David Gewirtz / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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Step-by-step builds beat full-spec instructions for AI coding.
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Last week, I put in somewhere between 50 and 60 hours of pair programming with, and getting to know, ChatGPT Codex.
Pair programming is an old term with a new meaning. Pair programming is the practice of two or more programmers writing code together at the same time. For years, the two programmers were two humans. But as of late, with the advent of coding AI, pair programming can mean a human pairing up with an AI to code together. That's what I've been doing.
I did my first 12 to 15 hours by using it through the $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus, and was cut off three times in the process for overuse of resources. I did the remaining 45 or so hours by using the $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro program, and didn't get shut down once.
By the time I was done, I completed a major feature upgrade for my core product, and created four additional add-on products to that core product. It was the most productive development period I've ever experienced.
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