← Back to context

Comment by Deeds67

4 hours ago

Sounds like you're nitpicking on whether or not LLMs make you faster by saying that working on existing code is easier than starting from scratch? I think you've missed the point.

3 comments

Deeds67

Reply
bronson  2 hours ago

No, they're saying that it was misleading. OP said "I'm building an open source Google Photos alternative" and surprisingly didn't say "based on Immich". This dramatically changes the evaluation of "open-noodle".

We're now in an era where LoC is easy and design is hard[1]. Starting with an existing project means using an existing design, where someone else has already made many/most of the difficult decisions.

10Xing code without caring about design/UX/DX is trivial. Literally anybody with a token budget can do it. But they probably won't ship a good project. Not with current frontier models.

[1]: design has always been hard. But now it's even more difficult because of code veloocity and because LLMs are happier to work with bad code than humans. It's never been easier to go deep into rabbit holes without noticing a single issue.

  • timacles  1 hour ago

    Pretty much every example in this thread is "I forked some existing project and made changes I like".

    The main thing they dont realize is: 1. These are mostly superficial changes. 2. The only thing they 10xed is their ability to "start" on something. 3. They have not produced actual value. Their project/fork is just a version they think they prefer. But It is less maintainable, and less robust/useful for others due to its specificity.

    My observations is that consistently these arguments are made by: inexperienced devs who simply dont understand what it takes to produce value in the real world.

    LLMs CAN 10x you (in very specific areas like prototyping), IF you understand how to deliver this value, but that is the hard part. It has always been the hard part.