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Sure if all you're doing is making it just vomit code then yes. But there's way more LLMs can do, like assist you in connecting dots in complex codebases, find

Sure if all you're doing is making it just vomit code then yes. But there's way more LLMs can do, like assist you in connecting dots in complex codebases, find patterns to refactor given some rules, provide ideas, allow you to dig in dependencies to find apis that are undocumented or edge cases that are subtle to find, find information that you might've had to dig up by endless google queries and hard to find GitHub issues, provide support in technologies you have sometimes to use (sed, awk, regexes, Google sheets apis, etc) but you just don't care enough to learn because it happens to use them few times an year allowing you to focus on what matters, etc, etc. I'm frankly tired of those pointless debates conflating LLMs in the context of code just for the same boring arguments of people hating on vibecoding or thinking every developer is delegating everything to AI and pushing slop. If that's your colleagues fire them. They are indeed useless and can be replaced by a prompt. If one cannot see the infinite uses of LLMs even just for supporting, without ever authoring a single line of code or never ever touching a file, it's only been that person limiting it's own growth and productivity. Seriously, this is beyond tiring.

sodapopcan 9mo ago
You hit on something key here: the vast majority of the pro-articles are talking in the context of code vomit or content vomit or other types of vomit. As you say, it is beyond tiring, so we respond. I'm still waiting for that cancer cure! > it's only been that person limiting it's own growth and productivity. Maybe limiting raw productivity, but I sure don't buy that it limits growth. Maybe if all you ever did was copy and paste off of SO, but taking the time to study and deeply understand something is going to be much better for your overall growth. Also collaborating with humans instead of robots is always nice.
- epolanski 9mo ago
  You can study better and more effectively with more tools at your disposal ;) I've never learned and collaborated as much as in the last years.
  - sodapopcan 9mo ago
    It's all situational, I guess. For example I never learned or collaborated more (or had more fun at work) than when I worked at an XP shop, pairing every single day. I feel the majority of people are just going to have coworkers who have fully stopped asking asking questions. But you aren't wrong. I use AI a bit as a search engine.
    - epolanski 9mo ago
      You can still do XP, can't you! I do agree that real people sharing is absolutely crucial, and that AI may have a negative effect it it becomes the main and only way of (non) sharing.
      - sodapopcan 9mo ago
        I could if there were a wealth of companies that offered it ;) Not only that, if there was a wealth of people who wanted to do it. It's unsurprising that most people are more willing to collaborate with a machine than a human (if they are even willing at all), but there's obviously nothing I can do about that. > I do agree that real people sharing is absolutely crucial, and that AI may have a negative effect it it becomes the main and only way of (non) sharing. Yes, exactly. Most of the pro-AI articles that show up here are about generative AI which is what the vast majority of people are raging against. This particular nuance is often left out. Although the TFA's About page explicitly states that when they use "AI" they mean "Generative AI." Obviously pretty much all of us having been using "AI" in some form or another for the past 20... 30+ years? But then there are a whole host of other reasons I don't like "AI" that are a little out of scope of this rant.
ottah 9mo ago
The cheerleaders, and the programming vegans are exhausting. LLMs are not taking over programming, but neither are they useless. They're tools with strengths and weaknesses we're still learning. I just want a take on them for once that doesn't have some absolutist axe to grind.

sodapopcan 9mo ago

You hit on something key here: the vast majority of the pro-articles are talking in the context of code vomit or content vomit or other types of vomit. As you say, it is beyond tiring, so we respond. I'm still waiting for that cancer cure! > it's only been that person limiting it's own growth and productivity. Maybe limiting raw productivity, but I sure don't buy that it limits growth. Maybe if all you ever did was copy and paste off of SO, but taking the time to study and deeply understand something is going to be much better for your overall growth. Also collaborating with humans instead of robots is always nice.

epolanski 9mo ago
You can study better and more effectively with more tools at your disposal ;) I've never learned and collaborated as much as in the last years.
- sodapopcan 9mo ago
  It's all situational, I guess. For example I never learned or collaborated more (or had more fun at work) than when I worked at an XP shop, pairing every single day. I feel the majority of people are just going to have coworkers who have fully stopped asking asking questions. But you aren't wrong. I use AI a bit as a search engine.
  - epolanski 9mo ago
    You can still do XP, can't you! I do agree that real people sharing is absolutely crucial, and that AI may have a negative effect it it becomes the main and only way of (non) sharing.
    - sodapopcan 9mo ago
      I could if there were a wealth of companies that offered it ;) Not only that, if there was a wealth of people who wanted to do it. It's unsurprising that most people are more willing to collaborate with a machine than a human (if they are even willing at all), but there's obviously nothing I can do about that. > I do agree that real people sharing is absolutely crucial, and that AI may have a negative effect it it becomes the main and only way of (non) sharing. Yes, exactly. Most of the pro-AI articles that show up here are about generative AI which is what the vast majority of people are raging against. This particular nuance is often left out. Although the TFA's About page explicitly states that when they use "AI" they mean "Generative AI." Obviously pretty much all of us having been using "AI" in some form or another for the past 20... 30+ years? But then there are a whole host of other reasons I don't like "AI" that are a little out of scope of this rant.

ottah 9mo ago

The cheerleaders, and the programming vegans are exhausting. LLMs are not taking over programming, but neither are they useless. They're tools with strengths and weaknesses we're still learning. I just want a take on them for once that doesn't have some absolutist axe to grind.