Benno is widely known as someone with opinions and a (possibly over-)willingness to share them. He has been working with computers professionally for over 30 years (unprofessionally for longer) and takes particular joy in examining how computers, the Internet, and all that surrounds all of these intersects with the humanity that it is meant to help.
“Skill Issue”
I make code for a living. I also make code, and other things, for fun. I love learning new things and discovering new tools. So when I run into a tool that everyone tells me is the future of coding but I just can’t bring myself to accept it, what do I do?
Large language models are the future of coding, right? It’s what everyone’s saying. It’s what everyone’s boss is saying. We all need to get on board or get left behind.
Is this true? What makes a change like this inevitable? What makes a change like this good?
When things like this come along and I find myself disagreeing it’s always interesting to try and work out where that’s coming from. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s a whole journey that involves a lot of self-reflection and a bunch of reading about history.
So, am I being paranoid? Is this change inevitable and I just need to get over it? Is it just... a skill issue?
Join me as I try to unpack what worries me about all this, what I think LLMs can and should be used for, what we might expect given things that have happened in the past, and what this has to do with some guy called Ned Ludd.