> So an LLM would potentially be good at writing a first draft of that script, which Dave could then proofread/edit

Right, and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this, nor is it a novel method. We’ve been joking about copying code from stack overflow for ages, but at least we didn’t pretend that it’s the peak of human achievement. Ask a teacher the difference between writing an essay and proofreading it.

Look, my entire claim from the beginning is that understanding is important (epistemologically, it may be what separates engineering from alchemy, but I digress). Practically speaking, if we see larger and larger pieces of LLM written code, it will be similar to Dave and his incomprehensible VBA script. It works, but nobody knows why. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t new at all. It’s an ever-present wet blanket that slowly suffocates engineering ventures who don’t pay attention and actively resist. In that context, uncritically inviting a second wave of monkeys to the nuclear control panels, that’s what baffles me.

> We’ve been joking about copying code from stack overflow for ages

Tangent for a slight pet peeve of mine:

"We" did joke about this, but probably because most of our jobs are not in chip design. "We" also know the limits of this approach.

The fact that Stack Overflow is the most SEO optimised result for "how to center div" (which we always forget how to do) doesn't have any bearing on the times when we have an actual problem requiring our attention and intellect. Say diagnosing a performance issue, negotiating requirements and how they subtly differ in an edge case from the current system behaviour, discovering a shared abstraction in 4 pieces of code that are nearly but not quite the same.

I agree with your posts here, the Stack Overflow thing in general is just a small hobby horse I have.