Comment by thom

That’s interesting. I got into computing because unlike school where wrong answers gave you indelible red ink and teachers had only finite time for questions, computers were infinitely patient and forgiving. I could experiment, be wrong, and fix things. Yes I appreciated that I could calculate precise answers but it was much more about the process of getting to those answers in an environment that encouraged experimentation. Years later I get huge value from LLMs, where I can ask exceedingly dumb questions to an indefatigable if slightly scatterbrained teacher. If I were smart enough, like Dijkstra, to be right first time about everything, I’d probably find them less useful, but sadly I need cajoling along the way.