Reposting a question for Ed Zitron, I'll forward responses. He asked on Bluesky and will get sub-Mastodon-tier answers:

"This is a serious question and I would be delighted if I only hear great things but, software engineers: both before and after LLMs, how often in your professional lives have you run into software engineers that seem completely useless or lacking in basic knowledge? I hope the answer is rarely"

@ludicity For the record, I work at a software company that employs ~10k developers.

Before LLMs, I'd encounter such engineers a couple of times a month, but I interact with a lot of engineers, specifically the ones that need help or are new at the company or industry at large, so it's a selected sample. Even the most inexperienced ones are willing and able to learn with some guidance.

After LLMs, there's been a significant uptick, and these new ones are grossly incompetent, incurious, impatient, and behave like addicts if their supply of tokens is at all interrupted. If they run out of prompt credits, its an emergency because they claim they can't do any work at all. They can't even explain the architecture of what they are making anymore, and can't even file tickets or send emails without an LLM writing it for them, and they certainly lack in any kind of reading comprehension.

It's bleak and depressing, and makes me want to quit the industry altogether.

@drikanis @ludicity It's notable that, if these useless meat sacks are in the US, someone likely either borrowed $250K or spent their own money for them to cheat their way to a degree using AI. Some days, I'm comforted by the fact that I'm old.

@Patrickoldhiker @drikanis @ludicity Amen to that. The fact that I'm so close to retirement is a great source of comfort to me. Yeah, I enjoy my job, and I know I'm good at it. I do not need to use an LLM for anything.

But should I get that dreaded conversation tomorrow and a disappointing redundancy package, it would no longer be a cause for concern.

@rozeboosje @Patrickoldhiker @drikanis @ludicity I know EXACTLY what you mean, because I’m in the same situation.