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The Programmer Identity Crisis

(hojberg.xyz)
270 points imasl42 | 2 comments | 21 Oct 25 16:47 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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pteetor ◴[21 Oct 25 17:21 UTC] No.45658530[source]▶
When COBOL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!"

When SQL was born, some people said, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!"

Now we have AI prompting, and some people are saying, "It's English! We won't need programmers anymore!"

Really?

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Legend2440 ◴[21 Oct 25 17:24 UTC] No.45658579[source]▶
The problem I have with this argument is that it actually is English this time.

COBOL and SQL aren't English, they're formal languages with keywords that look like English. LLMs work with informal language in a way that computers have never been able to before.

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layer8 ◴[21 Oct 25 17:55 UTC] No.45659143[source]▶
On the other hand, the problem is exactly that it’s not a formal language.
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1. Legend2440 ◴[21 Oct 25 18:23 UTC] No.45659575[source]▶
This is also a strength. Formal languages struggle to work with concepts that cannot be precisely defined, which are especially common in the physical world.

e.g. it is difficult to write a traditional program to wash dishes, because how do you formally define a dish? You can only show examples of dishes and not-dishes. This is where informal language and neural networks shine.

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2. filoeleven ◴[22 Oct 25 15:27 UTC] No.45670600[source]▶
I can't wait to bring a whole restaurant's dishwashing to a halt with an adversarial plate that has some droplets of paint on it the color of steak sauce.