[nbaksalyar]

I have a feeling that the same idea absolutely does apply to code. Writing code is much closer to writing prose than it may seem. And the act of writing code also makes you think as you write. Even if you're writing boilerplate. Because how else would you uncover subtle opportunities to reduce the boilerplate and introduce new, better abstractions?

[globular-toast]

That's a good point. When I first started programming web backends in PHP it quickly became apparent that what I was doing was very repetitive and formulaic. I could see that it would be possible to write some kind of framework to reduce the amount of repetition. I was nowhere near a good enough programmer to do it at the time, but I was maybe a couple of years ahead of Ruby on Rails and Django. I wasn't the only one to spot this.

What worries me is, if we had LLMs back then would we ever have bothered inventing RoR/Django? Why bother when we don't feel the pain of repetition every day? How would we ever develop instincts about the code if we can't even read it, much less write it? I feel like we are heading full steam into a depression. An era of stagnation where we forget how to do anything original. Idiocracy comes to mind. It might take a decade to correct.

[JetSetIlly]

I agree. The act of coding is when I do my thinking.