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The Rise of Whatever

(eev.ee)
631 points cratermoon | 6 comments | 04 Jul 25 04:48 UTC | HN request time: 2.397s | source | bottom
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thombles ◴[04 Jul 25 07:31 UTC] No.44462054[source]▶
Speaking as a grump who recently chilled out, put reservations on hold and gave Claude a crack... it turns out that the anti-AI crowd (which still includes me in many regards) gets a lot wrong about the experience of using it, as demonstrated in TFA. You don't get reams of wishy-washy code unless you ask for it. If you're an experienced developer who Knows What They Want then you can wield it like a scalpel. None of the output is a surprise because you discussed the context and requirements first. It just gets there (probably) faster than you might have typing out keywords yourself. If the goal is Whatever, then sure, you will get that faster.
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1. nottorp ◴[04 Jul 25 07:35 UTC] No.44462089[source]▶
> If you're an experienced developer who Knows What They Want then you can wield it like a scalpel.

But that's not what the marketing says. The marketing says it will do your entire job for you.

In reality, it will save you some typing if you already know what to do.

On HN at least, where most people are startup/hustle culture and experts in something, they don't think long term enough to see the consequences for non experts.

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2. thombles ◴[04 Jul 25 07:40 UTC] No.44462120[source]▶
Well I never set much store by marketing and I'm not planning to start. :) More seriously though it helps explain the apparent contradiction that it sounds scammy at a macro level yet many individuals report getting a lot of value out of it.
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3. nottorp ◴[04 Jul 25 09:00 UTC] No.44462636[source]▶
> many individuals report getting a lot of value

I'm not sure it's a lot of value. It probably is in the short term, but in the long run...

There have already been studies saying that you don't retain the info about what a LLM does for you. Even if you are already an expert (a status which you have attained the traditional way), that cuts you off from all those tiny improvements that happen every day without noticing.

4. adastra22 ◴[04 Jul 25 09:30 UTC] No.44462860[source]▶
> In reality, it will save you some typing if you already know what to do.

This goes too far in the other direction. LLMs can do far more than merely saving you typing. I have successfully used coding agents to implement code which at the outset I had no business writing as it was far outside my domain expertise. By the end I'd gained enough understanding to be able to review the output and guide the LLM towards a correct solution, far faster than the weeks or months it would have taken to acquire enough background info to make an attempt at coding it myself.

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5. nottorp ◴[04 Jul 25 12:40 UTC] No.44464001[source]▶
I'd love it if everyone who posts statements like this would also include a link to their professional experience. Or at least state a number of years they've been developers.

I'm sure I can do what you describe as well. I've actually used LLMs to get myself current on some stuff I knew (old) basics for and they were useful indeed as you say.

I'm also sure it wouldn't help your interns to grow to your level.

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6. adastra22 ◴[04 Jul 25 21:53 UTC] No.44468135{3}[source]▶
Why? LLMs are fantastic tutors, if used right. It's how you use it, not the background knowledge you bring to it.