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silisili | on: How I write software with LLMs
I'm not sure the notion I keep seeing of "it's ok, we still architect, it just writes the code"(paraphrased) sits well with me.

I've not tested it with architecting a full system, but assuming it isn't good at it today... it's only a matter of time. Then what is our use?

PAndreew | parent | next
Others have already partially answered this, but here’s my 20 cents. Software development really is similar to architecture. The end result is an infrastructure of unique modules with different type of connectors (roads, grid, or APIs). Until now in SW dev the grunt work was done mostly by the same people who did the planning, decided on the type of connectors, etc. Real estate architects also use a bunch of software tools to aid them, but there must be a human being in the end of the chain who understands human needs, understands - after years of studying and practicing - how the whole building and the infrastructure will behave at large and who is ultimately responsible for the end result (and hopefully rewarded depending on the complexity and quality of the end result). So yes we will not need as many SW engineers, but those who remain will work on complex rewarding problems and will push the frontier further.
rurban | root | parent | next
Since I worked as an architect some comments.

Architecture is fine for big, complex projects. Having everything planned out before keeps cost down, and ensures customer will not come with late changes. But if cost are expected to be low, and there's no customer, architecture is overkill. It's like making a movie without following the script line by line (watch Godard in Novelle Vague), or building it by yourself or by a non-architect. 2x faster, 10x cheaper. You immediately see an inflexible overarchitectured project.

You can do fine by restricting the agent with proper docs, proper tests and linters.

dgb23 | root | parent
The "grunt work" is in many cases just that. As long as it's readable and works it's fine.

But there are a substantial amount cases where this isn't true. The nitty gritty is then the important part and it's impossible to make the whole thing work well without being intimate with the code.

So I never fully bought into the clean separation of development, engineering and architecture.

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chii | parent | next
> Then what is our use?

You will have to find new economic utility. That's the reality of technological progress - it's just that the tech and white collar industries didn't think it can come for them!

A skill that becomes obsoleted is useless, obviously. There's still room for artisanal/handcrafted wares today, amidst the industrial scale productions, so i would assume similar levels for coding.

hrmtst93837 | root | parent
Assuming the 'artisanal' niche will support anything close to the same number of devs is wishful thinking. If you want to stay in this field, you either get good at moving up a level, stitching model output together, checking it against the repo and the DB, and debugging the weird garbage LLMs make up, or you get comfortable charging premium for the software equivalent of hand-thrown pottery that only a handfull of collectors buy.
borski | parent
LLMs can build anything. The real question is what is worth building, and how it’s delivered. That is what is still human. LLMs, by nature of not being human, cannot understand humans as well as other humans can. (See every attempt at using an LLM as a therapist)

In short: LLMs will eventually be able to architect software. But it’s still just a tool

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silisili | root | parent | next
What is the use of software eng/architect at that point? It's a tool, but one that product or C levels can use directly as I see it?
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roncesvalles | root | parent
FWIW I find LLMs to be excellent therapists.

The commercial solutions probably don't work because they don't use the best SOTA models and/or sully the context with all kinds of guardrails and role-playing nonsense, but if you just open a new chat window in your LLM of choice (set to the highest thinking paid-tier model), it gives you truly excellent therapist advice.

In fact in many ways the LLM therapist is actually better than the human, because e.g. you can dump a huge, detailed rant in the chat and it will actually listen to (read) every word you said.

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