If the coding assistant can't run ITERATIVE CRUD on ALL of your code, it's not a True AI Coding Assistant (TACA)

1. Must work on existing codebases
2. Must have a file context mechanism
3. Must be iteratively controllable

• CrewAI (agentic building block - not TACA)
• Autogen (agentic building block - not TACA)
• GPT Engineer (rapid prototyping - not TACA)
• ChatDEV (rapid prototyping - not TACA)
• Cursor (Legitimate TACA)
• AIDER (Legitimate TACA)

• Aider
• Cursor

1. File Management
2. Accuracy
3. Speed
4. Security
5. Skill Atrophy 💰💰💰💰💰

• File Management
  • Explicit manual add/remove file context
  • Wait for tools to improve
  • Look for niche solutions that include open file context
• Accuracy
  • PRACTICE
  • The prompt is the new fundamental unit of programming
  • Wait for tools to improve
• Speed
  • Experiment and see if you REALLY need gpt-4-turbo or if gpt-3 is enough
  • Wait for tools to improve
• Security
  • Bite the bullet and use a cloud solution
  • Use a local-only solution (in the future)
    • Waiting for great local LLMs to catch up
• Skill Atrophy
  • Great technology always destroys skill, jobs, and entire industries
  • Pay close attention to the results of your prompts to slow skill decay
  • Don't focus on this too much, focus on the bigger picture: The Prompt
  • Flow with the AI, don't fight it

• Whoever cracks this puzzle first is going to catapult into the future of engineering.
• The world is built on code, and whoever can build the best code the fastest will win in the long run.
• If you're faster, you can build more, once you finish your work you can work more or relax more.
• There is a massive first movers advantage in the software industry. Learning and mastering AI Coding Assistants ASAP gives you a monumental edge.