Off topic, but I remember fondly the pre-LLM days when I used to love reading about programming languages. I never got a chance to professionally work with Rust, but made some cool hobby projects with it. Would have eventually tried out zig too.
Now it all feels so pointless though. Like memorizing rules to do mental arithmetic. Sure, there is still use for language expertise, but not enough to get excited over new concepts and ideas.
I think (for now), it is still relevant. A language is an abstraction, and a good abstraction, like a good LLM harness, can be quite valuable.
Let’s say I’m writing some concurrent code with an LLM. I’d probably feel much safer having it write Rust, rather than C. So even in a post-LLM world, languages will continue to evolve as long as abstractions can be improved.
But do you still have enthusiasm for finding out about new language features or concepts? I'll do what it takes to get the job done, but the passion for it is totally gone.
Meaningfulness comes from what you care about. I wonder why you were interested in programming-language concepts before but now (apparently) stopped caring about the code. The code still remains the language that communicates the actual program logic.
I guess a large part of my motivation was that it makes me a more effective and skilled programmer. There are countless of interesting things out there, and the motivation to focus on one comes from what you do with it later on.
karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗
Now it all feels so pointless though. Like memorizing rules to do mental arithmetic. Sure, there is still use for language expertise, but not enough to get excited over new concepts and ideas.
ratorx · · focus · HN ↗
Let’s say I’m writing some concurrent code with an LLM. I’d probably feel much safer having it write Rust, rather than C. So even in a post-LLM world, languages will continue to evolve as long as abstractions can be improved.
karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗
tonyhart7 · · focus · HN ↗
karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗
layer8 · · focus · HN ↗
karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