Why I'm no longer using Copilot

I've been using Copilot for about a year now, and initially I was impressed. However, since it became a permanent fixture in my workflow, I've noticed my own skills getting worse.

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[Fanaro]

2:55 I basically refuse to believe any polls or research they show us on their own product. Conflict of interest 101.

[ShaneGoodson]

Someone told me really early on to disable auto complete and bind the copilot suggest to a key command, it helps a lot with only using it when really needed.

[caedis_]

Where copilot really shines for me is writing boilerplate code

[theonewhobullies]

copilot in generic tasks that are present in its dataset - bing bong boom done,
anything that requires >2% imagination - i halluce

[ChosunOne]

I used AI tools like copilot and tabnine before and felt that once you start having to do more than actual boilerplate the ai just gets in the way and leads you down the wrong paths. I stopped and don't miss it!

[sainsay]

I have been running copilot since very early access, and I used to do the same thing and wait.
At some point, I started to ignore it and only used it for boilerplate code, for which I did not have a template.
But lately, I have noticed that, at least in VSCode, where the copilot implementation is the most integrated, copilot will present its reply even if I continue typing as long as it is the same as what I typed. This means that there is no longer a delay for me, and it will usually present code that is in the direction I was heading anyway.
I also no longer accept full replies and instead use the ctrl + right arrow to accept words, and this is the same shortcut as my "accept lsp prompt", as they are all marked as inline suggestions.
I am a naturally slow/deliberate programmer so for me this way of working with copilot did speed up my work and made it drastically more enjoyable

[frustratedalien]

I've always turned off the auto complete prompts. What really gives me value is Copilot chat. 90% of the time I use it to understand what the legacy code actually tries to accomplish and it does a decent job in most languages. The other 10% of the time I'm asking questions about how to structure a project in a language that I'm not particularly familiar with, or asking it to generate boilerplate code, where it does a decent enough job.

[zshall]

I like Copilot a lot when it comes to pattern completion. If I write functions to accomplish some task and then have a related task that isn’t quite the same it will generally outline new code in the same style as the previous code I wrote. If I write CSS for a red gradient of a specific shade for instance I’ve been able to autocomplete code for a blue gradient that matches the same saturation and lightness as the red one, and continue the pattern for green, yellow, etc. On solo projects I feel like Copilot gives me the power of two people. I just need to be prepared to guide it and review the code and not rely on it for anything too complicated.

[weeb]

it's just a fancy autocomplete
often it would give a completely wrong answer
but you'd still have to spend time reviewing the code only to find out it was incorrect

[farqueueman]

My sentiments exactly. I hate having to tweak the code that it produces that I find I may have well just have written the damn thing myself to begin with. It's good for getting up to spead with frameworks and using it as a source of quickly finding documentation tho.

[FritsStegmann]

I've taken it out as well, missed it in the beginning, but I'm happier without it now. I think it's a bit to much of a crutch, you are better of developing the "muscle memory" in the long run.

[fawwn]

i have had quite a similar experience especially the frustration of not having copilot afterwards (despite doing just fine before ai really took over) i do miss it when writing tedious bits of code but i much rather keeping and enhancing my skills over saving time

[BusinessWolf]

I remember when I turned off the autocomplete and suggestions on my phone's keyboard. I was suddenly a bumbling fool making tons of mistakes. I stuck with it though, and I'm glad I did. I have no technical reasons for why I stopped, I just felt like I should be in complete control of my thought patterns, and that receiving suggestions would likely influence where my thoughts went so I wouldn't have to type so much.

[conaticus]

Totally agree! Using AI is great for quick prototypes or working around a new language (if you don't care for the privacy issues), however over using it can suck away the creative process of writing code, and writing good code. Awesome video as always <3

[ejenkins]

If you have the discipline, a good middle ground it to have a keybinding to quickly toggle suggestions on and off. I find that when I'm learning something or working on something niche, I turn copilot off so I'm not distracted by the output it gives. But if I'm working on something repetitive like unit testing, it's really nice to be able to toggle copilot back on to quickly add test cases.

[TheBswan]

Would be better to have an integrated chatgpt style UI which has your editing context + RAG w/ latest docs on libraries being used. No more auto inline complete or out of date suggestions, but can easily pump out boilerplate or consult when stuck

[notjoemartinez]

I think the biggest issue is that when you tab complete your way through a project you stop thinking about the problem you're trying to solve. The editor will write the code off of an assumption and when it's wrong you have no idea why. You end up creating more bugs than if you just typed the code yourself. I still use the chat feature because it's like a pair programmer or rubber ducky that gives you feed back while solving the problem.

[victorjamet]

Hey, what keyboard are u using ?
I would appreciate knowing. Thanks in advance

[addcoding]

The best experience I've had recently, was writing C on my job, where I'm not allowed to install anything.
It was just a basic Vim (not neovim) setup and the C compiler.
Showed me how little you actually need to have fun programming.

[deberenguer]

I recently added a keyboard shortcut that turns copilot off. It’s nice to be able to turn it on for boilerplate and unit tests