[bandrami]

If you're not familiar with the problem space, by definition you don't know whether or not that's the case. The problem spaces I do know well, I know the LLM isn't good at it, so why would I assume it's better at spaces I don't know?

[satvikpendem]

I said familiar enough, not familiar. For example, let's say I'm building an app I know needs caching, the LLM is very good at telling me what types of caching to use, what libraries to use for each type, and so on, for which I can do more research if I really want to know specifically what the best library out of all the rest are, but oftentimes its top suggestion is, like I said, good enough for my purpose of e.g. caching.

[bandrami]

I still don't get what you're saying. If you possess enough information to accurately judge the LLM's suggestions you possess enough information to decide on your own. There's not really a way around that.

[satvikpendem]

Of course I'm deciding on my own, I'm not letting the LLM decide for me (although some people do). But the point is whatever the suggestion is is merely an implementation detail that either solves my problem or not, not sure what part of that is confusing. Replace LLM with glorified Google and maybe it's less confusing.

[bandrami]

No, Google (at least back when it worked) ranked results based on the feedback of other users, so it was a useful signal.

[satvikpendem]

Theoretically the LLM would weight more popular suggestions more too. Regardless you're reading too much into this, either use the LLM or don't, I'm not sure if someone else can convince you. As I said for my purposes of getting shit done it works perfectly fine and works more like a research tool than anything else, especially if it can understand my specific use case unlike general research tools like Google or Stack Overflow.

[bandrami]

IDK man this sounds a lot like my junior devs saying "it works fine for me" as they hand in PRs that break prod

[jimbokun]

Do you use search engines or do you just memorize all the world’s information?

[bandrami]

I don't use search engines for much of anything nowadays (does anybody still?) At work I read documentation if I need to learn something.

[imtringued]

This is a very strange and contradictory situation. I'm not sure there's any point in engaging with you since there is nothing but a stream of weak dismissals farming for engagement.

You dismiss LLMs because of factual inaccuracy, which is fair, but now you're doubling down on an anti search engine stance, which is weird, because the modern substitute is letting LLMs either use search engines on your behalf or learn the entire internet with some error and you've dismissed both.

Yes, I'm the "backwards" guy who still uses search engines. We still exist.

[satvikpendem]

I've noticed that HN can attract some of the most extreme people I've ever seen, and I suppose there is precedent in the tech world when I'm reminded of the story of Stallman not using a browser but instead sending webpages to his email where he then reads the content. It's literally nonsensical for 99.9999% of the population and I've read similar absurd things on HN as well.

This person not using LLMs is fine, I understand the argument like you said, but the double down on not using search engines either makes me not take anything they say seriously. Not to be too crass but it reminds me of this situation on the nature of arguing on the internet [0].

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/pxb2kn/i_got_int...