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0 pointsxantronix9d ago0 comments

Before the advent of widespread LLM usage, and more particularly, before LLM-using coworkers began submitting large PRs against codebases I am the primary maintainer of, my velocity had never been greater.

I do not like the current culture around LLMs. I do not use LLMs, I shall continue to resist any peer pressure to use them, much as I have resisted IDEs in favour of CLI tooling, vim, tmux and the like. I feel my output is incredibly devalued compared to the before times.

On the one hand, my passion for personal projects has never been greater. It helps me feel as though I am bettering myself, pushing the boundaries of my capabilities without resorting to LLM usage. However, I no longer release my code openly.

On the other hand, on top of building resentment towards being treated even more interchangeably than before, I resent the asymmetry of my LLM-using peers submitting large pull requests I am obliged to review, on codebases I have never touched before, applications I have never had the occasion to use; my team is managed in such a way that everybody is more or less working on independent projects, due to pressures to deliver at a much faster pace.

I really wish the fervour would die down for the sake of my own sanity.

0 comments

slazien9d ago

This feels like a pretty negative take on what seems like impactful technology that is not going away, and will (and already has had) big impacts on how people work and build. Do you completely reject the idea of using them, ever? Do they have absolutely 0 utility for you?

xantronixOP9d ago

It's a multifaceted principled stand I take for reasons I do not wish to get into on HN. There are more than enough people I can associate with who feel similarly to me outside of work and HN that I will not feel particularly compelled to use LLMs anytime soon. I cannot say this will remain the case forever, however, I just don't experience FOMO about these things.

As it stands today, I accomplish tasks at the speed of understanding, and that's with my "ancient" tooling.

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