I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been having extensive conversations with LLMs about problem solving and my apparent inability to do it.
I even had this post.
Tonight’s conversation started about writing, and my inability to do that. I always want to write for an audience, never for myself. That, however, is a story for another day.
A good example of what I’m lamenting happened today. I’m building a, not replacement (that will never happen) but a 2025 vision of what a modern Wordpress could look like. Unfortunately, I’ve used LLMs extensively to build it, rather than sit with the discomfort of working problems on my own.
I won’t write words and words here, but instead am going to distill tonight’s conversation down to a series of 7 questions that I’m writing here to keep track of, so I can search for them and use them when I’m next stuck:
The Seven Questions:
- What am I trying to do? (One sentence about the goal)
- What have I tried? (Even if it’s “nothing yet”)
- What do I think should happen? (Your guess, even if wrong)
- What’s actually happening? (Or “I don’t know where to start”)
- What’s one thing I know for sure? (Even small: “I need a struct”)
- What’s one thing I’m unsure about? (The fuzzy part)
- If I had to make a guess, what would I try next? (Guess, even if you think it’s wrong)
That’s it, there they are.
I hope they help you too.
Comments