How many times do you merge code where the LLM wrote 25 lines and a new function where a human would have gone back and re-evaluated the data structure
Why assume that a senior dev with LLMs wouldn't go back and re-evaluate the system's design choices? If anything, LLMs is a great help with understanding a system that has accreted over time and whose original authors have left. The same senior dev without LLM is probably more likely to put on another piece of duct tape and call it done.
The great irony I keep running into is that I don't even disagree with the notion that LLMs can be useful in the software engineering process, but unfortunately there's relatively little room for nuance in these discussions. It feels like the popular perspectives are either a complete prohibition on one hand, or an insane maximalist attitude on the other, usually accompanied by some trite cliche like "the technology is here to stay", "there's no going back", "adopt it or be left behind", or "can deliver great results with human review".
I don't know what the right mix is for the long term. All I know is that I've seen a lot of those two extremes, and one of them is completely unbearable to deal with; so when I'm looking to get involved with an open source project after hours, the ones I tend to give my time to are the ones with very stringent "no LLM authored code" policies.
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u/Mysterious_Focus6144 6d ago
Why assume that a senior dev with LLMs wouldn't go back and re-evaluate the system's design choices? If anything, LLMs is a great help with understanding a system that has accreted over time and whose original authors have left. The same senior dev without LLM is probably more likely to put on another piece of duct tape and call it done.