Comment by simonw
6 days ago
> The counter-argument as I see it is that going from “not using LLM tooling” to “just as competent with LLM tooling” is…maybe a day? And lessening and the tools evolve.
Very much disagree with that. Getting productive and competent with LLM tooling takes months. I've been deeply invested in this world for a couple of years now and I still feel like I'm only scraping the surface of what's possible with these tools.
Does it take months _now_ or did it take months, months/a year ago?
I’m still not entirely sure why it’s supposed to take months. I usually retry every few weeks whenever a new model comes out, and they get marginally better at something, but using them isn’t a massive shift? Maybe I’m missing something? I have some code, I pop open the pane, ask it, accept/reject the code and go on. What else is everyone even doing?
Edit: I’ve seen the prompt configs people at work have been throwing around, and I’m pretty glad I don’t bother with cursor-and-friends when I see that. Some people get LLM’s to write git commits? Lazygit has made most of my git workflow friction disappear and the 1 minute it takes me to write commits and pr’s is less effort than having to police a novel writing incorrect ones.
Plug for Simon's (very well written) longer form article about this topic: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/11/using-llms-for-code/