Simon WillisonSep 30, 2023

@doug We talk about that a fair bit in the podcast episode

I think the key to this is that it's actually quite difficult to use this stuff effectively - because it lays SO MANY traps for you, there are so many examples of things that it will get blatantly wrong, often in very convincing ways

Once you learn how to side-step those traps it becomes amazingly productive - but that takes quite a lot of effort

Show threadS. LottSep 30, 2023
@simon @doug having to learn how to sidestep problems doesn’t sound like much of an endorsement. Indeed it sounds very much like it adds new problems. It seems remarkably unhelpful to add problems that require deep expertise to sidestep.
Show threadSimon WillisonSep 30, 2023

@slott56 @doug Right: if someone tells you "LLMs are easy! They'll give you a huge productivity boost right out of the gate" then that person is misleading you

My message is "LLMs are surprisingly difficult to use. I have managed to get enormous productivity boosts after investing a lot of effort in learning how to use them effectively."

Show threadS. LottSep 30, 2023

@simon @doug the large investment path isn’t as terrifying as having to sidestep problems. I want to focus on the fact that it introduces problems that require deep expertise to side-step. That’s daunting.

Folks get incredible productivity gains from the pomodoro method and don’t have to stidestep subtle, difficult-to-even-identify problems.

Show threadSimon WillisonSep 30, 2023
@slott56 @doug I'm increasingly seeing evidence that convinces me that it helps, rather than hurts, new programmers - some notes on that here: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Sep/29/llms-podcast/#does-it-help-or-hurt-new-programmers
Talking Large Language Models with Rooftop Ruby

I’m on the latest episode of the Rooftop Ruby podcast with Collin Donnell and Joel Drapper, talking all things LLM. Here’s a full transcript of the episode, which I generated …

Show threadS. Lott

@simon @doug the presence of ethical rules is troubling, also.

There are now two layers of ethical considerations: (1) should this even be done with computers? And now, this new, murky realm of (2) is the code or documentation produced by an ethical and trustworthy tool.

It’s introduced yet another problem.

Sep 30, 2023 at 7:25pmWeb