Code is Cheap(er)

Carson Gross:

the LLM can produce code far faster than you, or anyone else, can understand it.

Code is cheap. Understanding code is rare, and thus expensive.

You’ve heard of the “10× engineer” who can produce a mythical amount of code? Well now we’re all 10× engineers who can debase a codebase that took years to build in mere moments.

I have seen prolific coders who lack a proper fear of complexity heap more and more code on top of an existing problem until the whole system collapses into an unmodifiable steady state, where any change creates as many bugs as it fixes.

LLMs are incapable of fear of complexity, and are prolific coders.

Embrace your humanity and show some fear! Fear the complexity.

Carson’s proposal?

To address this danger of LLM-generated code, I propose the subtractive, constraining engineer:

This engineer says no, closely examines LLM output, suggests simplifications and generally retains a firm hand when dealing with LLM-generated code.

Be willing to say no in the face of abundance.

Be afraid to say yes and proud to say no.

more sculptor and less builder

Be as proud of what you didn’t do to the codebase, as what you did do to it.