The fundamentals still matter
jordangoodman.bearblog.dev
The fundamentals still matter
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Re: The fundamentals still matter
#2Kelsey Hightower recently talked about this in a talk titled "The Fundamentals": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlqzy02k6B8
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#3Yes, and I think we'll course correct, eventually.
There's a reason we still (generally) teach people how to do arithmetic with pencil and paper instead of jumping straight to calculators. Learning basic algorithms for performing the computations helps solidify the concepts and the rules of the game.
We'll need to do the same thing eventually with respect to LLMs and software engineering. People who skip the foundations or let their comprehension atrophy will eventually end up in a spot in which they need those skills. I basically never do arithmetic using pen and paper now, but I could if I had to, and, more importantly, the process ingrained some basic comprehension of how the integers relate under the group operations.
I totally agree, re: SQL specifically, by the way. SQL is basically already natural language. It's probably the last thing that I'd need to offload to some natural language prompt. I think it's a bit of a vicious circle problem. There's a lot of people who only need to engage with SQL from time to time, so working with it is a bit awkward each time for lack of practice. This incentivizes them to offload it to the LLM just to get it out of the way, which in turn further atrophies their skills with SQL.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#4Yes, and I think we'll course correct, eventually. There's a reason we still (generally) teach people how to do arithmetic with pencil and paper instead of jumping straight to calculators. Learning basic algorithms for performing the computations helps solidify the concepts and the rules of the game. We'll need to do the same thing eventually with respect to LLMs and software engineering. People who skip the foundati…
> SQL is basically already natural language
This was actually the whole point of SQL in the first place: to be a query language close enough to natural language that non-specialists could easily learn to use it.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#5> Maybe another industry of cleaning up vibe coded messes will be a thing?
I have seriously considered hanging out my shingle to do this freelance, I don't think the time is quite ripe yet but maybe in a few months.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#6> Maybe another industry of cleaning up vibe coded messes will be a thing? I have seriously considered hanging out my shingle to do this freelance, I don't think the time is quite ripe yet but maybe in a few months.
As someone who loves fixing weird bugs I kinda hope this becomes a thing. There’s nothing as satisfying as finding logic bugs.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#7> Maybe another industry of cleaning up vibe coded messes will be a thing? I have seriously considered hanging out my shingle to do this freelance, I don't think the time is quite ripe yet but maybe in a few months.
As someone who loves fixing weird bugs I kinda hope this becomes a thing. There’s nothing as satisfying as finding logic bugs.
Same, it's like solving puzzles, except with practical benefits including getting paid for it.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#8> Maybe another industry of cleaning up vibe coded messes will be a thing? I have seriously considered hanging out my shingle to do this freelance, I don't think the time is quite ripe yet but maybe in a few months.
My experience has been more like this:
- Write small library as contract work.
- Client vibe codes with it. Code doesn't work.
- End up doing good faith assurance work to fix the vibe coded bug in the client code, the issue was not in my small library.
People are programming out on a limb - and blame goes to the library maintainer if the user lacks the fundamental skills to do troubleshooting.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#9> Maybe another industry of cleaning up vibe coded messes will be a thing? I have seriously considered hanging out my shingle to do this freelance, I don't think the time is quite ripe yet but maybe in a few months.
Wherever there is pain impeding capital, there is opportunity. And there is always a set of current pain points. There can only be no pain in a fully-autonomous organization with autonomous investors and customers too.
It seems like the future is converging on there will 5 Matrix savant architects who make $1B/y who keep things operating while everyone else lives in a shanty or a pod.
Re: The fundamentals still matter
#10Yes, and I think we'll course correct, eventually. There's a reason we still (generally) teach people how to do arithmetic with pencil and paper instead of jumping straight to calculators. Learning basic algorithms for performing the computations helps solidify the concepts and the rules of the game. We'll need to do the same thing eventually with respect to LLMs and software engineering. People who skip the foundati…
> SQL is basically already natural language This was actually the whole point of SQL in the first place: to be a query language close enough to natural language that non-specialists could easily learn to use it.
This was also the point of COBOL. I think one thing we've learned is non-specialists don't like thinking/problem solving, and there's no meeting them halfway on that. Asking some people to think is asking too much.