> There is so much fun, beauty and pleasure in writing code by hand. You can still handcraft code. Just don’t expect this to be your job. This is your passion.
Can people keep a good mental model of the repo without writing code? I always feel like I lose my thoughts if I let an LLM do it for me. I totally get that LLMs can do stuff faster and (Given the right context) sometimes keep better track of this than humans can.
Even musicians had to go digital, but that doesn't mean people stopped playing raw instruments. Will company culture shift towards one senior that has the context + 7 LLMs that work for him? is that where we're heading towards?
which then affords a PDF w/ a ToC, indices, and sidebars and other navigational aids all hyperlinked so as to make moving through the code and its documentation quick and fluid.
Then, when I arrive at the section of code which needs to be updated, the documentation and reasoning about its current state is right there.
Not sure if this scales up to multiple developers though....
Traditional engineering involves more than talking to people, teams, and trade offs.
Where I live the engineering society here does license software engineers now and enforces the term, "Software Engineer," as a protected term. You can't just call yourself a software engineer. You have to have educational credentials, pass exams, and be licensed. You have to keep up with your educational requirements. You have to be insured.
It boils down to the same thing, people and teams, but the difference is liability.
Personally I think we're better off pair programming with actual people than GenAI chat bots. We get to teach each other and learn together which improves our skills. We actually need to socialize and be around people to remain healthy. You miss out on all of these benefits with chat bots.
And there's growing evidence that you don't learn as much when using them [0].
Consider when using them is appropriate and maybe don't rely on them for everything.
Can people keep a good mental model of the repo without writing code? I always feel like I lose my thoughts if I let an LLM do it for me. I totally get that LLMs can do stuff faster and (Given the right context) sometimes keep better track of this than humans can.
Even musicians had to go digital, but that doesn't mean people stopped playing raw instruments. Will company culture shift towards one senior that has the context + 7 LLMs that work for him? is that where we're heading towards?
http://literateprogramming.com/
which then affords a PDF w/ a ToC, indices, and sidebars and other navigational aids all hyperlinked so as to make moving through the code and its documentation quick and fluid.
Then, when I arrive at the section of code which needs to be updated, the documentation and reasoning about its current state is right there.
Not sure if this scales up to multiple developers though....
Where I live the engineering society here does license software engineers now and enforces the term, "Software Engineer," as a protected term. You can't just call yourself a software engineer. You have to have educational credentials, pass exams, and be licensed. You have to keep up with your educational requirements. You have to be insured.
It boils down to the same thing, people and teams, but the difference is liability.
Personally I think we're better off pair programming with actual people than GenAI chat bots. We get to teach each other and learn together which improves our skills. We actually need to socialize and be around people to remain healthy. You miss out on all of these benefits with chat bots.
And there's growing evidence that you don't learn as much when using them [0].
Consider when using them is appropriate and maybe don't rely on them for everything.
[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872