Programmers are modern-day computers
jtlicardo.com
Programmers are modern-day computers
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#2indeed. I've changed my title to "Staff Software Conductor" since I just wave my hands in the air with little sticks called cline and aider.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#3This article read like one of those annoying LinkedIn “hot takes” that keeps showing up on my feed. I’d suggest sharing this type of content there rather than on HN, please.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#4indeed. I've changed my title to "Staff Software Conductor" since I just wave my hands in the air with little sticks called cline and aider.
Protip: It works better if you say "Bibbdi Bopiddi Bo" while waving the sticks.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#5Those three steps at the end do a lot more heavy lifting than the author appears to suggest.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#6> Anyone who tells you otherwise is deluding themselves.
Always good when a blog author ends with an ad hominem not supported by their claims.
It would have been more useful if they had explained how Rice's theorm was falsified, and that HALT/FRAME have been invalidated.
In my experience, for any problem that is non-trivial, LLMs require more knowledge and tacit experience.
Programming has always been more about domain understanding etc...
Things will change, but this is new tooling which requires new knowledge. I have had to start explaining Diaconescu's Theorem to a lot more people as an example.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#7What a superficial and short-sighted take.
> Even he, subconsciously, knows it doesn't pay off to waste cognitive energy on what a machine could do instead.
> It's not laziness, but efficiency.
It's only efficient in the short-term, not long-term. Now the programmer never understood the problem, and that is a problem in the long-run. As any experienced engineer knows - understanding problems is how anyone gets better in the engineering field.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#8I strongly disagree with this. “Computers” would have not been replaced with the machines that replaced them if those machines routinely produced incorrect results.
One could argue that for applications where correctness is not critical my position does not apply, however this is not the analogy that the article is making.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#9For this I've always called myself "software plumber".
I quite liked that analogy about excavator because I think along similar lines. Mechanising drudgery work in construction industry enabled us to build superstructures that are hundreds of stories tall. I wonder if LLMs will enable us to do something similar when it comes to software.
Re: Programmers are modern-day computers
#10'Did the computer create a generation of "illiterate mathematicians"?
No, it only freed us to solve higher-level problems.'
I'm not so sure LLM-based code-assistants/writers are directly comparable to the almost perfectly deterministic logic gate chips and monitors/printers and so on that we call "the computer".
Wordpress is likely a better comparison, which allowed more web sites to come into existence with little effort, but as far as I can tell didn't free anyone to "solve higher-level problems". Deterministic code generation might have to some extent, but it's mainly used in enterprise software where the problem domains are quite old, quite stable, like accounting, and the ontologies haven't changed since before "the computer" and the established knowledge professionals (accountants, 'legal') have a strong dominance over discourse, software rules and how compliance is achieved.