LLMs reward expertise • Hacker News Board

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#531

Post by sidrag22 » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

NichoPaolucci wrote: post #449

nvrmndmnm wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran a similar test and got completely different results. My girlfriend (hair stylist/artist) with zero coding background mentioned a Telegram bot idea. I asked "Why not build it yourself?" I gave her a Windows laptop, but she said she wanted what I have instead. So I handed her a USB stick and told her she was on her own now. Fast forward: she now runs Arch Linux with Hyprland (I use Xorg/i3 though), fully riced wi…

There are big differences in what people call "tinkerers". Some are INTERESTED in building things, give it a little shot and find it to be daunting, and push it no further. True tinkerers have no problem with this, because they enjoy learning how things work. Installing Linux, Steam, Portal are all relatively straightforward tasks for someone who uses computers on the regular - but to some people this is just somethi…

for a lot of lower barrier to entry tinkering, for years i felt it was mostly just google a thing and follow directions. Feel like the only thing that really changed is the initial query can be a mess of kinda nonsense and still give you those nice directions, and you can instantly get clarity on a single direction if you get stuck.

So the barrier is still kinda there to just grab the instructions and follow them, its just incredibly easier to follow them.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#532

Post by RajT88 » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

lukan wrote: post #530

RajT88 wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am reminded of this one: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Could-You-Explain-Programmi...

The comments feel so outdated: 'him: Keywords? Variables? ... me: (Explaining what programming actually is) him: Oh, I thought I would write something like: "Create football stadium and football players. Start the game when user presses spacebar. Make players have red shirts and white socks."'

They are from 2008 is why. lol

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#533

Post by treis » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

nvrmndmnm wrote: post #419

krisoft wrote: post #191

I did a test a few months ago. A friend of mine wanted to develop what i understood to be a simple single page web app. But since she didn’t have any software engineering experience she asked me to help. Around that time everyone was talking about how literally anyone can develop software with LLMs i asked her if she could give it a try first, and if I could watch the attempt. I was fully expecting that writing the c…

I ran a similar test and got completely different results. My girlfriend (hair stylist/artist) with zero coding background mentioned a Telegram bot idea. I asked "Why not build it yourself?" I gave her a Windows laptop, but she said she wanted what I have instead. So I handed her a USB stick and told her she was on her own now. Fast forward: she now runs Arch Linux with Hyprland (I use Xorg/i3 though), fully riced wi…

I needed a website and did the same. I would say it's a mixed bag to do it from the command line codex. It nailed generating the code but lots of stuff was annoyingly off. Any copy it wrote was terrible but using it to expand and refine my writing was helpful.

I would say we are very close to the end of things like WordPress and templated websites. It's pretty easy to make a custom page.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#534

Post by Sleaker » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #462

massysett wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point is that the friend wouldn’t know what an agent is. The friend would have heard that AI is changing the world and she would have went into ChatGPT or maybe Claude or Gemini. Presuming that the ideal is that anyone should be able to use these tools for anything (which I do not agree with) the chatbot needs to say “you need to use my agent mode.” This is not a wrong tool, wrong job issue. The issue is th…

We're not talking about the friend. I'm talking to the person I responded to: I'm saying they should have recommended a better tool to their friend. My HR friend found Lovable off her own bat. I imagine she probably Googled or asked ChatGPT something like, "How do I build a website to do BLAH without knowing anything about building websites?" The point is people talk, they ask questions, they Google, they talk to Cha…

That would be poisoning the test with outside knowledge. Essentially boosting their skills with some expertise, exactly what was undesirable.

You are not wrong, just that was not the intent of what the person was trying to test for.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#535

Post by lukan » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

RajT88 wrote: post #532

lukan wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comments feel so outdated: 'him: Keywords? Variables? ... me: (Explaining what programming actually is) him: Oh, I thought I would write something like: "Create football stadium and football players. Start the game when user presses spacebar. Make players have red shirts and white socks."'

They are from 2008 is why. lol

Yes, but usually programming knowledge does not outdate so quickly. Now we actually have prompts, what some people always believed that it always worked like this.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#536

Post by abhishek03113 » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

Not the best way to test this, but I am working on a blog post, where I'll implement a problem statement with the dumbest/cheapest AI model while someone non technical person will vibe code end to end and compare both of them.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#537

Post by ryeguy_24 » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

krisoft wrote: post #191

I did a test a few months ago. A friend of mine wanted to develop what i understood to be a simple single page web app. But since she didn’t have any software engineering experience she asked me to help. Around that time everyone was talking about how literally anyone can develop software with LLMs i asked her if she could give it a try first, and if I could watch the attempt. I was fully expecting that writing the c…

I have counter evidence of this. My wife with absolutely zero skills in computers was at the terminal doing things that Claude was telling her to do and generated some impressive tools. One was a tool to help her organize her day. It involved scripts, PDF generation, printing. She did it all without even asking me. Maybe it fails in some cases but I'm not sure the anecdote above is the average experience.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#538

Post by officeplant » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

waterproof wrote: post #511

filleokus wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand "ricing" to mean customising the appearance of a Linux machine, see e.g https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/top/?sort=top&t=month (SFW). So in this case I assume the UI has a cat theme or cat icons. I think the etymology is from "rice burner" cars [0]: > Riced out is an adjective denigrating a badly customized sports car, "usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments". [0]: https://en.wikipe…

Rice stands for Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements. Race-inspired to look cool, but not actually functional. Picture putting one of those giant fake air intakes on the hood of your car.

Old enough to watch this cycle from racism, to community, to memes, to racism, and now back to community

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#539

Post by phoghed » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC

andrew_lettuce wrote: post #487

friendzis wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They didn’t even get to that point. Because my friend didn’t have the vocabulary to ask the AI to write code. What harness did you use? In e.g. claude, there are two modes: 1. Spit out code 2. Draft a plan, ask questions, GOTO 1 You literally have to go out of your way to get it NOT to write code. I keep mine on a tight-ish leash because it modify code way too happily even when there's no intention or instruction t…

How would an absolute newbie know what a harness is? What an IDE is? That code is represented in a set of files? That some of those files are actually metadata? What metadata is? What GOTO means? That you're suggesting a modified SDLC? None of this is related to intelligence, desire or potential. It's about context and experience. The vast majority of people use their computers as consumption devices, like a TV. If I…

Why would they need to know any of that? Tons of barely technically literate people at my job crank out webshit POC/demos with Claude desktop.

Re: LLMs reward expertise

#540

Post by kmacdough » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

jaggederest wrote: post #228

jerf wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using a prompt that comes from the opposite direction for non-programming stuff: "Assume the user is an expert in all fields; while this is clearly logically untrue on a literal level, the user prefers to see a field's technical terminology and then ask the AI about terms the user does not understand rather than get an inaccurate statement about some issue." Whether you have to reassure the LLM that this is…

Off topic, but stretching is absolutely useless for ... stretching. And vital for retaining and enhancing usable range of motion (not static stretching, still, but dynamic stretching / mobility under tension). The wildest thing is, there's no evidence that I can find that static stretching does... anything? It increases pain tolerance through the range of motion, but not any more than just asking people to try harder…

I think you probably just don't like to stretch.

Can you share the source? This seems dangerously wrong.

I see a specific review making the very narrow claim that it can have detrimental effects on power/strength activities immediately following static stretching.

But by and large I'm finding a great deal of evidence for a wide range of other benefits, particularly in range of motion and injury prevention. I can't find anything widely damning, and I certainly don't see any reviews contesting the validity of the very vast body of research supporting the many benefits of static stretching.