alt Hacker NewsThe point is the death of the celebration of excellence and technical mastery.
Once insurmountable challenges are now trivial to implement with, as you say, "low effort."
For those who were attracted to computing by the grind and the grand narrative that you, too, with sufficient effort, discipline, and merit, could become a revered craftsman, LLMs trivialize an entire lifetime of practice. I can't think of anything more demoralizing.
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_factor • today at 10:09 AM
Did hammers obviate the technical mastery of finding a suitable rock? Or did they elevate the definition of “technical mastery”?
ninalanyon • today at 10:11 AM
Would you apply the same reasoning to the building of horse drawn carriages and mass produced motor vehicles? A hand built PDP-11 to a Thinkpad?
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If your goals were fame, then yes. But you can still pursue excellence even if there is an alternative “easy” path.
The equivalent is something like hand tool woodworking - it’s still a thing despite the advent of machines, but more of a niche. You can still aim to become excellent, but maybe you won’t be famous.