucket_]

I'd be interested in videos about how to self-host LLMs

[@JettMoress]

Second

[@mikekienenberger4332]

Third

[@abakker10]

Ollama is a good tool for self-hosting LLMs

[@117ao]

check out Continue

[@117ao]

i tried Continue. worked well

[@IqweoR]

Signing up on a self hosting AI list/ranking/tutorial. Great channel, subscribed

[@angelcaru]

Me who doesn't even use an LSP: "Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power"

[@yondaime500]

Real programmers use cat.

[@scrapmine]

@@yondaime500 No, real programmers use ed.

[@gusryan]

@@yondaime500 real programmers don't use higher level abstractions like programming languages and just write straight binary

[@XistenceX1]

@@gusryan Cowards, I manipulate the electrons on the metal directly.

[@imrich9349]

@@gusryan yeah, the real ones don't even use assembly, they write ones and zeroes one by one, too god-like to write lowly abstractions.

[@codechapin]

Same for me, I love coding and I don’t want a tool to do it for me. Yeah, there are some tasks that are tedious but I find it more fun to come up with some macro recording or meta programming thing. Obviously that’s slower and hard to do when you have a deadline, but on my personal projects I really enjoy that creative aspect of finding ways to make the tedious/boilerplate stuff more interesting and an opportunity to learn something new. It’s like being a painter, you have an idea then AI or a robot painting it for you. That would really suck the fun of it.

[@Merlinio1000]

I'd be really interested in your self hosting of a coding llm. I'm currently in the process of figuring out my homelab server hardware etc, and coding llms are also a consideration for me on that front

[@reaper4142]

hey man do you have a video about your terminal config ? it looks clean

[@pabloscasso5697]

100% this. Great video. I agree on everything. I’d rather write my own code than having to wait and then correct someone else’s code

[@AM-yk5yd]

Best LLM that works locally IME was zephyr 7B. I tried several, though I skipped models like starcoder or stablecode as they are not open-source and stablecode even prohibits commercial use. Also one problem of such models is tokenization. If you stop midword, LLM will have really hard time to process it. And about out-of-date code: so much yes. Bevy for example updates a lot with lots of breaking changes. That doesn't bode well with LLMs where majority of data is old.

[@deberenguer7917]

I recently added a keyboard shortcut that turns copilot off. It’s nice to be able to turn it on for boilerplate and unit tests

[@MrAlanCristhian]

A thing that annoys me is that 90% of the time is wrong. Imagine a coworker that is wrong that ratio and you have to constantly correct him, will you say that he boost your productivity?

[@barni_7762]

I commented out copilot in my config a while ago and forgot to add it back in, then decided to not put it back in because I noticed with copilot it was much harder for me to get into any kind of flow state because I had to constantly check it's suggestions and I was also pausing and waiting for them and sort of shutting my brain off in the meantime. I'm now copilot-free again and have sort of returned to normal. Now using chatgpt a lot more when I actually want to use ai (I have the chatgpt plugin), but with this plugin, using ai is a deliberate choice which does not break my mental flow as much

[@hunterXDXeno]

Nice Video - A self hosted Open Source Model would be interesting to answer the question.

[@eenayeah]

All your examples were literally me 🤣 Used to work out, not anymore. Used to play the piano, not anymore. Used to cycle a lot, not anymore. What a good wakeup call to start doing those things again!

[@ReptoxX]

I'm thinking the same 'bout Copilot. But i really don't want to miss it with writing boilerplate. I wish there was an ai helper of some sort that's really good at generating boilerplate, but doesn't get in the way of more complex code. If there is please let me know, i'll happily make the switch.

[@hoodavy]

So looking forward to your re-organized NvChad tutorial, esp. the Rust part!

