You need both. If you don’t memorize the syntax how can you possibly expect to effectively express your ideas for the “broader strokes”?
I frequently manage to do this writing bash scripts.
Readit Newsruraljuror commented on Student perceptions of AI coding assistants in learning arxiv.org/abs/2507.22900... · Posted by u/victorbuilds
> if you have powder crumbs under your sink you might need to improve your technique.
With a pod there is no technique to be improved. They just work, every single time.
I have a bad habit of not fully drying my hands when retrieving pods. The pods all clump together if they get wet. This is one of the many reasons I prefer powder.
ruraljuror commented on Cognitive load is what matters github.com/zakirullin/cog... · Posted by u/nromiun
The problem is no set of rules can replace taste, judgement, experience and intuition. Every rule can be used to argue anything.
You can't win architecture arguments.
I like the article but the people who need it won't understand it and the people who don't need it already know this. As we say, it's not a technical problem, it's always a people and culture problem. Architecture just follows people and culture. If you have Rob Pike and Google you'll get Go. You can't read some book and make Go. (whether you like it or not is a different question).
Software developers don’t arrive fully formed. Rob Pike benefitted from reading a book or two.
ruraljuror commented on A teen was suicidal. ChatGPT was the friend he confided in nytimes.com/2025/08/26/te... · Posted by u/jaredwiener
An LLM does not have agency in the sense the OP means. It has nothing to do with agents.
It refers to the human ability to make independent decisions and take responsibility for their actions. An LLM has no agency in this sense.
If you confine agency to something only humans can have, which is “human agency,” then yes of course LLMs don’t have it. But there is a large body of philosophical work studying non-human agency, and it is from this characteristic of agency that LLM agents take their name. Hariri argues that LLMs are the first technology that are agents. I think saying that they “can’t do things” and are not agents misunderstands them and underestimates their potential.
ruraljuror commented on A teen was suicidal. ChatGPT was the friend he confided in nytimes.com/2025/08/26/te... · Posted by u/jaredwiener
I wonder if we can shift the framing on these issues. The LLM didn't do anything, it has no agency, it can bear no responsibility. OpenAI did these things. It is accountable for what it does, regardless of the sophistication of the tools it uses to do them, and regardless of intent. OpenAI drove a boy to suicide. More than once. The law must be interpreted this way, otherwise any action can be wrapped in machine learning to avoid accountability.
I agree with your larger point, but I don't understand what you mean the LLM doesn’t do anything? LLMs do do things and they can absolutely have agency (hence all the agents being released by AI companies).
I don’t think this agency absolves companies of any responsibility.
ruraljuror commented on Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors” twitter.com/_ZachGriff/st... · Posted by u/RebeccaTheDev
That’s how it works if I choose “pay at cashier” - if I walk up and don’t have the money the fuel is already in my car.
Where? In the U.S.? Whenever I have paid for gas with cash or from the cashier, I pay for it in advance, “Give me $10 of regular unleaded!”
ruraljuror commented on Red Hat Technical Writing Style Guide stylepedia.net/style/... · Posted by u/jumpocelot
And I'm not surprised to see "e.g." being used incorrectly. ;)
Looks right to me. Are you referring to the capitalization?
ruraljuror commented on AI can't even fix a simple bug – but sure, let's fire engineers nmn.gl/blog/ai-scam... · Posted by u/namanyayg
The other half of the title is not what I'm complaining about, and has no effect on the inaccuracy of the first half of the title, which is what I'm complaining about
The other half of the title is significant; it puts the article into the context of criticizing business leaders for how they think about AI given its current capabilities, which is what you suggested.
ruraljuror commented on AI can't even fix a simple bug – but sure, let's fire engineers nmn.gl/blog/ai-scam... · Posted by u/namanyayg
Ah, ok, you must be using agency in some new way I'm not aware of.
Can you clarify what exactly you mean then when you say that "AI" (presumably you mean LLMs) has agency, and that this sets it apart from all other technologies? If this agency as you define it makes it different from all other technologies, presumably it must mean something pretty serious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy)
This is not my idea. Yuval Noah Harari discusses it in Nexus. Gemini (partially) summarizes it like this:
Harari argues that AI is fundamentally different from previous technologies. It's not just a tool that follows instructions, but an "agent" capable of learning, making decisions, and even generating new ideas independently.
Yes, AI does seem different and pretty serious. Please keep in mind the thread I was responding to said we should think of AI as we would a hammer. We can think of AI like a tool, but limiting our conception like that basically omits what is interesting and concerning (even in the context of the original blog post).
A common conspiracy theory, but not true.
j/k Love ghostty!