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by uncircle 46 days ago
To add to the other commenters, loads of people don’t know assembly, which speaks to the quality of the average developer. The ones that still understand assembly to this day tend to be better developers, writing faster and more efficient code.
2 comments
crysin 45 days ago
I'd be very surprised if the "average" developer across the board was in fact not just a JavaScript / TypeScript only developer. I have no expectations or really even hope that the average developer I work with has ever written a line of assembly.
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DeathArrow 45 days ago
>The ones that still understand assembly to this day tend to be better developers, writing faster and more efficient code.

That is if you use something like C, C+=, Java, .NET, Go. With Javascript and Python I don't think knowing assembly would make any difference because it's hard to optimize the code in these languages for how the CPU and memory works.

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uncircle 45 days ago
Knowing assembly in this day and age is the result of being curious and wanting to understand how computers work, which means knowledge of algorithms, data structures, etc.

The same applies to vibe coding: the best "vibe coder" will paradoxically be the person with enough knowledge and curiosity to understand programming, how computer works and the subject at hand; one that could write the whole thing from scratch so they have enough judgement to review generated code.

Of course the vast majority will be mediocre vibe coders, and even worse programmers; at least that's the direction we're going.

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Chris2048 45 days ago
> wanting to understand how computers work, which means knowledge of algorithms, data structures, etc.

It's possible to know in general terms, how computers work, and what assembly is without "knowing assembly" in the sense of being familiar with using/debugging it as a programming language.

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skydhash 45 days ago
Knowing assembly doesn’t mean you would spend your time writing assembly (aka being familiar with opcodes and architecture optimizations). But in the process, you get familiar with the working of the computer hardware and the OS that sits on top of it. That is always useful knowledge especially when needing to deal with binary format and protocols or FFI.
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Chris2048 45 days ago
> But in the process..

Then it's sufficient to know assembly, but not necessary.

This is compatible with "[developers] that still understand assembly to this day tend to be better developers", but not with "[on developers who] don’t know assembly, which speaks to [their] quality".

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