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When a higher level of abstraction allows programmers to focus on the detail relevant to them they stop needing to know the low level stuff. Some programmers te
by notarobot123 2y ago
When a higher level of abstraction allows programmers to focus on the detail relevant to them they stop needing to know the low level stuff. Some programmers tend not to be a fan of these kinds of changes as we well know.
But do LLMs provide a higher level of abstraction? Is this really one of those transition points in computing history?
If they do, it's a different kind to compilers, third-party APIs or any other form of higher level abstraction we've seen so far. It allows programmers to focus on a different level of detail to some extent but they still need to be able to assemble the "right enough" pieces into a meaningful whole.
Personally, I don't see this as a higher level of abstraction. I can't offload the cognitive load of understanding, just the work of constructing and typing out the solution. I can't fully trust the output and I can't really assemble the input without some knowledge of what I'm putting together.
LLMs might speed up development and lower the bar for developing complex applications but I don't think they raise the problem-solving task to one focused solely on the problem domain. That would be the point where you no longer need to know about the lower layers.