undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgerdesj27d ago0 comments

LLMs are an additional tool to add to your arsenal. They are not omnipotent and need care, just like any other tool.

My best effort, so far, at an analogy is a modern drill driver compared to a screw driver/brace and bit/etc:

You can get some remarkable results in a very short time compared to the "old school" gear.

You can get some "amazing" anecdotes eg "I screwed down an entire floor at 16" x 1" c/c within an hour instead of an entire day and I took loads of fag breaks" (I could have used a nail gun instead in half the time but I'll never raise that floor easily in the future, and probably done at twice the cost)

I have several on prem LLMs and access to the rest and I'm pretty sure I'll be extending my analogy to ... brand, eventually.

What I do not expect to be doing is looking for a new job. A drill driver is not a carpenter/site labourer/useful without a person!

0 pointsgerdesj27d ago0 comments

LLMs are an additional tool to add to your arsenal. They are not omnipotent and need care, just like any other tool.

My best effort, so far, at an analogy is a modern drill driver compared to a screw driver/brace and bit/etc:

You can get some remarkable results in a very short time compared to the "old school" gear.

I have several on prem LLMs and access to the rest and I'm pretty sure I'll be extending my analogy to ... brand, eventually.

What I do not expect to be doing is looking for a new job. A drill driver is not a carpenter/site labourer/useful without a person!

0 comments

6 comments · 1 top-level

maccard27d ago· 5 in thread

But a modern drill absolutely 100% removes the need for a brace and bit. An LLM doesn't replace any existing tools.

2fff27d ago

I think we will see very limited human displacement - it'll be in narrow places where it makes sense. Much of it will just be augmentation.

ryan_n27d ago

From what I've heard for many devs it replaced an IDE... I still use one myself, but I've a lot of people don't anymore.

jaggederest27d ago

Basically IDE free since May 2025. I actually reinstalled vscode when setting up a new machine and I think I've launched it twice?

cc -> local automated testing -> github -> PR -> heavy integration tests -> review (github ui, +/-) -> manual test locally -> merge -> deploy -> manual test remotely -> synthetic user testing -> repeat

2 more replies

maccard26d ago

I've heard that. I hope that the people who are IDE-free are just better AI-wranglers than I am because my experience has been that if I can get an agent to one shot something, it's fine but if I can't, the agents tend to make an absolute mess of spaghetti that doesn't actually do what it was asked to do IME.

gerdesjOP26d ago

There are times when you quite literally need to feel the thing you are drilling into and a brace and bit give you feedback that a drill driver wont.

Pretty sure I once saw a surgeon using a brace and bit for something unpleasant. I think it was brain/skull related.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse