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Comment by beemboy

9 hours ago

Yes and no. I believe the point he is making is simply that there is no substitute for fundamentals and first-principles thinking.

We had scores of students study how microprocessors work and compilers work over decades, yet we have 3 or 4 major processor companies and a handful of programming languages. Yet, what they learned was probably crucial in their development as engineers.

We are also so early right now that even 2-3 years from now who knows how many LLMs and model firms survive (esp. given the "snake eating its tail" venture/investor funding situation)

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beemboy

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ikety  8 hours ago

This is kind of different though isn't it? Doing an assembly or compiler class has pretty clear benefits in this regard.

But LLMs are tools. Does a great engineer need to know how vscode works? Might be helpful to understand how extensions work, LSPs, and project configurations.

Usually when working with any tools, you need to understand how to get the most out of your tool for your needs and that's about it. Core fundamentals about how software and hardware works in general seems like it would be MUCH more useful than LLM core knowledge.