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I would remember the reply from the LLM, and cross references back to the particular parts of the RFC it identified as worth focusing time on.

I’d argue that’s a more effective capture as to what I would remember anyway.

If wanted to learn more (in a general sense) I can take the manual away with me and study it, which I can do more effectively on its own terms, in a comfy chair with a beer. But right now I have a problem to solve.



Reading it at some later date means you also spent time with the LLM without having read the RFC. So reading it in the future means it’s going to be useful fewer times and thus less efficient overall.

IE LLM then RFC takes more time then RFC then solving the issue.


Only if you assume a priori that you are going to read it anyway, which misses the whole point.

Because you should have read RFC 1331.

Even then your argument assumes that optimising for total time (to include your own learning time) is the goal, and not solving the business case as a priority (your actual problem). That assumption may not be the case when you have a patch to submit. What you solve at what time point is the general case, there’s no single optimum.


You’re assuming your individual tasks perfectly align with what’s best for the organizations which is rarely the case.

Having a less skilled worker is a tradeoff for getting one very specific task accomplished sooner, that might be worth it especially if you plan to quit soon but it’s hardly guaranteed.


No, just basic judgement and prioritisation, which are valuable skills for an employee to have. The OP was effective at finding the right information they needed to solve the problem at hand: In about an hour, the OP knew enough about PPP to fix the bug and submit a patch.

Whereas it's been all morning and you're still reading the RFC, and it's the wrong RFC anway.

I know who i'd hire.


And now it’s obvious why you’re working for someone else.

This time it worked, but I’ve been forced for fire people with this kind of attitude before.


You produced a passive-aggressive taunt instead of addressing the argument. For clarity: nobody was asking about your business decisions, nobody is intimidated by your story. what your personal opinions about "attitude" are is irrelevant to what's being discussed (LLMs allowing optimal time use in certain cases). Also, unless your boss made the firing decision, you weren't forced to do anything.


You’re still not getting it, not having a boss means I have a very different view of businesses decisions. Most people have an overly narrow view of tasks IMO and think speed, especially for minor issues, is vastly more important than it is.

> LLMs allowing optimal time use in certain case

I never said it was slower, I’m saying what’s the tradeoff. I’ve had this same basic conversation with multiple people, and after that failed the only real option is to remove them. Ex: If you don’t quite understand why what you wrote seemingly fixes a bug don’t commit it yet, seems to work isn’t a solution.

Could be I’m not explaining very well, but ehh fuck em.




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