alt Hacker NewsYeah, the people who say no expertise is needed for these things confuse me somewhat. This is indeed the case if you want to be a meat wrapper around an LLM, understanding neither your inputs nor your outputs. But at that point, what is the point of you versus going to the LLM myself? Expertise is necessary because it adds understanding and structure to the blob of text produced by an LLM. Progress can only be built on such understanding.
I am tempted to say (uncharitably) that the 'No knowledge needed! Just add LLMs!' byline is wishful thinking by non-experts who do not want to confront the reality that they will ultimately need to learn things.
> But at that point, what is the point of you versus going to the LLM myself? reply
You're missing one word, and that word explains why everyone running the companies is so excited. The word is 'paying'. "But at that point, what is the point paying of you versus going to the LLM myself?"
And, yes, I think that LLMs make it a lot easier to hire a minimally trained stooge and get them productive. It's worked for me, and I appreciate being able to pretend to be productive and walk away from the job a bit early every day. I don't think software engineering is likely to be a high status, high income job for very long.