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"Prompt engineering" is the most pretentious name. Lad, your typing words into a little box. You ain't "engineering" shit, lmao. The next time I read a book may

"Prompt engineering" is the most pretentious name. Lad, your typing words into a little box. You ain't "engineering" shit, lmao. The next time I read a book maybe I'll tell people that I'm a phonetic diffusionary or how about making a burger at Mcdonalds: gastronomical entrainer. I hate bullshitters.

olliecornelia 4y ago
I imagine this is how professional engineers feel about HN folk calling themselves software engineers.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rcme 4y ago
  I don't think railroad workers have much of an opinion on the title of software engineers.
- bboylen 4y ago
  As a former chemical engineer, I think software engineering is way harder. Understanding with complex man made abstractions is much more difficult than plugging data into a thermodynamics calculator
  - akiselev 4y ago
    > professional engineers When the GP says "professional engineer", I suspect they mean the big boy official kind [1] that goes to prison if they sign off on a negligent design. It's not a question of difficulty but responsibility and qualifications (though to be clear, the PE is considered more time consuming to prepare for than the BAR exam and it's definitely much harder than plugging numbers into formulas). [1] https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe
- Uptrenda 4y ago
  I think it's pretty low stalking someones HN comments and using them to form a character assassination to dismiss someone's ideas.
capableweb 4y ago
> "Prompt engineering" is the most pretentious name. Lad, your typing words into a little box. You ain't "engineering" shit, lmao Ever called yourself "software engineer"? Edit: https://i.imgur.com/V1kgSNt.png https://i.imgur.com/V1kgSNt.png Ah, even better, you call yourself a "blockchain engineer"... Is that any more "engineering" than "prompt engineering"?
- rcme 4y ago
  > Is that any more "engineering" than "prompt engineering"? Yes?
  - capableweb 4y ago
    According to what arguments? What makes writing letters to create/modify a blockchain/blockchain application different than writing letters for a LLM to generate the correct text?
    - rcme 4y ago
      Predictable outputs for a given input. Do you think a civil engineer just hopes for a sound structure? Or do they know the structure is sound before construction begins?
      - rtontic 4y ago
        Civil engineers actually have liability, they can go to prison. Software "engineers", not so much.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- Uptrenda 4y ago
  Yes, I call myself a software engineer and a blockchain engineer because that's what I am. I don't have impostor syndrome and don't feel ashamed to use these titles. They are simply what I do. - To me: software engineering is a structured, semi-rigorous profession, that seeks to use common methodologies to solve problems. It is technical in nature and can be approached abstractly or practically. - I think 'prompt engineering' is misleading because it implies the user is doing something more complicated than they are. Since engineering requires technical knowledge to do and the key breakthrough of LLMs is a system that can respond to human-language, the technical-sounding title actually undermines the utility of what LLMs provide. - Given the above: you wouldn't really want users to think of ChatGPT as a tool that only nerds can use. I wasn't just dunking on ChatGPT tinkers. - I have 10 years of engineering experience where I specialise in arcane systems (p2p networking, smart contracts, asset security, trading, etc.) I have more experience than a junior dev but definitely not as much experience as some HNs. I do think crafting text templates is not 'engineering' and using ChatGPT is not meant to require such a skillset.
spacebanana7 4y ago
> Lad, your typing words into a little box. It’s more than just using ChatGPT. High value prompts are used in API calls where performance, security and variable substitution all come into play. These queries can reach thousands of words/tokens. A developer who spends all day writing prompts is at least as respectable as one who spends theirs writing SQL.
qaq 4y ago
gastronomical entrainer - don't sell em short Senior Principal Gastronomical Entrainer
0xDEF 4y ago
I would have agreed before reading this: https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering/ https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-enginee... There is more depth and rigor to Prompt Engineering than what the AI snake oil merchants on twitter would have you believe.
ericmcer 4y ago
Chatting with GPT is definitely not engineering. Writing a prompt that runs thousands of times a day in a production setting, where extra words result in unnecessary spending? Closer to engineering.

olliecornelia 4y ago

I imagine this is how professional engineers feel about HN folk calling themselves software engineers.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rcme 4y ago
I don't think railroad workers have much of an opinion on the title of software engineers.
bboylen 4y ago
As a former chemical engineer, I think software engineering is way harder. Understanding with complex man made abstractions is much more difficult than plugging data into a thermodynamics calculator
- akiselev 4y ago
  > professional engineers When the GP says "professional engineer", I suspect they mean the big boy official kind [1] that goes to prison if they sign off on a negligent design. It's not a question of difficulty but responsibility and qualifications (though to be clear, the PE is considered more time consuming to prepare for than the BAR exam and it's definitely much harder than plugging numbers into formulas). [1] https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe
Uptrenda 4y ago
I think it's pretty low stalking someones HN comments and using them to form a character assassination to dismiss someone's ideas.

capableweb 4y ago

> "Prompt engineering" is the most pretentious name. Lad, your typing words into a little box. You ain't "engineering" shit, lmao Ever called yourself "software engineer"? Edit: https://i.imgur.com/V1kgSNt.png https://i.imgur.com/V1kgSNt.png Ah, even better, you call yourself a "blockchain engineer"... Is that any more "engineering" than "prompt engineering"?

rcme 4y ago
> Is that any more "engineering" than "prompt engineering"? Yes?
- capableweb 4y ago
  According to what arguments? What makes writing letters to create/modify a blockchain/blockchain application different than writing letters for a LLM to generate the correct text?
  - rcme 4y ago
    Predictable outputs for a given input. Do you think a civil engineer just hopes for a sound structure? Or do they know the structure is sound before construction begins?
    - rtontic 4y ago
      Civil engineers actually have liability, they can go to prison. Software "engineers", not so much.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
Uptrenda 4y ago
Yes, I call myself a software engineer and a blockchain engineer because that's what I am. I don't have impostor syndrome and don't feel ashamed to use these titles. They are simply what I do. - To me: software engineering is a structured, semi-rigorous profession, that seeks to use common methodologies to solve problems. It is technical in nature and can be approached abstractly or practically. - I think 'prompt engineering' is misleading because it implies the user is doing something more complicated than they are. Since engineering requires technical knowledge to do and the key breakthrough of LLMs is a system that can respond to human-language, the technical-sounding title actually undermines the utility of what LLMs provide. - Given the above: you wouldn't really want users to think of ChatGPT as a tool that only nerds can use. I wasn't just dunking on ChatGPT tinkers. - I have 10 years of engineering experience where I specialise in arcane systems (p2p networking, smart contracts, asset security, trading, etc.) I have more experience than a junior dev but definitely not as much experience as some HNs. I do think crafting text templates is not 'engineering' and using ChatGPT is not meant to require such a skillset.

spacebanana7 4y ago

> Lad, your typing words into a little box. It’s more than just using ChatGPT. High value prompts are used in API calls where performance, security and variable substitution all come into play. These queries can reach thousands of words/tokens. A developer who spends all day writing prompts is at least as respectable as one who spends theirs writing SQL.

qaq 4y ago

gastronomical entrainer - don't sell em short Senior Principal Gastronomical Entrainer

0xDEF 4y ago

I would have agreed before reading this: https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering/ https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-enginee... There is more depth and rigor to Prompt Engineering than what the AI snake oil merchants on twitter would have you believe.

ericmcer 4y ago

Chatting with GPT is definitely not engineering. Writing a prompt that runs thousands of times a day in a production setting, where extra words result in unnecessary spending? Closer to engineering.