You seem to be hung up on the part about "learning". Do you know how x86 registers work? Or atomic instructions available on ARM, SPARC, or POWER architectures?

No, of course not. Because all of that got abstracted to higher-level instructions decades ago.

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hvs 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, I do. And it wouldn't take you that long to learn, either.

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petcat 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well that's great for you. That's some knowledge that you will possess for the rest of your life.

I want a green lawn and big bushy shrubs in front of my house. Do I need to know the intricate biology of my soil and habitat? No, of course not. I just do the surface-level things that make the lawn and shrubs thrive.

	▲	Johnny555 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>No, of course not. I just do the surface-level things that make the lawn and shrubs thrive. And others want the green lawn and big bushy shrubs, but don't want to learn all of the surface level things to make their lawn thrive so they hire a service to do it for them. And there's nothing wrong with that - not everyone enjoys the yard work, but they still want the thriving lawn and shrubs... and they are happy to write a check to OpenAI... err...Lawn Doctor every month to get that result since the time they save by not dealing with their lawn, they can pursue things they do want to do. Not everyone wants to (or needs to) learn every detail along the way of getting the results they want.

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NegativeLatency 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I understand your point, but also imagine applying that across the whole spectrum of computing.

It's very useful that there's an intermediary that knows how that stuff works so I can build things without thinking about it in excruciating detail the whole time, I can dip down lower and learn stuff when it's relevant (like cache access and nested arrays) but I can also not do that in many situations.

There's also the argument that you can do engineering without understanding the underlying science as seen in th pyramids, the beautiful old european churches, etc

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nonethewiser 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Who is more productive? A python dev who learns about x86 registers in his free time or one that uses AI at work?

	▲	JSR_FDED 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The one who uses AI at work will eventually be replaced by someone cheaper who uses AI at work. The one who learns about x86 registers is much more likely to continue to evolve

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vouaobrasil 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But maybe there's a limit to the usefulness of this abstraction. Perhaps forgetting too many basic skills lower down isn't always as useful as going from Assembly to C. I'd argue that there's a law of diminishing returns there, and it's not an endless series of benefits.