I did actually use an LLM to teach myself photoshop recently for a fantasy map building project. Mostly I'd just ask it things like "I have a mask with 50/50 gray and would like an elevation height map to be an embossed layer on it. Where do I find that in the menus?" those sorts of questions.

I finished the project out feeling pretty confident in my photoshop abilities. Then I did a similar project later and realized I had to open up the LLM again as there were still a ton of holes in my knowledge. After this second time though I'm feeling confident enough on my own that referring back to the LLM is increasingly less common, as it's just a waste of time if I already know what to do.

I don't think this is true. The LLM provides confidence that it won't be a tremendous waste of time to try something you don't already know how to do. But eventually it gets tedious to consult the LLM all the time so you stop doing so. That initial "couldn't hurt to try" boost is worth a lot.

The learning is at that level of abstraction, so yes taking away the abstraction prevents will stymy you.

Just like if you pressed a button to wipe out our main language stack at our job, yeah none of us would know how to do anything with assembly or machine code.

I recently spent a day coding by hand. I was able to build a project, about 200-300 lines in python. Took me half day. But I could still do it. LLM would have done this in less than half an hour.

After this I realized why I personally choose LLM to write code: it is simply more convenient.

As a parallel, once you learn how to drive you stop walking, as for the primary mode of transportation.

We are in the Matrix with the internet.

"Please download the ability to do X"

Just that there is still a big latency. Its smaller than finding the correct information on the web, but you can do so. Especially with MCP. The question is when this goes over into the physical world.

Watching Youtube videoas about anything that requires skill does the same.

I think it's like driving without navigation systems. Yes, you have to make an effort to do it, but then it's fine. You don't have to use LLMs every minute of the (work)day.

I have sat down and figured out how to program an Apple //e this year for fun. It is possible. It was quite instructive on how much has been added to the idea of what a computer is these days.

> The problem is that if you take away the LLM, all of a sudden you can't do any of the things you "learned".

Even if that were true, LLMs aren't going away, so that isn't a problem.

Take away all reference books/material/notes, from any engineer, in any field, and see how well they do.

Human memory is shite. Understanding, and knowing what you need to reference, is ludicrously more valuable than rote memorization.

> if you take away the LLM, all of a sudden you can't do any of the things you "learned"

What? That is absolutely not true. I've been using LLMs for language learning, math/physics, clarify home improvement best practices that I now regularly think about, etc. and that knowledge is not LLM-bound at all. Instead of acquiring from a regular textbook, I acquired it from a model.