Comment by Terr_

Comment by Terr_ 20 hours ago

5 replies

There's an implied assumption here that developers who end up spending all their time reviewing LLM code won't lose their skills or become homicidal. :p

cbsmith 19 hours ago

Fair enough. ;-)

I'm actually curious about the "lose their skills" angle though. In the open source community it's well understood that if anything reviewing a lot of code tends to sharpen your skills.

  • Terr_ 19 hours ago

    I expect that comes from the contrast and synthesis between how the author is anticipating things will develop or be explained, versus what the other person actually provided and trying to understand their thought process.

    What happens if the reader no longer has enough of that authorial instinct, their own (opinionated) independent understanding?

    I think the average experience would drift away from "I thought X was the obvious way but now I see by doing Y you were avoid that other problem, cool" and towards "I don't see the LLM doing anything too unusual compared to when I ask it for things, LGTM."

    • cbsmith 18 hours ago

      It seems counter intuitive that the reader would no longer have that authorial instinct due to lack of writing. Like, maybe they never had it, in which case, yes. But being exposed to a lot of different "writing opinions" tends to hone your own.

      Let's say you're right though, and you lose that authorial instinct. If you've got five different proposals/PRs from five different models, each one critiqued by the other four, the needs for authorial instinct diminish significantly.

      • layer8 15 hours ago

        I don’t find this convincing. People generally don’t learn how to write a good novel just by reading a lot of them.

        • jyounker 7 hours ago

          On the other hand, people who write good novels tend to read a lot. Reading isn't sufficient, but intensive reading generally seems to be required.