[@draakisback]

It's funny, I had a similar experience myself. I never used copilot really because I just didn't like it, instead I used tabnine. The original iteration of tabnine was pretty decent because it basically just acted like a smarter language server, giving suggestions for the next two or three words rather than entire lines of code. But once it started suggesting full lines, I found myself ignoring all of the suggestions because they were fundamentally wrong or worse than what I was planning to write. Even in the case of boilerplate, it just wasn't good at predicting what needed to be done. For a while I limited it to only suggesting one or two words again but like you said it fell out of date pretty quickly. I went back to using normal language servers and I don't see myself going back to AI anytime soon especially since AI isn't really AI, if you know what I mean.

[@Fawstah]

If you're writing the snippets code snippets day in, day out, having an elgato stream deck is a good way to save boiler plate buttons when you want them. I use mine for a handful of annoying to write code snippets, but I still write almost everything.

[@omerpriel5588]

Like you said. Enjoy is the reason for me to use Copilot. I don't like to write what I already know in my head. So, I never wait for him until it long part of code that he will do it faster. Like simple long endpoints and data classes For privacy, I disable him in some of my projects. In other words, copilot is not the first action for me when I am codeining. And, Thanks

[@sutirk]

I use an offline version of copilot (tabbyml) with a shortcut to activate it, and I only ever use it for boilerplate, testcases and general copypasta. The pauses and results end up being slightly worse on my machine than online solutions, but it doesn't really matter for the level of tasks i use it for, which are dumb tasks in and of itself. But analyzing code written by an AI definitely takes you away from any flow you previously had. It feels like constantly relying on someone to finish off your sentences, which works great half of the time, but half the time they say something completely random that throws you off

[@trappedcat3615]

I like the autocomplete for types and stuff I've already written. Speeds up coding by atleast 2x. It's not a challenge for me to ignore copilot and brrainstorm offline. Also, using inline chat to refresh on concepts is great.

[@SlashIllya]

Generating code with llms is a distraction from what they are actually good for. I'm a junior dev and instead i use it as brainstorming partner who can tell me how to solve particular problems. I then add more constraints, such as the language and paradigm i want to solve this problem in. There's some caution required here, because it's quite easy to introduce your own bias and stir the llm away from telling you a more appropriate solution. The biggest gain from this approach is you learn a lot of what's possible in software, so you can make an opinionated decision in which direction to dig further for a solution. Most of what i recently learnt comes from very good lectures on KZbin, but I would have never found them, if chatgpt or claude didn't tell me about the existence of those topics/discussions in the field. Note this is using it for education rather than "productivity" (imagine how much skepticism i would've gotten from you, if lead my comment with that, huh) TLDR: maybe what people really need, is someone who constantly tells them an alternative perspective on the problem they are solving, rather than some autocomplete that's inherently driven by confirmation bias.

[@n0kodoko143]

excited to see what you use instead of gc, when the time comes.

[@zyriab5797]

I use Copilot mainly through the chat, which I find useful to ask some questions about a Vim command or some general direction about what I want to do. As for the IDE integration, I use a Neovim plugin that adds the suggestions in my completion menu, no more virtual text. That's crazy how it's way less distracting and I rarely wait for it anymore, I sometimes even forget about Copilot. In the end, I'm not super impressed by it, especially the chat that cannot access GH repos. I'm more and more thinking about ditching it and just get a GPT-4 subscription instead.

[@marloelefant7500]

The phrase "use it or lose it" is really something I also experienced when writing code. Although I haven't used Copilot or any other comparable product at all yet, I'm nevertheless pretty reliant on the auto completion of my IDE. Writing code in vim feels sluggish and frustrating to me as I always make typos, have to look up symbols and so on. Things that the IDE is gratefully helping me with.

[@monad_tcp]

0:58 that part about riding a bike, I spent 15 years without riding a bike, it took me 6 hours to learn how to do it again after all that time.

