The difference is you’d remember some of the context from reading the thing where an LLM is starting from scratch every single time it comes up.
In any case, LLMs are not magical forgetfulness machines.
You can use a calculator to avoid learning arithmetic but using a calculator doesn’t necessitate failing to learn arithmetic.
You can ask a question of a professor or fellow student, but failing to read the textbook to answer that question doesn’t necessitate failing to develop a mental model or incorporate the answer into an existing one.
You can ask an LLM a question and blindly use its answer but using an LLM doesn’t necessitate failing to learn.
However, even outside of using a LLM the temptation is always to keep the blinders on do a deep dive for a very specific bug and repeat as needed. It’s the local minima of effort and very slowly you do improve as those deep dives occasionally come up again, but what keeps it from being a global minimum is these systems aren’t suddenly going away. It’s not a friend’s expresso machine, it’s now sitting in your metaphorical kitchen.
As soon as you’re dealt with say a CSS bug the odds of seeing another in the future are dramatically higher. Thus optimizing for diminishing returns means spending a few hours learning the basics of any system or protocol you encounter is just a useful strategy. If you spend 1% of your time on a strategy that makes you 2% more efficient that’s a net win.
But that's not learning or even problem's solving. It's just a time saving trick. And one that's not reliable.
And the fact is that there's a lot of information about pretty much anything. But I see people trying to skip the foundation (not glamorous enough, maybe) and go straight for the complicated stuff. And LLMs are good for providing the illusion that it can be the right workflow.
Well said. You can only spend years digging into the intricacies a handful of systems in your lifetime, but there’s still real rewards from a few hours here and there.
I’d argue that’s a more effective capture as to what I would remember anyway.
If wanted to learn more (in a general sense) I can take the manual away with me and study it, which I can do more effectively on its own terms, in a comfy chair with a beer. But right now I have a problem to solve.
IE LLM then RFC takes more time then RFC then solving the issue.
Because you should have read RFC 1331.
Even then your argument assumes that optimising for total time (to include your own learning time) is the goal, and not solving the business case as a priority (your actual problem). That assumption may not be the case when you have a patch to submit. What you solve at what time point is the general case, there’s no single optimum.
Having a less skilled worker is a tradeoff for getting one very specific task accomplished sooner, that might be worth it especially if you plan to quit soon but it’s hardly guaranteed.
Whereas it's been all morning and you're still reading the RFC, and it's the wrong RFC anway.
I know who i'd hire.
This time it worked, but I’ve been forced for fire people with this kind of attitude before.
> LLMs allowing optimal time use in certain case
I never said it was slower, I’m saying what’s the tradeoff. I’ve had this same basic conversation with multiple people, and after that failed the only real option is to remove them. Ex: If you don’t quite understand why what you wrote seemingly fixes a bug don’t commit it yet, seems to work isn’t a solution.
Could be I’m not explaining very well, but ehh fuck em.
I do agree with you that an LLM should not always start from scratch.
In a way it is like an animal which we have given the ultimate human instinct.
What has nature given us? Homo Erectus is 2 million years ago.
A weird world we live in.
What is context.