This is why I think LLMs will make us all a LOT smarter. Raw code made it so we stopped heavily thinking in between but now it's just 100% the most intense thought processes all day long.
It seems pretty obvious that the opposite is true. I know I’ve experienced some serious skill atrophy that I’m now having to actively resist. There’s a lot lost by no longer having to interact with the raw materials of your craft.
Thinking is a skill that is reinforced by reading, designing and writing code. When you outsource your thinking to an LLM your ability to think doesn’t magically improve…it degrades.
Sure my raw coding ability is degraded but my architecting, debugging, and planning have all skyrocketed.
Those always required significantly more though just like before and that's all I do now.
I mean old staff engineers and managers are often not coding at all but they are significantly better designers than a freshgrad that leetcode grinded for 4 years. Isn't that the same argument?
Thinking is a skill that is reinforced by reading, designing and writing code. When you outsource your thinking to an LLM your ability to think doesn’t magically improve…it degrades.