And indeed figuring out what problem you’re actually supposed to solve. People assume they can just give an LLM the same spec they’d give a programmer, and that doesn’t work, because the programmer will figure out all the hidden shit they omitted from the spec but which is actually absolutely critical to its function. They’ll also anticipate future refinements of specs and how to leave room to accommodate those changes. Etc.
I really feel like the author of this piece got this strawman in their head and didn’t bother looking into how people saying these things are actually using them, because most of the people I hear saying them are themselves programmers, and they’re not trying to say “my job is trivial.” They’re saying “the thing the LLM does fast is not my whole job. it leaves out all the important stuff.”
Yeah, there was a running joke in our comp. sci. program that “we thought we’d make great comp. sci. majors because we had the typing skills (and desire).” The major says as much, you gotta understand the problem to work out a solution… and a solution may not be the solution — since we’re human so… get learning.
Typing the code isn’t hard.
Figuring out what code to type is.
Coding is problem solving, and solving problems can be very hard depending on the problem you’re trying to solve.
And indeed figuring out what problem you’re actually supposed to solve. People assume they can just give an LLM the same spec they’d give a programmer, and that doesn’t work, because the programmer will figure out all the hidden shit they omitted from the spec but which is actually absolutely critical to its function. They’ll also anticipate future refinements of specs and how to leave room to accommodate those changes. Etc.
I really feel like the author of this piece got this strawman in their head and didn’t bother looking into how people saying these things are actually using them, because most of the people I hear saying them are themselves programmers, and they’re not trying to say “my job is trivial.” They’re saying “the thing the LLM does fast is not my whole job. it leaves out all the important stuff.”
Yeah, there was a running joke in our comp. sci. program that “we thought we’d make great comp. sci. majors because we had the typing skills (and desire).” The major says as much, you gotta understand the problem to work out a solution… and a solution may not be the solution — since we’re human so… get learning.