Github Copilot makes me dumber

23rd September 2024

The exact moment I realized this was when participating in a hackathon. I was sleepy and was writing some Javascript function. It was near the deadline, so I just started accepting all of Github Copilot's suggestions while not really focusing. After I regained my focus a few minutes later, I saw the garbage code I had generated, that I now had to go back and debug. It would've been better if I simply wrote it properly the first time. Even though I was aware of Copilot's flaws, pressing tab to autocomplete was too easy.

Learning a new programming language with Copilot needs to be done with caution. While you may understand the high level concepts, tab to autocomplete is too incredibly easy, and you may not even remember the correct syntax for a for loop without Copilot. I believe the best approach is to have a convenient shortcut to enable and disable GitHub copilot. Turn it on only when writing boilerplate code. Use chat to explain parts, rather than tab to autocomplete. This way, your skills will remain sharp.