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First Principles Thinking

287 points · 138 comments · sunils34

  1. trwhite · · focus · HN ↗
    I'm really struggling to see how to make architectural decisions with an agent. It's great when you're at a total loss for ideas, but when you already have some of the pieces it ultimately wants to drive all of the thinking and takes over. Then it just feels like you're deferring your experienced judgement. I've seen colleagues lose the ability to reason any more without asking the agent to do it for them, because they inherently don't see the point if the agent is going to end up doing the whole piece (and probably auditing/overruling anything they came up with on their own).
    1. NotGMan · · focus · HN ↗
      Why would you care about architecture? It was an issue when humans were writing code so architecture mattered in the sense that you needed a sweet spot between current requirements and future extensions.

      The agent can rewrite half your codebase in one day, so architecture stops mattering for the most part.

      1. robertlagrant · · focus · HN ↗
        How are you going to read the code if it's not structured in a way you understand?
        1. teiferer · · focus · HN ↗
          I think the argument is that there won't be a reason to read the code. If you want a change, just let the agent change it.

          Similar to the output of a compiler. Nobody (with very few exceptions) reviews its machine code output. No reason to do that. If you want to change it, just recompile.

          (I don't share this view, but I think a substantial and growing fraction of folks does.)

          1. robertlagrant · · focus · HN ↗
            Yes, I think you're right. It could be I haven't experienced the cutting edge of AI, but it a) doesn't seem there yet, and b) goes off on tangents assuming outcomes of decisions and needing to rewrite things a lot. So I quite like reading the output.
            1. NotGMan · · focus · HN ↗
              I've been of similar opinion but since Opus it is there, here and right now.
              1. robertlagrant · · focus · HN ↗
                I haven't tried Opus, so perhaps I'm living in ignorance!
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