My current guess is it's how the programmer solves problems in their head. This isn't something we talk about much.

People seem to find LLMs do well with well-spec'd features. But for me, creating a good spec doesn't take any less time than creating the code. The problem for me is the translation layer that turns the model in my head into something more concrete. As such, creating a spec for the LLM doesn't save me any time over writing the code myself.

So if it's a one shot with a vague spec and that works that's cool. But if it's well spec'd to the point the LLM won't fuck it up then I may as well write it myself.