Indeed: The act of actually typing the code into an editor was never the hard or valuable part of software engineering. The value comes from being able to design applications that work well, with reasonable performance and security properties.

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simonw 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It wasn't the hard or valuable part of software engineering, but it was a very time-consuming part. That's what's interesting about this new era - the time-consuming-but-easy bit has suddenly stopped being time-consuming.

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rhubarbtree 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Agreed, often see cope from managers along the line of “writing the code was never the bottleneck”. Well, sure felt like it.

	▲	LtWorf 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		For most people who can type with more than 2 fingers, thinking what to type is slower than typing it.

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ok123456 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Then why did most software fail to do that even before the advent of LLMs?

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sethops1 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Because designing systems that work well is difficult. It takes years of experience to develop the muscle memory behind quality systems architecture. Writing the code is an implementation detail (albeit a large one).

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fxtentacle 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Are we sure it's not failing anymore after the advent of LLMs?

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stackghost 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Because coding bootcamps and CS programs were churning out squillions of people who could type the code but had poor design and analytical skills, because there was a time where being able to implement Dijkstra on a whiteboard would get you 400k at a FAANG.

	▲	LtWorf 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		And you think these people will now produce better results with the assistance of an LLM that was trained on their work?