Comment by ChicagoDave
7 hours ago
Here’s how I see it. Writing code or building software well requires knowledge of logic, data structures, reliable messaging, and separation of concerns.
You can learn a foreign language just fine, but if you mangle the pronunciation, no one will talk to you. Same thing with hacking at software without understanding the above elements. Your software will be mangled and no one will use it.
> Your software will be mangled
the quality of how maintainable the source code is has no bearing on how a user perceives the software's usefulness.
If the software serves a good function for the user, they will use it, regardless of how badly the datastructures are. Of course, good function also means reliability from the POV of the user. If your software is so bad that you lose data, obviously no one will use it.
But you are conflating the maintainability and sensibilities of clean tools, clean code and clean workspaces, with output.
A messy carpentry workshop can still produce great furniture.
This is bean counter mentality. Personally just don’t believe this is how it works.
The intention/perspective of development is something on its own and doesn’t correspond to the end result directly.
This is such a complex issue that everything comes down to what someone believes
Software doesn't have to be good academically speaking. It just needs to furnish a useful function to be economically viable.
LLM's may not generate the best code but they need only to generate useful code to warrant their use.