By skyforbes Last week, I caught myself doing something I haven’t done in months: opening Google to search for a technical problem. My team looked at me like I’d just pulled out a flip phone. “Why aren’t you just asking Claude?” one of them said. That moment made me realize how fundamentally my workflow has changed in the past year.
After seven years building backend systems, I’ve watched countless tools promise to revolutionize development. Most fade away. But LLMs have actually changed how I work, and the data backs it up. Let me show you why ChatGPT and its competitors have become more than just fancy search engines.
The Search Paradigm Shift
Traditional search gives you links. LLMs give you answers. But that’s not the revolutionary part. The real shift is conversational iteration.
Old workflow:
Google search -> Read 5 articles -> Piece together answer
-> Still confused -> Search again with different terms
-> Read Stack Overflow -> Copy-paste solution -> Debug why it doesn't work
Time spent: 20-30 minutes
New workflow:
Ask LLM specific question -> Get contextual answer
-> Ask follow-up -> Refine solution -> Implement
Time spent: 5-10 minutes
Here’s a real example from…