If you're using llms to shit out large swathes of unreviewed code you're doing it wrong and your project is indeed doomed to become unmaintainable the minute it goes down a wrong path architecturally, or you get a bug with complex causes or whatever.
Where llms excel is in situations like:
* I have <special snowflake pile of existing data structures> that I want to apply <well known algorithm> to - bam, half a days work done in 2 minutes.
* I want to set up test data and the bones of unit tests for <complicated thing with lots of dependencies> - bam, half a days work done in 2 minutes (note I said to use the llms for a starting point - don't generate your actual test cases with it, at least not without very careful review - I've seen a lot of really dumb ai generated unit tests).
* I want a visual web editor for <special snowflake pile of existing data structures> that saves to an sqlite db and has a separate backend api, bam 3 days work done in 2 minutes.
* I want to apply some repetitive change across a large codebase that's just too complicated for a clever regex, bam work you literally would have never bothered to do before done in 2 minutes.
You don't need to solve hard problems to massively increase your productivity with llms, you just need to shave yaks. Even when it's not a time save, it still lets you focus mental effort on interesting problems rather than burning out on endless chores.
Where llms excel is in situations like:
* I have <special snowflake pile of existing data structures> that I want to apply <well known algorithm> to - bam, half a days work done in 2 minutes.
* I want to set up test data and the bones of unit tests for <complicated thing with lots of dependencies> - bam, half a days work done in 2 minutes (note I said to use the llms for a starting point - don't generate your actual test cases with it, at least not without very careful review - I've seen a lot of really dumb ai generated unit tests).
* I want a visual web editor for <special snowflake pile of existing data structures> that saves to an sqlite db and has a separate backend api, bam 3 days work done in 2 minutes.
* I want to apply some repetitive change across a large codebase that's just too complicated for a clever regex, bam work you literally would have never bothered to do before done in 2 minutes.
You don't need to solve hard problems to massively increase your productivity with llms, you just need to shave yaks. Even when it's not a time save, it still lets you focus mental effort on interesting problems rather than burning out on endless chores.