alt Hacker NewsWho is reading docs these days? It there is one thing a LLM is good at is reading docs. I never read docs anymore and I am so happy about it.
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I love reading docs. It's the best way to get as close as I can to understanding the intent and context of a piece of software. I feel like adding an LLM between myself and the original text for anything else than search is just adding risk and noise.
Am I the only one feeling this way?
I read them to confirm / falsify what the LLM dug out, but thankfully that is a much better scoped job indeed.
The other case is when I - gasp - do something myself, and the docs are actually reasonable / easy to reference. There are workflows where me doing the thing is just plain faster still, even when including hitting up the docs real quick.
I need to read docs to make sure the AI isn't inventing ("hallucinating") the API of a library I want to use. It did so I don't ask it anything anymore.
Reading docs is essential when the LLM stops making sense. It also exercises the same muscles you need to be able to make good use of LLMs.