Comment by _heimdall
6 days ago
Wouldn't that then make those people developers? The total pool of developers would grow, the percentage couldn't go above 100%.
6 days ago
Wouldn't that then make those people developers? The total pool of developers would grow, the percentage couldn't go above 100%.
I mean, I spent years learning to code in school and at home, but never managed to get a job doing it, so I just do what I can in my spare time, and LLMs help me feel like I haven't completely fallen off. I can still hack together cool stuff and keep learning.
I actually meant it as a good thing! Our industry plays very loose with terms like "developer" and "engineer". We never really defined them well and its always felt more like gate keeping.
IMO if someone uses what tools they have, whether thats an LLM or vim, and is able to ship software they're a developer in my book.
Probably. There is a similar question: if you ask ChatGPT / Midjourney to generate a drawing, are you an artist ? (to me yes, which would mean that AI "vibe coders" are actual developers in their own way)
If my 5 yo daughter draws a square with a triangle on top is she an architect?
Yes, most architects can't really do the structure calculations themselves.
That's quite a straw man example though.
If your daughter could draw a house with enough detail that someone could take it and actually build it then you'd be more along the lines of the GP's LLM artist question.
2 replies →
nope. if i ask an llm to give me a detailed schematic to build a bridge, im not magically * poof * a structural engineer.
5 replies →
If I tell a human artist to draw me something, am I an artist?
No.
Neither are people who ask AI to draw them something.
That probably depends on whether you consider LLMs, or human artists, as tools.
If someone uses an LLM to make code, is consider the LLM to be a tool that will only be as good as the person prompting it. The person, then, is the developer while the LLM is a tool they're using.
I don't consider auto complete, IDEs, or LSPs to take away from my being a developer.
This distinction likely goes out the window entirely if you consider an LLM to actually be intelligent, sentient, or conscious though.