Understanding is the new bottleneck

26 points | by sebg an hour ago

11 comments

  • alecbz 16 minutes ago

    We have LLMs try to generate descriptions of PRs for us and they're pretty universally disliked. They're always overly-complex descriptions of the mechanical changes and have no sense of motivation.

    Also, a huge reason to understand the code yourself is to make sure the LLM isn't wrong, but this doesn't work if an LLM is itself generating the understanding.

      vjvjvjvjghv 13 minutes ago

      I don’t know. From my experience I get pretty good descriptions of PRs if I ask the right questions and provide some context.

      morkalork 5 minutes ago

      I am so very tired of 2 page long PR descriptions for a 5 line change.

  • iainctduncan 22 minutes ago

    I am so dying to read more about the new/current/real bottleneck!

    Where is the bottleneck? WHERE?? Tell me! No evidence needed, just lay it on, man to man, thought-leader to thought-leader!

      iainctduncan 18 minutes ago

      Oh wait, there it is, sitting over top of the fat part and under the cork...

  • euthymiclabs an hour ago

    "I read the code." -Mitchell Hashimoto

    Great code needs great understanding and agents need excellent guidance. Even in my current solo-dev work, I can't imagine making a production commit I haven't read until I understand it. I own the consequences of my code; that's a responsibility AI agents can't take.

  • hk__2 8 minutes ago

    For me the solution has been to throw away the code I don’t understand. I let the agent write the code, and if when I read it it seems unclear or needs a lot of explanation from the agent, I just throw it away and start over, or do it by myself.

  • fabiensanglard 20 minutes ago

    While the tips are good to handle the volume, I still think this sets code owner on a dangerous path.

    AI have limitation and hallucinate. Complex code will be explained in hallucinated way. At some point AI will be unable to write more because the arch has become too complex or the volume of code will be to high.

    The article I would like to read would suggest how to force LLM to architect the code like a solid tower instead of a pile of unstable mud.

  • jbdamask 14 minutes ago

    pfft...I'm way past understanding

      ch4s3 5 minutes ago

      Overstanding is the new horizon