Being able to use an LLM turns a layman into a coder no more than being able to use CAD turns them into an engineer.
It’s a real pity that LLMs seem to have taken over as the sole topic of discussion in programming communities such as this one. It might be just me, but I find the whole topic barely interesting at all (ie. not more interesting than the discussions about stackoverflow coding we used to have).
But at the same time everyone having a CAD machine (or 3D printer) allows a lot of people to solve engineering type problems they have without an engineer, which is the article’s point.
I can use CAD. I am an engineer.
But noone will ask me to draft a building design on AutoCAD, same as noone will ask me to do so with pencil and paper.
Because I don’t know buildings.
Sure, I might be asked to copy a pen-paper drawing onto CAD, but a Civil Engineer with CAD will do that better and a photo tracing software might do it as well as me.
So while a good enough LLM might code as well as a coder, Programming is more than just coding and making anything new, requires programming.
Being able to use an LLM turns a layman into a coder no more than being able to use CAD turns them into an engineer.
It’s a real pity that LLMs seem to have taken over as the sole topic of discussion in programming communities such as this one. It might be just me, but I find the whole topic barely interesting at all (ie. not more interesting than the discussions about stackoverflow coding we used to have).
But at the same time everyone having a CAD machine (or 3D printer) allows a lot of people to solve engineering type problems they have without an engineer, which is the article’s point.
I can use CAD. I am an engineer.
But noone will ask me to draft a building design on AutoCAD, same as noone will ask me to do so with pencil and paper.
Because I don’t know buildings.
Sure, I might be asked to copy a pen-paper drawing onto CAD, but a Civil Engineer with CAD will do that better and a photo tracing software might do it as well as me.
So while a good enough LLM might code as well as a coder, Programming is more than just coding and making anything new, requires programming.
Perfect analogy.
I am 100% with you. I am so sick of LLM shit clogging up the feed