How many bytes is a pointer in C? How many bytes is a shared pointer in C++? What does sysctl do? What about fsync?

What is a mutex lock? How is it different from a spin lock?

You want to find the n nearest points to a given point on a 2-D Cartesian plane. Could you write the code to solve that on your own?

Can you answer any of these questions without searching for the answer?

I don't use LLMs and I learn things fine. Always have. For several decades. I care deeply about the underlying code and systems. It annoys me when people say they do and they cannot even understand how the computer works. I'm fine with people having domain-specific knowledge of programming: maybe you've only been interested in web development and scripting DOM elements. But don't pretend that your expertise in that area means you understand how to write an operating system.

Or worse: that it prevents you from learning how to write an operating system.

You can do that without an LLM. There's no royal road. You have to understand the theory, read the books, read the code, write the code, make mistakes, fix mistakes, read papers, talk to other people with more experience than you... and just write code. And rewrite it. And do it all again.

I find the opposite is true: those who use LLM coding exclusively never enjoyed programming to begin with, only learned as much as they needed to, and want the end results.