> LLMs can get me up to speed on new APIs and libraries far faster than I can myself, a gigantic speedup. If I need to write a small bit of glue code in a language I do not know, LLMs not only save me time, but they make it so I don't have to learn something that I'll likely never use again.
I wax and wane on this one.
I've had the same feelings, but too often I've peaked behind the curtain, read the docs and got familiar with external dependencies and then realize whatever the LLM responds with paradoxically either wasn't following convention or tried to shoehorn your problem to fit code examples found online, used features inappropriately, took a long roundabout path to do something that can be done simply, etc.
It can feel like magic until you look too closely at it, and I worry that it'll make me complacent with the feeling of understanding without actually taking away an understanding.
I wax and wane on this one.
I've had the same feelings, but too often I've peaked behind the curtain, read the docs and got familiar with external dependencies and then realize whatever the LLM responds with paradoxically either wasn't following convention or tried to shoehorn your problem to fit code examples found online, used features inappropriately, took a long roundabout path to do something that can be done simply, etc.
It can feel like magic until you look too closely at it, and I worry that it'll make me complacent with the feeling of understanding without actually taking away an understanding.