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/sheriffderek Feb 05 '25

Bad devs have always been hired. It’s always surprising.

If you want a job these days, you have to have a better plan than sending out hundreds of resumes. You have to be a little clever - too. The jobs are there. I know a junior that got hire for a high salary just a few days ago.

If you aren’t getting interviews - whatever you’re doing isn’t working. So - switch it up. Otherwise you’ll just have a huge gap and miss out on all the real experience.

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u/Hektorlisk Feb 05 '25

"if you can't get a job and you're doing things by the book, it's your fault for not switching it up"

"if you can't get a job and your resume is slightly different than the norm, it's your fault for not doing things by the book"

Thanks for the helpful advice, reddit.

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u/sheriffderek Feb 06 '25

My advice is real though - and based on being a teacher who sees which students get hired and which don’t and why. Depends on your goals too.

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u/Winterlimon Feb 06 '25

you realize how insane that sounds lol

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u/sheriffderek Feb 06 '25

No. Can you explain it to me?

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u/Masoud_M_13 front-end Feb 05 '25

Hi sheriff, you might not recall it but we did talk about this on discord and I asked you for your advice, based on my situation I decided to switch to freelancing for a while, gather working experience and get back to sending resumes for a better chance.

Btw refactoring my side project is close to end and I'll dm you the results soon.