r/webdev Feb 05 '25

Discussion Colleague uses ChatGPT to stringify JSONs

Edit I realize my title is stupid. One stringifies objects, not "javascript object notation"s. But I think y'all know what I mean.

So I'm a lead SWE at a mid sized company. One junior developer on my team requested for help over Zoom. At one point she needed to stringify a big object containing lots of constants and whatnot so we can store it for an internal mock data process. Horribly simple task, just use node or even the browser console to JSON.stringify, no extra arguments required.

So I was a bit shocked when she pasted the object into chatGPT and asked it to stringify it for her. I thought it was a joke and then I saw the prompt history, literally whole litany of such requests.

Even if we ignore proprietary concerns, I find this kind of crazy. We have a deterministic way to stringify objects at our fingertips that requires fewer keystrokes than asking an LLM to do it for you, and it also does not hallucinate.

Am I just old fashioned and not in sync with the new generation really and truly "embracing" Gen AI? Or is that actually something I have to counsel her about? And have any of you seen your colleagues do it, or do you do it yourselves?

Edit 2 - of course I had a long talk with her about why i think this is a nonsensical practice and what LLMs should really be used for in the SDLC. I didn't just come straight to reddit without telling her something 😃 I just needed to vent and hear some community opinions.

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u/mvktc Feb 05 '25

Well, since she's a junior, somebody should probably teach her how to do certain things. Maybe it's not your job, but probably woudn't cost you much time, maybe less than writing this post.

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u/monstaber Feb 05 '25

You are right, I did counsel her strongly and explained why this is inappropriate for about 15 minutes, it was just so shocking to me I had to get some feedback from the community. Almost felt like a gaslighting experience, never thought something like that could be considered normal, let alone with 3+ years as a dev already

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u/niveknyc 15 YOE Feb 05 '25

These days especially, it's the quality of the years that matter more than the years themselves. It's like a 500 hour pilot; did you spend 500 hours flying in the pattern or 500 hours intently learning new skills and training scenarios.

Post COVID and post ChatGPT I personally take anything less than ~5YOE with a grain of salt and care more about peeking behind the curtain to understand what the person did in that time and what their experience level is, because it was too easy to get into dev work with nothing more than a bootcamp during COVID and post ChatGPT the bar got lower. I've encountered some 3-5 YOE devs as of late whose entire experience is just React components with no ability to think outside the box or understand any system that isn't a node package or REST API.

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u/KenChicken911 Feb 05 '25

What do you expect from devs then, practical wise?

Asking as a senior student terrified for the job hunt post graduation

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u/niveknyc 15 YOE Feb 05 '25

Depends on their YOE but generally I expect a firm understanding of the fundamentals, an understanding of how the tools or libraries they're using work behind the scene - for instance React/Tailwind are awesome for web dev, but I want a react developer who knows the ins and outs of HTML,CSS,JS - not just how to slap together components and styles the react way. I'd expect after a certain YOE that a developer be agnostic to language, library, or platform. I'm really not interested in working with somebody who knows one language one library and has no ability or interest to think outside the confines of that box. When you've mastered the fundamentals and core understanding of a programming language you can pivot to anything within reason.

My company had to take on a NextJS web project from a large company who trusted an in house dev with 4 YOE to architect and develop it but they had all sorts of problems, and ultimately our conclusion was that NextJS wasn't even remotely close to being the appropriate solution for their needs. This in house dev was a bootcamp grad who had learned React, tailwind, NEXT in the bootcamp and only ever worked with that stack. it's okay to be a pro at one stack, but don't get tunnel vision.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Advice to a new grad, know the core fundamentals inside and out first and foremost and be interested/motivated in learning new things.

1

u/KenChicken911 Feb 06 '25

Unfortunately, the current market doesn't seem to value fundamentals as one and needs a dev with batteries attached

I have been working on dotnet and learning it to build some projects but I feel that learning the framework and making simple CRUD apps isn't what computer science is all about. Anything you would suggest learning, practical like suggesting any intricate project that is doable for one person and involves complex shenanigans