5 ms·

Your hypothetical high schooler would have to learn what architecture is, and then what self review is, and iteration, and manual testing... and what "code" and

by simonw 2mo ago

Your hypothetical high schooler would have to learn what architecture is, and then what self review is, and iteration, and manual testing... and what "code" and "software" is first.

springtimesun 2mo ago
This is something devs don’t give enough credit. You may think you’re just promoting, but ask someone outside the field to prompt their way to a feature and you will see very clearly what your experience is bringing to the table.
- a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago
  Yeah, but train them for a month on how to get the AI to help them prompt, and they'll do fine. AIs are extremely effective at letting you offload skill, you just need to know how to ask. This should surprise nobody, since this is what they were and built for. I genuinely don't think you need much training for creating code any more. The skill can be offloaded.
  - simonw 2mo ago
    I had a conversation with someone about this the other day where they asked what AI was useful for, and I said programming, and they asked what programming was, and I eventually stumbled into "it's how you make apps". I'm not worried for my career.
    - a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago
      Fascinating. What an extreme outlier. Where did you find them? Did you also have to explain what an app was? Anyways, if being more capable than them is the bar you think you need to clear, I suppose you'll be fine. I still stand by my statement: there's no deep knowledge needed to deliver most of the software we need today, just some iteration on prompts. And the AI is getting better pretty quickly. You need to be able to explain what you want, why the AI got it wrong, and paste the error you see. It takes some focused training, but so does being a line chef at a restaurant.
  - springtimesun 2mo ago
    I don't disagree in principle, but there's got to be a ceiling at some complexity. Teach them to prompt their way into a Twitter clone in a month (or less), sure. Teach them to prompt their way into a Bun rewrite in Rust in a month...well, there are apparently some people who need your help right now ;)
a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago
If it takes them more than a few weeks to figure out "Review your own output with a clean context. Check it for bugs, performance, and places where it doesn't do what the user wants", I don't know what to say. And where are you finding high schoolers that don't know what software is? Note, people don't typically need to understand the architecture documents that the LLMs generate, and will certainly be filling in the rest of the gaps as new models come out. The function of design docs is to make the LLM ask clarifying questions and fill in the constraints.

by simonw 2mo ago

Your hypothetical high schooler would have to learn what architecture is, and then what self review is, and iteration, and manual testing... and what "code" and "software" is first.

springtimesun 2mo ago

This is something devs don’t give enough credit. You may think you’re just promoting, but ask someone outside the field to prompt their way to a feature and you will see very clearly what your experience is bringing to the table.

a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago
Yeah, but train them for a month on how to get the AI to help them prompt, and they'll do fine. AIs are extremely effective at letting you offload skill, you just need to know how to ask. This should surprise nobody, since this is what they were and built for. I genuinely don't think you need much training for creating code any more. The skill can be offloaded.
- simonw 2mo ago
  I had a conversation with someone about this the other day where they asked what AI was useful for, and I said programming, and they asked what programming was, and I eventually stumbled into "it's how you make apps". I'm not worried for my career.
  - a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago
    Fascinating. What an extreme outlier. Where did you find them? Did you also have to explain what an app was? Anyways, if being more capable than them is the bar you think you need to clear, I suppose you'll be fine. I still stand by my statement: there's no deep knowledge needed to deliver most of the software we need today, just some iteration on prompts. And the AI is getting better pretty quickly. You need to be able to explain what you want, why the AI got it wrong, and paste the error you see. It takes some focused training, but so does being a line chef at a restaurant.
- springtimesun 2mo ago
  I don't disagree in principle, but there's got to be a ceiling at some complexity. Teach them to prompt their way into a Twitter clone in a month (or less), sure. Teach them to prompt their way into a Bun rewrite in Rust in a month...well, there are apparently some people who need your help right now ;)

a2ff6eeb0 2mo ago

If it takes them more than a few weeks to figure out "Review your own output with a clean context. Check it for bugs, performance, and places where it doesn't do what the user wants", I don't know what to say. And where are you finding high schoolers that don't know what software is? Note, people don't typically need to understand the architecture documents that the LLMs generate, and will certainly be filling in the rest of the gaps as new models come out. The function of design docs is to make the LLM ask clarifying questions and fill in the constraints.