[@asoli]

Copilot free coding is so much stimulating and actually saves you a lot of headaches

[@benfurstenwerth]

I agree fully. I setup codieum AI and used it for about 3 days. No enough to get used to it, but it is not the workflow for me. Maybe just as a boiler plate generator. I also noticed the scope of its understanding of a project is meh

[@crossscar-dev]

Which Framework laptop do you have (mine is intel 13th gen 1 TB of SSD 64 GB RAM and is running arch linux.) The price was insane because my dad made me use 64 GB of RAM over 16 GB

[@warhawk8511]

What keyboard you got mate?

[@Hazarth]

Yeah, I'm a privacy and FOSS centered dev too. I didn't sign up for any of these remote AI services except initially for chatgpt (the free one) but even then I never used it with my real code. Usually if I want it to check something I give it an alternative code and explanation and ask in abstract terms. I'm experimenting with copilot-like addons that run using an ollama server and those are working well though 9/10 times it generates additional code I didn't want, or it actually takes over a helpful language server auto-complete and I accidentally pick up the dumb generated code. So in practice I have autocomplete disabled and instead I trigger it when I want to for boilerplate or configs. I find that is the best way for me to integrate it with my workflow at least. I need it to automate the boring stuff that I wrote 5 000 000 times already, not the new stuff that I'm not even yet sure how to write them myself... That's just counterproductive

[@PaulanerStudios]

I usually just turn copilot of depending on what I'm working on... if it's some more basic stuff like some data transformations in a python notebook it's handy to have around since I'm not going to reuse most of this code or even look at it again. Then typing out a comment describing what should be done, waiting for the autocomplete that uses the correct library function to do it really does boost productivity... if the only thing that matters is the dataset written in the end that's ok. I do turn it off when working on more sophisticated stuff however. Especially in rust, copilot can lead you down paths of strange and bad design choices. Also it stops me from thinking through something completely. When the suggestion appears my train of thought gets derailed and I start reading instead. So in short if the task is easy and I already know conceptually what to do and how to do it copilot is nice because everything goes faster. As a tool to help me do stuff that I don't already know how to do from end to end: not really.

[@CrypticConsole]

now that ollama is cross platform with windows support using that with an openai API compatible plugin should be a consistent experience across windows linux and mac, plus you get the benefit of being able to run inference on another PC or some kind of VPS. originally I disliked ollama's docker style model management but for LAN scale use behind a firewall its actually really nice and I would recommend you try it. A lot of people suggest deepseek coder models and I have had good success there, especially since the 7b quantised models can be ran on a 1080/2080/3080 in vram entirely.

[@darricheng]

I've had the same experience using copilot. Initially, I thought it was very cool and was fully enjoying the increased productivity that copilot brought. However, I also realised some time after that I had a copilot pause. My brain would stop working and instead wait for copilot to suggest something. I didn't like that feeling, so I went back to not using copilot and started to enjoy coding more again.

[@user-tt4hp9yb2x]

I have set up copilot to only be triggered manually. I can trigger it for boilerplate code and write my own code most of the time.

[@huuthongle8768]

Just wonder when you release a new go neovim config video. Been waiting for it. Thx

[@dreamsofcode]

Soon! I promise. I've got a couple of commitments to get through and I'll be redoing my neovim courses after :)

[@javabeanz8549]

I have not used any of the AI coding assistants. I like using a color highlighted editor, but not so much anything that does any kind of auto complete.

[@wcrb15]

I recently re-did my nvim config and lost co-pilot also. I haven't missed it really.

[@rawallon]

What did you do with the extra money?

[@wcrb15]

@@rawallon my employer pays for an enterprise copilot license so no change there

[@nabilkhan5990]

In my case, it greatly reduced my time for googling stuff. For example, I started using prisma orm for the first time, and without copilot, i would have to go back and forth just to write a simple query but copilot would give me the query suggestion and i would understand that query and implement it. It's just nice being in the code editor, rather than going out again and again.

