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Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

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Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#481

The only time I've felt this much behind was in high school when everyone was talking about how much sex they were having. AI code is the Canadian girlfriend of programming.

Not being from the US, it took me a moment to realise that "she's in Canada" is a nice excuse for why nobody has met her.

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write a lot of SQL and I haven't had these issues for months, even with smaller models. Opus can one shot most of my queries faster than I could type them. Instead of stuffing the context with DDL I suggest: 1. Reorganize your data warehouse. It needs to be easy to find the correct data. Make sure you use ELT clear layers, meaningful schemas, and have per-model documentation. This is a ton of work, but if done righ…

>> I write a lot of SQL and I haven't had these issues for months, even with smaller models. Opus can one shot most of my queries faster than I could type them. Same. SOTA models crush every SQL question I give them.

What is SOTA?

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very confused, are you or are you not an LLM run account? A couple weeks ago, under a freshly made account "llmslave", you said it's already replacing devs and the field is cooked, and anyone who doesn't see that lacks the skills to adopt AI [1] I pointed out that given your name and low quality comments, you were likely an LLM run account. As SOON as I made that comment, you abandoned the account and have now ma…

No, I'm just a fan account. No affiliation with the OG llmslave, I just thought the name and concept was funny.

Thanks for confirming what I thought.

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#484
post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I write a lot of SQL and I haven't had these issues for months, even with smaller models. Opus can one shot most of my queries faster than I could type them. Same. SOTA models crush every SQL question I give them.

What is SOTA?

State of the art.

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally a voice of reason. The tools will just get better and easier to use. I use LLMs now, but I'm not going to dump a bunch of time learning the new hotness. I'll let other people do that and pickup the useful pieces later. Unless your gunning for a top position as a vibe coder, this whole concept of "falling behind" is just pure FOMO.

> Unless your gunning for a top position as a vibe coder, this whole concept of "falling behind" is just pure FOMO. ???

The person you're quoting has a point. Everyone is losing their minds about this. Not everyone needs to be on top of AI developmemts all the time. I don't mean you ignore LLMs, just don't chase every fad.

The classic line (which I've quoted a few times here) by Charles Mackay from 1841 comes to mind:

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

"[...] In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first."

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#486
post #250

I admit to pangs of this, but it's really never made any sense because the implication is that the profession is now magically closed off to newcomers. Imagine someone in the 90s saying "if you don't master the web NOW you will be forever behind!" and yet 20 years later kids who weren't even born then are building web apps and frameworks. Waiting for it to all shake out and "mastering" it then is still a strategy. Th…

If anything I'd expect all these tools to be easier for new engineers to adopt, unburdened by how things were before.

> unburdened by how things were before.

What burden are you talking about? Using LLMs isn't that hard, we have done harder things before.

Sure, there will be people that refuses to "let go" and want to keep doing things the way the like them, but hey! I've been productive with vim (now neovim) for 25 years and I work with engineers that haven't mastered their IDEs at the same level. Not even close!

Sure, they have have never been "burdened" by knowing other editors before those IDEs existed, but claiming that I would have it harder to use any of those because I've mastered other tools before is ridiculous.

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#487

I feel like many people in the comments aren't aware that Karpathy is an ML scientist for whom programming is a complementary skill, not a profession. The only reason he came up with "vibe coding" is because maximum complexity of his hobby projects made it seem believable. Maybe take his opinions about fate of programming with a grain of salt. He is brilliant no doubt, but not in that field.

Maybe that's true, but I will say that one of the reasons I recommend his Python ML videos to people is not just the ML content but also his Python is good and idiomatic. So I would not agree; I think his programming is a well practiced skill.

FWIW though I think his predicted worldview will render it very difficult to acquire this skill, as people grow reliant on gen AI for programming rudiments.

Re: Karpathy on Programming: “I've never felt this much behind”

#489

I admit to pangs of this, but it's really never made any sense because the implication is that the profession is now magically closed off to newcomers. Imagine someone in the 90s saying "if you don't master the web NOW you will be forever behind!" and yet 20 years later kids who weren't even born then are building web apps and frameworks. Waiting for it to all shake out and "mastering" it then is still a strategy. Th…

And here I am partying (coding) like it's 90s (C++ desktop apps) and web never happened... :)
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