4 ms·

Yeah, +1. I will never be working on unsolved problems anyhow. Skill atrophy is not happening if you stay curious and responsible.

stringfood 6mo ago
I have never learned so quickly in my entire life than to post a forum thread in its entirety into a extended think LLM and then be allowed to ask free form questions for 2 hours straight if I want to. Having my questions answered NOW is so important for me to learn. Back in the day by the time I found the answer online I forgot the question
- lobf 6mo ago
  Same. I work in the film industry, but I’ve always been interested in computers and have enjoyed tinkering with them since I was about 5. However, coding has always been this insurmountably complicated thing- every time I make an effort to learn, I’m confronted with concepts that are difficult for me to understand and process. I’ve been 90% vibe coding for a year or so now, and I’ve learned so much about networking just from spinning up a bunch of docker containers and helping GPT or Claude fix niggling issues. I essentially have an expert (well, maybe not an expert but an entity far more capable than I am on my own) who’s shoulder I can look over and ask as many questions I want to, and who will explain every step of the process to me if I want. I’m finally able to create things on my computer that I’ve been dreaming about for years.
  - estetlinus 6mo ago
    I pivoted from the film industry into AI 10 years ago. My end game is to replace movie magic.
idopmstuff 6mo ago
Some people talk like skill atrophy is inevitable when you use LLMs, which strikes me as pretty absurd given that you are talking about a tool that will answer an infinite number of questions with infinite patience. I usually learn way more by having Claude do a task and then quizzing it about what it did than by figuring out how to do it myself. When I have to figure out how to do the thing, it takes much more time, so when I'm done I have to move on immediately. When Claude does the task in ten minutes I now have several hours I can dedicate entirely to understanding.
- onemoresoop 6mo ago
  You lose some, you win some. The win could be short-term much higher, however imagine that the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet. What do you do then? Do you still know how to handle it the old way or do you run into skill atrophy issues? I’m using Claude/Codex as well, but I’m a little worried that the environment we work in will become a lot more bumpy and shifty.
  - visarga 6mo ago
    > the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet If that happened at this point, it would be after societal collapse.
    - onemoresoop 6mo ago
      I don’t even wanna think about that scenario, maybe he gets averted somehow.
  - post-it 6mo ago
    > however imagine that the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet When you have a headache, do you avoid taking ibuprofen because one day it may not be available anymore? Two hundred years ago, if you gave someone ibuprofen and told them it was the solution for 99% of the cases where they felt some kind of pain, they might be suspicious. Surely that's too good to be true. But it's not. Ibuprofen really is a free lunch, and so is AI. It's weird to experience, but these kinds of technologies come around pretty often, they just become ubiquitous so quickly that we forget how we got by without them.
- dlopes7 6mo ago
  Asking infinite questions about something does not make you good at “doing” that thing, you get pretty good at asking questions
- techpression 6mo ago
  Understanding is not learning. Zero effort gives zero rewards, I ask Claude plenty of things, I get answers but not learnings.
bdangubic 6mo ago
I used to speak Russian like I was born in Russia. I stopped talking Russian … every day I am curious ans responsible but I can hardly say 10 words in Russian today. if you don’t use it (not just be curious and responsible) you will lose it - period.
- thih9 6mo ago
  Programming language is not just syntax, keywords and standard libraries, but also: processes, best practices and design principles. The latter group I guess is more difficult to learn and harder to forget.
  - bdangubic 6mo ago
    I respectfully completely disagree. not only will you just as easily lose thr processed, best practices and design principles but they will be changing over time (what was best practice when I got my first gig in 1997 is not a best practice today (even just 4-5 years ago not to go all the back to the 90’s)). all that is super easy to both forget and lose unless you live it daily
    - thih9 6mo ago
      Forget, yes; lose, no. Like it would be much easier for you to relearn Russian - especially compared with someone who only knows English.
- ashirviskas 6mo ago
  More fair comparison would be writing/talking about Russian language in English. That way you'd still focus on Russian. Same way with programming - it's not like you stop seeing any code. So why should you forget it?

