I had a similar experience just today when trying to debug a script that serves as a connector between AWS Athena and our internal log querying platform. I got fed up with trying to understand a bunch of arcane logic and asked ChatGPT to write me a new one.
After a couple of back-and-forth rounds of copying and pasting error messages and sample data, I got the ChatGPT script working as a drop-in replacement. The new script is more readable, the logic is simpler, it took me less time to complete than either debugging the old script or writing a new one from scratch, and it was an overall more enjoyable experience.
There is little doubt in my mind that in the not so distant future we will gawk at the thought that humans used to write production code by hand. Sure, the artisans and the enthusiasts among us will still be around to keep the flame, but day coding will be a mostly automated endeavor.
After a couple of back-and-forth rounds of copying and pasting error messages and sample data, I got the ChatGPT script working as a drop-in replacement. The new script is more readable, the logic is simpler, it took me less time to complete than either debugging the old script or writing a new one from scratch, and it was an overall more enjoyable experience.
There is little doubt in my mind that in the not so distant future we will gawk at the thought that humans used to write production code by hand. Sure, the artisans and the enthusiasts among us will still be around to keep the flame, but day coding will be a mostly automated endeavor.