Ive been relearning a ton that either over-reliance on llms caused me to forget, or just lost due to time.
Its been extremely fun. I really missed the feeling of thinking really hard and arriving at a solution.
I hope we dont lose this desire as a species.
I really think the rise of LLMs has demonstrated quite well that most people don't care. Only a minority of us have ever had this desire.
I think people care about the problems they have to handle. Not having to deal with a problem eliminates the incentive of training to fix the problem, because you don't waste time on problems that don't happen.
People also stopped caring about what machine code was generated by compilers. In the past people had to roll out asm to get things to work. Not anymore. With llms it's the same way.
When it is bad they either rewrite their source code or write assembly.
A tool do a job good enough that people don't have to do the job by hand does not mean people stop caring about the quality of the job.
Even if that child doesn’t have as much raw talent, the desire itself (paired with extra years of experience —- especially when the brain is at its most malleable) will drive success in a way the pursuit of money alone never can.
Nothing new under the sun.
LLMs aren't comparable to anything thats come before, in my opinion. We had much more time to adapt and integrate with original forms of computing, as well as many other technologies from centuries past.
Sure you can use llms responsible and perhaps in a rewarding way (that isnt just related to making money), but very very few people are making that effort or even know how to.
Its more likely people use them irresponsibly like we do cars. Walk half a mile... nah I'll drive. Now we have endemic diabetes.
Machines have removed our need to work, this stunts our body, and the solution is synthetic work (gym).
AI removes our need to work with our minds (at least partly), this stunts our mind, and the solution is synthetic mind-work.
Sure it will take some time to get used to. But we will get used to it.
It's trending down because researchers found a magic pill (well, peptide) that was clinically proven enough to become over-the counter. This trending down started in 2023. 40 years of policy barely did anything (partially because it never fixed the systems, but I digress).
So are we just going to pray in 40 years someone finds a solution to brainrot?
You and the author care about software craftsmanship, which is wonderful. But might need to remain a hobby...