[@ImmacHn]

I've seen pretty good LLMs, I'm trying to drop copilot once I've found one I like, but I have to disagree in something, I feel like I've learned a lot from correcting copilot, and also from trying to formulate questions, a large amount of the time I arrive at the answer just trying to write the question so thst copilot understands, and I'm having fun with that quite a bit, just some background on me me since it would probably be relevant I've been writing code on a professional level for about 10 years.

[@moo6080]

I think an open source local LLM will be the way to go. There are interesting solutions for RAG with your own documents locally, this could definitely be adapted to use more recent API documents and stay up to date. But i think the approach to AI assisted coding will change a lot before it becomes ubiquitous. I think having some intelligent commentary on the code that's being written, offering suggestions, and providing insight will become more useful than code completion, as we already have great non AI solutions for LSP.

[@fireinthehole2272]

I am glad. I used Copilot during the research preview (am researcher) and it made me so... lazy, switched it off when they asked me to pay money for it, and my coding improved tremendously.

[@NekoiNemo]

I'm sorry for going offtopic, but what is that sound panel next to your laptop at 0:55?

[@dreamsofcode]

It's the Rodecaster Duo. A fantastic piece of hardware!

[@Dent42]

I’d love to hear your take on open-source code completion solutions. I’m also starting to think I’d be better off without Copilot, but at the same time, I *loathe* losing time to searching SO.

[@W0lfCL]

Do you publish your dotfiles? I just like how some elements in your environment are set up and I don't want to spend too much time on replicating some of them :)

[@dreamsofcode]

They are available on my personal GH! If you check out my dreamsofcode-io org you should find them that way

[@SoreBrain]

After using Copilot most of the time for a couple months I went through the same after stopping. The "Copilot pause" is horrible and ended up not making me more productive but rather taking away fun.

[@chu121su12]

What's your take on using copilot or copilot-like tools to write tests and/or docblocks?

[@dreamsofcode]

I think for boilerplate it's really good still. The issue for me is still privacy however. Im hoping there's a good open source model out there that I'll be able to use for boilerplate!

[@pavelastraukh9905]

What is the name of keyboard and keys you are using?(the one split in two parts)

[@digvijayad]

came to comments to see that too.

[@alexis00353]

zsa voyager ;)

[@FelipeV3444]

The "fun" argument is so true.

[@BartTrojanowski]

Yes, I'm interested in nvim config with a locally running ollama backend for code snippet suggestions.

[@ofer987]

Hi, would you share with me your Neovim configuration?

[@HuntingKingYT]

0:47 captions relatable😔

[@spartan_j117]

1:48 THIS IS FANTASTIC! 🤣

[@queasybeetle]

I use co pilot chat which gives me an explanation of the code it is writing. Then type the answer out. The next time i tried to remember what it said. It has been great for learning how to code.

[@agnichatian]

Yes to the self-hosting of AI; nice job on this; subbed.

[@paultal]

The 'copilot pause' happened to me some days ago when I was working on a local project and for some reason I didn't have internet connection, so GH Copilot didn't work. I imediately felt the change in behaviour that Copilot has given me.

[@Vincentrr91]

I use Sourcegraph’s Cody, and I really like it. The autocomplete is impressive.

[@nano_sweet]

I use copilot primarily as an input device, where I know what to input but let copilot do the work so I can focus my mind on what to do next. Thankfully copilot is pretty good at copying my style so that makes my coding workflow very efficient!

[@DanielStoinov]

have you tried ollama as offline solution?

[@duffyscottc]

I'd like to see a video on how to self-host your AI assistant/helper/whatever!

[@focksen7797]

I'm a pretty junior software dev working in a big code base, and i find copilot does literally nothing for me, as 80% of the code i write is dependent on in-house software, that copilot doesn't have access to. The company pays for copilot, but the genuinely useless autocompletes it comes with, has made me disable it. It's more an annoyance than a help. It is more or less the same conclusion i have even when I'm writing small projects that just use std libs from whatever language I'm using. It's just annoying to use.