alt Hacker NewsExactly. When I use a scissor, I don't want the scissor to not work just because I'm not a "frequent scissor user," and then get told by someone who makes their breakfast with scissors that I'm doing it wrong. Most people will not be "frequent" anything users.
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If you make the example any more complicated, it makes sense.
A lathe operator isn’t any good if they don’t frequently operate lathes.
A articulated robot implementer needs frequent experience implementing robots to be any good.
That doesn’t mean lathes or robots are useless. Nor does it mean they have failed as products because they require expertise.
I do think it raises questions as to whether vast swathes of the population will be effective at using LLMs. Are they scissors, or a lathe?
Most people also understand that, because they're not "frequent" users of a thing, they absolutely suck at using it, and set their expectations accordingly. In particular, they realize that doing anything non-trivial with the thing requires them to spend some learning and practice time, or asking/hiring a "frequent" user to do it for them.
So the reasonable response to being told you're holding your scissors wrong is to realize that yes, you most likely are holding your scissors wrong[0], and ask the other person for advice (or just to do the thing), or look up a YouTube video and learn, or sign up to a class, or such.
Expecting mastery in 30 seconds is not a reasonable attitude, but it's unfortunately the lie that software industry tried to sell to people for the past 15 years or so.
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[0] - There's much more to it than one would think.