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Comments (46)

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  layer8
  > Is Coding → Prompting like Assembly → High Level Coding? […] I do not agree with this simile. Compilers are, for the most part, deterministic in a way that current AI tools are not.It’s not quite about the determinism. It’s about being able to reason about the relationship between source code and compiled program with formal precision. You can predict which changes in the source code will lead to which exact changes in the behavior of the compiled program. The same isn’t the case about changes to an LLM prompt and the LLM’s output.You could make an AI deterministic by fixing its source of randomness. That still wouldn’t allow you to reason about how its output will change when (for example) you add or remove a word in the prompt. The only way to find out is to run the LLM (= have the prompt run through the model and observe what comes out).That is the fundamental difference. Changes to source code have predictable and reason-able outcomes. You generally don’t have to compile the code and test it to know how precisely the change will affect the behavior of the compiled program according to the semantics of the programming language. That’s the case even if the compiler uses some probabilistic heuristics for trade-offs in code generation, and hence isn’t deterministic on the machine code level.To repeat, the difference is how you can reason about a compiler’s behavior versus an LLM’s behavior. Programming languages are designed such that you can reason about it. With LLMs it’s always an experiment.
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  johsole
  I disagree with the author. I think as LLMs get better at coding it will be more likely that that fewer devs will be required to keep systems running and progressing, the bottleneck at my company is already new revenue generating ideas. We've seen a roughly 30% increase in speed of new features, so the same number of devs are building a lot quicker. I expect that to continue to increase. I also see a lot of Devs simply trusting that the code is correct, they are losing touch with the code.I don't think I would encourage my kids to get involved with programming, instead I would encourage them to become entrepreneurs who might use some coding.
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  tengbretson
  > I explain that, if they don’t write the code, they will not be able to effectively read the code. The ability to read code is certainly going to be valuable, maybe more valuable, in an AI-based coding future.I'm not certain of this. Thinking back to when I first started in my career after graduation- I remember feeling like my ability to write code had improved greatly during my time in school. Meanwhile, my ability to read code felt like it had barely improved at all. Even now, after over a decade in the industry, while both skills have improved tremendously, I still feel like my ability to read and internalize code is not at the level I would like or assume it to be simply as a result of my experience.It could very well be that reading and writing are two separate (though related) skills that require intentional practice and honing on their own. I can't speak for everyone, but reading code as a skill, for me, only really began to develop once I had a job where it was expected of me.Maybe it's possible to learn to read code without learning to write it. It certainly feels like its possible to learn to write it without learning to read it.
• ibejoeb
  It's the architecture. That's the correct answer here. The current models produce good implementations. They're also quite good at identifying and planning for edge cases. But, today, a successful software project requires picking the right atoms for the job.Some of the calculus for that picking will change, since volume of code that must be produced becomes less of an issue. And I don't doubt that models next year and year after will be able to make better formative architectural choices. But as it is now, I'm certain that actual systems handling real workloads require a human designer.Someone who knows what good software looks like is empowered with agents. Someone without that knowledge isn't going to create a high quality system yet.
• Exoristos
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• ivanjermakov
  Programmers make computer programs. LLMs make making computer programs more affordable and efficient, resulting in more computer programs and higher demand in programmers. We don't know what programming would be like in 10 years, but why would demand in well functioning computers go down?
• samstress
  No, but... is the better answer in my mind. Learning to code is a considerable commitment. It takes years to get good enough to produce professional-grade software. If you extrapolate from the improvements we've seen in coding AI over just the last 12 months, this is just a bad allocation of your time.Instead, as the article points out, learn to become a translator between the real world and AI code generation. Learn about industries that are relatively underserved by technology. Don't build tools for developers or engineers. Learn about construction, mining, waste management, oil and gas, manufacturing, logistics, government... then become the link between that industry and AI's ability to add value.(Emphasis on relatively underserved — all of these have high-tech versions in some places, but the future isn't distributed evenly.)
• sajithdilshan
  I think in few years LLMs would be so good that the programming language used by humans to build software would be natural human language. LLMs would abstract out high level programing languages the same way where we don't write assembly code today. Hence, I'm not sure how important it would be to learn programing languages.However, it's totally make sense to learn theories and concepts behind computer science and engineering like networking, encryption/cryptography, etc. if someone wants to be a software developer in the future.
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  sippeangelo
  > Is Coding → Prompting like Assembly → High Level Coding? […] I do not agree with this simile. Compilers are, for the most part, deterministic in a way that current AI tools are not.I have a very different view of this, coming from C++. "Undefined behaviour". Compiler optimizations that only kick in if you align your chakras just right. Memory alignment and cache locality being completely vibe-based, relying on hopes and prayers that the CPU actually does what your mental model thinks it will.In many ways it's EXACTLY like C++ -> Assembly. You never know what you ended up with until you run the benchmarks, just like you never know what your AI generated until you look at it!"What do you mean? This worked in the debug build! Why does it crash in release?!"
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  smcg
  Well, it's sad that the professor's advice for how to get a job today is "networking", same as it always was. I feel bad for those who don't have family or friends who work in the industry.
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  psygn89
  Didn't you guys have to handwrite your code during exams, at least the basic programming classes? I feel like that's an immediate reason you need to know how to code.
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  sergiotapia
  > “Yes, AI can generate the code for this assignment. Don’t let it. You have to write the code.”I wrestle with this: In what world will _anyone_ suffer what we suffered by coding manually, reading docs, and posting in forums to learn when there's a magic "do it" button?I don't think it's realistic that a 19 year old kid is going to troubleshoot some horrendous SQL query for 3 hours to figure out what's wrong when an AI can fix it in 3 seconds.I don't know what the answer is tbh. Perhaps software engineering just "ends" with this latest batch of people. It's a game of chicken: can ai get good enough before the final wave of devs dies.
• iAMkenough
  On the advice to junior devs to work intentionally and slower than their vibe-coding peers, I see an analogy to the advice given to student journalists at the start of newspaper subscriptions being replaced with online news access.There will be a few developers that will work slowly and have the best understanding of the work at hand, but in my opinion the majority will be stuck at companies churning out whatever gets them paid.Fast vibe-coded solutions that frees up time to work on more and more paying projects is what capitalism demands.The Capitalism motivator rarely slows down by choice, because capitalism only cares about numbers going up, not people or their determination
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• landdate
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