llms-go-back.txt actively avoiding the new tech trends Original Author: Sahil Gautam <printfdebugging@gmail.com> Homepage: <https://printfdebugging.in/> License: GNU GPL v2 ============================================================================== CONTENTS 1. LLM Steals the Joy llm-steals-the-joy 2. LLM == Just a Smart Search Engine llm-as-search-engine 3. Writing Trivial Code != Engineering llm-is-dumb 4. Software Engineering is an Art software-engineering-as-art ============================================================================== LLM Steals the Joy llm-steals-the-joy please read diving-deep and actively-avoiding-shortcuts first. LLMs steal away the joy of searching and finding solutions on the internet. the process itself is the lesson. one learns how to browse and read and test docs, specs and man pags. this way one becomes more self reliant and gains confidence that they can get things done. LLMs on the other hand just create an answer from thin air (when looking at it from the prompt winodw). one doesn't know how they reached that solution, ofcourse one can ask the LLM about it, but then the answer to that would also be made up. ============================================================================== LLM == Just a Smart Search Engine llm-as-search-engine if i am searching something on the internet, and i am not able to get what i want, or express what i want in a way that the search engine finds favourible results, then i would ask an LLM 'what should i search if i want to find out about this or that'... i would use the LLM as a smarter search engine. ============================================================================== Writing Trivial Code != Engineering llm-is-dumb one might think that it saves time as the LLM can write a lot of code really really fast, but that's delusional IMHO. LLMs add noise to the source files, it might change multiple files without you knowing... and then you have to fix that error, forget about it helping you do that. sure an LLM can write binary search code, small scripts, documentation and a lot more, but if it's something non-trivial, like a new engineering problem, it falls apart. ============================================================================== Software Engineering is an Art software-engineering-as-art software engineering is not manufacturing, this LLM wave is an attempt to industrialize it, and it's not going to work. it's an art, and it demands focus, concentration, taste, understanding, patience... this is why great software engineers often prefer simple command line tools, custom editors and a distraction free environment (like Linus has). LLMs just don't fit into the equation, atleast not on the artist's side. ============================================================================== vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:fdm=marker:fmr=<<<,>>>:ma:noro