I had an interesting experience with CoPilot yesterday. I asked it to add a 'deactivate' button to each of a collection of items. It did that, but unexpectedly, it conditionally displayed 'reactivate' if the `item.deactivated_at.present?` with appropriate bootstrap icons (a cross for deactivate and a circular arrow for reactivate).
What surprised me was it knew what I wanted better than I did (for this MVP, I hadn't even considered 'reactivate' functionality - I'd have been happy just with deactivate).
So it didn't just write code I asked for, but suggested (and was right about) something it thought I might like beyond what was actually asked for.
It was my first time using CoPilot chat so perhaps it does this a lot, but it was my first time experiencing it. It challenged my thinking and improved it.
What surprised me was it knew what I wanted better than I did (for this MVP, I hadn't even considered 'reactivate' functionality - I'd have been happy just with deactivate).
So it didn't just write code I asked for, but suggested (and was right about) something it thought I might like beyond what was actually asked for.
It was my first time using CoPilot chat so perhaps it does this a lot, but it was my first time experiencing it. It challenged my thinking and improved it.