Curious. Do you write deterministic code? Because I don't think I can write the same code for any non-trivial task twice. Granted, I would probably remember which algorithm or design pattern I used before, and I can try and use the same methods, but you can also prompt that information to an LLM.
Another question: Can you hire software developers who write code in a deterministic way? If you give the same task to multiple developers with the same seniority level, do you always get the same output?
> "typing until you more or less get the outcome that you want”
For the record, I don't use LLMs for anything that is beyond auto-completion, but I think you are being unfair to them. They are actually pretty good at getting atomic tasks right when prompted properly.
Yes, I write deterministic code. Given the same input, I work hard to make sure the functions I write do the same work and give the same output every time.
Now, if you’re going to hold me to some comp-sci definition of “deterministic” then I don’t know if I do or not but I can tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever come across a problem in recent times where randomness was a desirable property.
Do I write code deterministically? I don’t know. I approach problems that look alike in like ways, though. LLMs definitely give you different results for the same problem on different days, which says that LLMs are not fully aware of the context of what you’re doing, or they are ignoring that context.
Any solution which does what is needed of it is going to be fine, so long as the solution doesn’t consume too much RAM, CPU, or time to implement, which is why we see a lot of distinct bridges in the world. And I would not trust an LLM to design a safe bridge. I would like for software engineering to adopt practices of other engineering fields. I want performance and reliability of the software I use to go WAY up. As long as we are using LLMs to author things, we will never get there, because they have no idea what they are doing. LLMs are made to make you think they know what they’re doing.
Curious. Do you write deterministic code? Because I don't think I can write the same code for any non-trivial task twice. Granted, I would probably remember which algorithm or design pattern I used before, and I can try and use the same methods, but you can also prompt that information to an LLM.
Another question: Can you hire software developers who write code in a deterministic way? If you give the same task to multiple developers with the same seniority level, do you always get the same output?
> "typing until you more or less get the outcome that you want”
For the record, I don't use LLMs for anything that is beyond auto-completion, but I think you are being unfair to them. They are actually pretty good at getting atomic tasks right when prompted properly.