Like many developers, I used Google and Stack Overflow to solve problems, explore new tools, and learn new skills. I wasn't happy with these tools, but they were all I got. When the first AI tools were released, I was skeptical and pretty much ignored them. However, last year I decided to bite the bullet and got the Plus subscription of ChatGPT. In this post, I’ll describe why I decided to give an AI chatbot a shot.
Let's begin.
Googling Is a Waste of Time
When I was still relying on Google, my problem-solving process looked like this:
- Do a Google search.
- Skim through the search results.
- Click something that might be relevant.
- Try the suggested fix.
- If that didn’t work, repeat the process with a new search or keep digging.
This workflow was manageable when the search engine optimization wasn't such a massive problem and the search results were somewhat relevant. But today? Google is no longer a search engine — it’s an online advertisement platform. I understand that Google has to make money, but the problem is that finding the relevant information has become too slow and frustrating because:
- The quality of search results has declined and finding the relevant information takes more work than it used to because I have to browse longer and deeper into the search results.
- The search results page contains less search results than it used to because Google decided to add "AI Overview", "People also ask", "Videos", and "People also search for" sections to the search results page.
- Google doesn't display the number of search results on the search results page. This information was useful to me because it helped me to decide if I should try to improve my search query or accept that Google cannot help me. I can still kind of get the same information, but I have to scroll down to the bottom of the search results page to see the pagination controls. The problem of this workaround is that I can see the exact number of search result pages only if my search query returned less than 10 pages. Otherwise, I can only see that my search query returned at least 10 pages.
I struggled for so long because I felt that I have no other choice. Eventually, I had to admit that searching for help wastes so much of my time that I must try something totally different. I decided to give AI a shot.
Rubber Duck Debugging for the Win
When I am using ChatGPT, my problem-solving process is completely different. It looks like this:
- I describe my problem and include an error message if I have one.
- ChatGPT proposes a solution or asks me to clarify my problem.
- If ChatGPT proposes a solution, I try the suggested solution.
- If the solution didn't solve my problem or ChatGPT needs additional information, I continue the discussion until I find a solution to my problem.
This workflow feels less demoralizing than googling because:
- I don't have to spend any time for figuring out a good search query. Instead, I can describe my problem by using plain English. This is both faster and a lot less frustrating.
- I don't have to go through search result pages and hope that I find something that helps me to solve my problem. If I provide enough information, I often get the correct answer right away. This increases my productivity.
- When I am talking with an AI chatbot, I am basically doing rubber duck debugging because I often end up explaining my reasoning to the AI. If the AI cannot help me to solve my problem, there is a good chance that I figure out what the problem is when I explain it to the AI.
In short, when I use an AI chatbot, I don’t feel alone or stuck. The problem-solving process feels surprisingly collaborative and predictable: the better my input, the better the responses I get.
Summary
When I use Google, I must concentrate on figuring out a good search query and hope that it provides useful search results. Also, I must spend a lot of energy for browsing and evaluating the search results. On the other hand, when I use an AI chatbot, I can simply describe my problem, and it asks me to explain my reasoning until I find the answer I am looking for. The latter process is faster, more focused, and reminds me of a troubleshooting session with a colleague.
Do you still rely on Google, or are you using AI for problem-solving? Share your thoughts in the comments below. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Hi! A search engine is still my default because chatbots sometimes invent something that doesn't exist, especially the code. I'm using a free version of ChatGPT, and maybe a better/paid version would hallucinate less.
My best experience with ChatGPT was when I needed a new approach to a problem - I had 2 options that could not be used for some reasons, and asked if there was a 3rd solution. The offered solution could not be just copy/pasted to my project, but it was in the right direction.
As you said, the value is in the conversation. In general, for me the chatbots are great for topics I don't know much about, and for the coding problems that are not too complex because I don't want to spend more time explaining what I need to a bot than writing the code by myself.
Hi Lada,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. Like you mentioned, the downside of an AI chatbot is that they hallucinate sometimes (the paid version does this as well). For example, if you want that AI writes code and you don't explicitly specify that you want it to use the library X, the chatbot might invent a library or API which doesn't exist. Also, to be fair, I should try other search engines such as DuckDuckGo or Kagi because I have heard that they are a lot better than Google.
I am going to write a second blog post where I share concrete examples of how ChatGPT has helped me, but typically I have a good experience with AI when:
Mapwhich allowsnullvalues when I want to initialize its values when I create it?"Finally, even though I feel that AI has increased my productivity, it might be that I feel this way because the problem-solving process is more pleasant than it used to be.
Nice final thought! :D
If AI removed part of the burden from your back, it could easily be that your energy is now invested better elsewhere.