stringfood 6mo ago

I have never learned so quickly in my entire life than to post a forum thread in its entirety into a extended think LLM and then be allowed to ask free form questions for 2 hours straight if I want to. Having my questions answered NOW is so important for me to learn. Back in the day by the time I found the answer online I forgot the question

lobf 6mo ago
Same. I work in the film industry, but I’ve always been interested in computers and have enjoyed tinkering with them since I was about 5. However, coding has always been this insurmountably complicated thing- every time I make an effort to learn, I’m confronted with concepts that are difficult for me to understand and process. I’ve been 90% vibe coding for a year or so now, and I’ve learned so much about networking just from spinning up a bunch of docker containers and helping GPT or Claude fix niggling issues. I essentially have an expert (well, maybe not an expert but an entity far more capable than I am on my own) who’s shoulder I can look over and ask as many questions I want to, and who will explain every step of the process to me if I want. I’m finally able to create things on my computer that I’ve been dreaming about for years.
- estetlinus 6mo ago
  I pivoted from the film industry into AI 10 years ago. My end game is to replace movie magic.

idopmstuff 6mo ago

Some people talk like skill atrophy is inevitable when you use LLMs, which strikes me as pretty absurd given that you are talking about a tool that will answer an infinite number of questions with infinite patience. I usually learn way more by having Claude do a task and then quizzing it about what it did than by figuring out how to do it myself. When I have to figure out how to do the thing, it takes much more time, so when I'm done I have to move on immediately. When Claude does the task in ten minutes I now have several hours I can dedicate entirely to understanding.

onemoresoop 6mo ago
You lose some, you win some. The win could be short-term much higher, however imagine that the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet. What do you do then? Do you still know how to handle it the old way or do you run into skill atrophy issues? I’m using Claude/Codex as well, but I’m a little worried that the environment we work in will become a lot more bumpy and shifty.
- visarga 6mo ago
  > the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet If that happened at this point, it would be after societal collapse.
  - onemoresoop 6mo ago
    I don’t even wanna think about that scenario, maybe he gets averted somehow.
- post-it 6mo ago
  > however imagine that the new tool suddenly gets ragged pulled from under your feet When you have a headache, do you avoid taking ibuprofen because one day it may not be available anymore? Two hundred years ago, if you gave someone ibuprofen and told them it was the solution for 99% of the cases where they felt some kind of pain, they might be suspicious. Surely that's too good to be true. But it's not. Ibuprofen really is a free lunch, and so is AI. It's weird to experience, but these kinds of technologies come around pretty often, they just become ubiquitous so quickly that we forget how we got by without them.
dlopes7 6mo ago
Asking infinite questions about something does not make you good at “doing” that thing, you get pretty good at asking questions
techpression 6mo ago
Understanding is not learning. Zero effort gives zero rewards, I ask Claude plenty of things, I get answers but not learnings.

bdangubic 6mo ago

I used to speak Russian like I was born in Russia. I stopped talking Russian … every day I am curious ans responsible but I can hardly say 10 words in Russian today. if you don’t use it (not just be curious and responsible) you will lose it - period.

thih9 6mo ago
Programming language is not just syntax, keywords and standard libraries, but also: processes, best practices and design principles. The latter group I guess is more difficult to learn and harder to forget.
- bdangubic 6mo ago
  I respectfully completely disagree. not only will you just as easily lose thr processed, best practices and design principles but they will be changing over time (what was best practice when I got my first gig in 1997 is not a best practice today (even just 4-5 years ago not to go all the back to the 90’s)). all that is super easy to both forget and lose unless you live it daily
  - thih9 6mo ago
    Forget, yes; lose, no. Like it would be much easier for you to relearn Russian - especially compared with someone who only knows English.
ashirviskas 6mo ago
More fair comparison would be writing/talking about Russian language in English. That way you'd still focus on Russian. Same way with programming - it's not like you stop seeing any code. So why should you forget it?