Thread

1. QuantumNoodle · 1785956641 · focus · HN ↗

   A hobby is something you enjoy the process of doing, not just the end result. Everybody likes a clean home, but cleaning is rarely a hobby. LLMs expedite achieving the end result. Take from that what you will.

   1. bawolff · 1785958419 · focus · HN ↗

      I think part of it though is that LLMs (especially in novice hands) create code that is more difficult to review and has subtler bugs. Code review is (for many) the least fun part of programming.

      Like imagine if your hobby was cooking, but you hated the cleanup. If you buy a robot that automates the fun part at the cost of making twice the mess, that is not a good trade off no matter how many extra cookies you end up with.

      1. LPisGood · 1785958821 · focus · HN ↗

         It is probably a good trade off if you sell cookies or if you vastly prefer eating cookies to making cookies.

         1. cocoa19 · 1785959361 · focus · HN ↗

            For the owner/shareholders yes.

            The workers will see the fun evaporate but now they have to clean 10x cookie trays in the same 8 hours.

         2. bawolff · 1785959628 · focus · HN ↗

            Sure, and that probably explains why companies (who sell software) love AI while hobbyists who just like to program hate it.
         3. bigstrat2003 · 1785960129 · focus · HN ↗

            It is, although in this case the cookie-making robot also makes 10% of its cookies with sand instead of flour. So it's still not a very good trade if you have any pride in your business or consequences for bad product.
         4. acdha · 1785971854 · focus · HN ↗

            I think that also hits what you see universally with every AI product trying to pass worse results off as a benefit: if you’re a business, the prospect of cutting your cost per cookie is really attractive as long as the decline in quality doesn’t cause people to stop buying and that’s going to get the focus of everyone who sees the financial reports more than they talk with customers. Anyone who’s going it because they care about cookies or take pride in your craft will have the opposite weighting.

            We’re kind of at the fast food point: before LLMs, bring successful at all in software required some level of skill (witness all of the companies getting very expensive write-offs from off-shoring or big consultancies trying to save on payroll vs. staff), kind of like how the small cafe/bakery model needed to have at least some level of craft to have something people would buy before the option of making food at a factory and shipping it became an option.

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