Comment by indoordin0saur
9 hours ago
I did actually use an LLM to teach myself photoshop recently for a fantasy map building project. Mostly I'd just ask it things like "I have a mask with 50/50 gray and would like an elevation height map to be an embossed layer on it. Where do I find that in the menus?" those sorts of questions.
I finished the project out feeling pretty confident in my photoshop abilities. Then I did a similar project later and realized I had to open up the LLM again as there were still a ton of holes in my knowledge. After this second time though I'm feeling confident enough on my own that referring back to the LLM is increasingly less common, as it's just a waste of time if I already know what to do.
but this is not how people use - or providers sell - LLMs. They don't ask questions about how to do small steps, they just ask it to do the entire project, finish quickly and learn nothing. If the workflow was many, tight iterations it would be closer to a tool than an automation.
Clearly some people use it in this sort of “how to do this small step” way.
How dug in are you on this perception?
Says who?
Sounds like you’re attacking a strawman
It sounds like a fair criticism.
LLM is an issue (to most of us) when it replaces exploration, thinking and effort to aquire skill. Whether it's vibe-coding an app, or thinking through a math problem. Jury is out this will atually dimish the next generation of thinkers. But seems like a valid concern to me.
2. This particular case of LLM usage (to teach us photoshop) is replacing traditional tutorials. It can help people learn things. This is also valid to me.
The existence of 2, doesn't eliminate 1. Existence of 1 doesn't eliminate 2. There's no strawmans here. I also think it's fair that the promise of LLMs (and AIs), isn't to replace tutorials, but to displace and automate much more.
Look at the marketing. "Complete projects", "Build apps". "Get advice". How often are we seeing "build a functioning workflow and validation pipeline and collaborate in incremental stages" or anything boring to that effect?