> codegen changes the cost structure of writing code, not the cost structure of knowing what to write.
Yes, and knowing what to write has always been the more important challenge, long before AI. But - one thing I’ve noticed is that in some cases, LLMs can help me try out and iterate on more concepts and design ideas than I was doing before. I can try out the thing I thought was going to work and then see the downsides I didn’t anticipate, and then fix it or tear it down and try something else. That was always possible, but when using LLMs this cycle feels much easier and like it’s happening much faster and going through more rough draft iterations than what I used to do. I’m trying more ideas than I would have otherwise, and it feels like it’s leading in many cases to a stronger foundation on which to take the draft through review to production. It’s far more reviewing and testing than before, but I guess in short, there might be an important component of the speed of writing code that feeds into figuring out what to write; yes we should absolutely focus entirely on priorities, requirements, and quality, but we also shouldn’t underestimate the impact that iteration speed can have on those goals.
Yes. I'll go down a wrong path in 20 minutes that'd have taken me half a day to go down by hand, and I keep having to remind myself that code is cheap now (and the robot doesn't get tired) so it's best to throw it away and spend 10 more minutes and get it right.