It’s really disheartening to see how many people don’t know shit about LLMs, by reading the comments… ironic given what OP is trying to say
Why is it disheartening? LLMs are a dead-end technology with respect to AI.
I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
281–290 of 725 posts
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you learnt to build a browser in 2000 you're probably doing well for yourself lol. Not a lot of demand, but also probably not a lot of supply.
There is an entire graveyward of browsers, almost all that didn't die are now forgotten.
I think the point isn't that you'll necessarily build a great browser (or LLM), but the experience will benefit you in other ways.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's best not to take advice on direction of careers from anyone. It's better to find and work on things that interest you, and then take advice from people that are amazing in that specific field. In mid 2000s in Australia all the "top people" were telling me not to get into a software engineering career because it was dead. It's certainly challenged right now, but it took off during those 15+ years.
“It's best not to take advice on direction of careers from anyone. It's better to find and work on things that interest you, and then take advice from people that are amazing in that specific field.” What bucket should I put this advice in?
Understandable irony. The way I see it, there are no buckets, only context surrounding the advice and your awareness thereof. If the context is unknown, best to take it with a big chunk of salt... Or spend time familiarizing yourself with the context if you think it's worth the time/effort; working on things that interest you is a nice way of doing that.
But some advice is less specific than other advice though. Some things are always stupid, and some things are always smart, if you look at the context of our world and society. I find myself pursuing these "fundamental truths" with great interest lately, especially now that the world is changing so quickly.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#284A lot of people here are responding to the message but not to the meaning. It would be a good idea for young people to deeply know how these programs work. Not so that they can spend their career building them, but so that they can approach the next class of problems we'll all start trying to solve, with intuition all the way down to the weights and underlying mathematics. And also, to develop a healthy intuition of…
> understanding the bare-metal firmware for a computer
IMO this is still relevant, everything surrounding the LLMs needs such a vast infrastructure that I don't know if I would find it more useful to learn the maths behind ML than CS
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like looking at the early internet and then suggesting teenagers should write browsers as their projects instead of webpages.
Early internet let me create the best personal web page in my city that I knew of with 2 weeks experience as a 12 year old. I imagine that same 12 year old could be more knowledgeable about LLMs than 99% of people in the same period.
I doubt it. Creating a website can be done by copy pasting a few snippets together and checking if it visually looks like expected.
Good luck with that approach when trying to toy around with models and their training/inference.
There is also a lot of math basics missing that a 12 year old may be able to grasp, but I would bet they are at least 13 by the time the knowledge is deep enough to understand what operations are happening.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#286Most 17 year olds I know don’t want anything to do with AI and see the entire industry as an existential threat. Nothing wrong with learning the theory and understanding the papers. Getting to that point you’ll have to get your fundamentals down. Might be an interesting exercise. But as a future? I guess we’ll see. I suspect the next financial apocalypse will determine if there is one. Another AI Winter that may outl…
> Most 17 year olds I know don’t want anything to do with AI
The few exceptional individuals will innovate what the millions will benefit from.
At 17, the mother of Isaac Newton removed Isaac from school and tried to make him a farmer. We all know that wasn't his destiny.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#287There's this dilemma where in theory there's a ton of demand for engineers that can do real LLM machine-learning, but in practice there are very few available positions and entrepreneurship opportunities. The reality is that an incredibly small minority of companies in the world do any real training or optimisation. It's unnecessary and inefficient for most purposes unless you are fully dedicated to being an LLM comp…
Yes. It's like looking at the (Apollo) moon rocket launch and then suggesting teenagers should learn to build rockets in their garages for the coming space age. It is viable as a toy project, but there are vanishingly few career opportunities.
There are more career opportunities building rockets than designing rockets. Lots of welders, machinists, electrical engineers etc build rockets, and those skills transfer.
The same is not so different for AI. A few people design novel AI, but there are a lot of people training AI (especially if you include fine tuning) and implementing AI, even as a hobby.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#288I am kind of amazed how negative the comments are here, especially on HN. Learning to hack something together in high school using the latest technology (vacuum tubes, radios, microprocessors, web/javascript) has been a common theme in the tech world for generations. With LLMs and online tutorials, this isn't even a difficult suggestion. Do people think learning new tech is somehow wasted effort?
I think it is more about people are a bit sick of filthy rich people giving this kind of advice. I would also not read anything he preaches.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#289While knowledge is always great, I would encourage people not to seek advice from successful people like this (survivorship bias). Moreover I am not sure it is even good advice? Would you advise a 17 y.o. to learn how transistors work or how to code (i.e. is LLM training the right level in the stack)? LLM training, a discipline where relevant work is already out of reach for 99.999% of budgets really as essential as…
> I would encourage people not to seek advice from successful people like this (survivorship bias). Personally I don't see the problem, as long as you're aware there is survivorship bias involved here. What's the alternative really, seek advice from unsuccessful people? That seems worse :) Personally I do both, read about what worked for people, also read about what didn't work for people, then ignore both and do wha…
The unsuccessful person is much more likely to be actually connected to the daily needs and struggles of a normal person. Paul Graham hasn't seen the inside of a grocery store in the past twenty years.
I know who the 17 years old is closest to.
Re: I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
What would be better advice for a 17 year old?
"it doesn't matter what you choose to study because no job is safe from being outsourced overseas, handed over to an indentured servant, or made redundant by a machine. you will spend your whole life surviving while the cannibalistic pedophiles who own everything invent new ways to make you own nothing. be frugal, don't get married, don't have children, do everything you can to stay healthy and independent, and you j…
Most reasonable advice I've seen under this post. Having graduated in 2025 I've experienced the horror of competing with infinitely many third worlders in my small country, who will gladly take 1/3 my pay and be serfs.
I really hope we get another hiring boom like in 2020 when I decided to study CS. Otherwise my career will be very rough. I love it and can't imagine doing anything else.