What a software developer think of Cursor AI?

Howdy everyone!

Happy Thursday to all the Tech Romeo’s. 

Welcome to the latest edition of "Tech that Matters," your weekly dose of curated insights on AI and ChatGPT Prompts to help your business run like a well-oiled German engine.

In Today's Issue:

🔥 10 New AI Tools

🤖 Cursor AI: Coding Magic Pill

🐦 3 Tweets you cannot miss

Today, we’re covering the new AI coding buddy that is breaking the Twitter algorithm ( Cursor AI ).

Think of it as a colleague in your office who helps you refine your work.

But first, let’s nerd out on its tech power:

• Runs on GPT-4, Claude 3.5 Sonnet

• Excels in JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript

• Free for most uses + has a free trial, with a $20/month Pro plan for advanced features

I believe it will revolutionize the coding industry. If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you know that I rarely call AI tools revolutionizing.

But I see this platform as an exception.

As a coder myself, I see its potential to boost productivity significantly.

Before we move ahead, it’s important to note that most people won’t fully utilize the power of Cursor. As with many AI tools, users often treat it as a thinking tool rather than an assistant.

I’ve been saying this for a long time: AI is for leg-work, not mind-work.

If you rely on it to think for you, you’ll get generic results. But if you use it to refine, edit, and research your work, it will change the way you code.

For starters, here are three ways I think it will benefit you:

1.Analyze Codebase:

It scans your entire code and provides reasonably good insights. Don’t expect it to improve your work by 100%, but it can bring about 5%-10% improvements. You can use it to finish your code and refine half-baked ideas.

However, I suggest you do the initial work yourself and then ask for suggestions.

2.Use the English Language Instead of Code:

Another shiny feature is the ability to turn English commands into code. While intriguing and with a wow factor, the results often fall short. You can clearly see the difference between using actual code and giving detailed descriptions to Cursor.

Human-written code is much more effective and detailed.

3.Complete Your Code and Suggest Improvements:

This is the standout feature for me in Cursor AI.

Like writer’s block, there’s a coder’s block—times when you lack the creative energy to finish your code. This is the perfect use of Cursor (or any AI tool).

It helps debug your code with fewer typos so you can focus on more impactful tasks.

Overall, I think it’s a decent tool that will be popular among developers. While many may not use it correctly and get bored with generic results, smart developers will leverage it to enhance their work quality.

It can save a lot of time if you integrate it smoothly into your workflow, though that can be challenging with AI tools.

I curated some of the best examples:

Checkout YouTube Playlist: Coding with Cursor by Sahil Lavingia:

Top AI tweets of the week: