I kinda like your analogy but I find it a bit misguided. I'll give another one that fits more my experience.
Consider a math/physics studying a course. Using an LLM is like having all the solutions to math/physics exercises in the course and reading them.
If the goal is to finish all the problems quickly then an LLM is great. If the goal is to properly learn math/physics, then doing the thinking yourself and use the LLM as last recourse or to double check your work is the way to go.
Back to the carpenter, I think there is a lot of value on not using power tools to learn more about making chairs and become better at it.
I am using many LLMs for coding everyday. I think they are great. I am more productive. I finish features quickly and make progress quickly and the dopamine release is fantastic. I started playing with agents and I am marvelled at what they can do. I can also tell that I am learning less and becoming a lot more complacent when working like this.
So I question myself what the goal should be (for me). Should my goal be producing more raw output or produce less output while enriching my knowledge and expertise?
Ah yes there is a distinction for students or someone learning principles.
If the goal is learning programming then some of that should be done with LLMs and some without. I think we are still figuring out how to use LLMs to optimize rate of learning, but my guess is the way they should be used is very different than how an expert should use them to be productive.
Again it comes back to the want though (learning vs doing vs getting done), so I think my main point stands.
Consider a math/physics studying a course. Using an LLM is like having all the solutions to math/physics exercises in the course and reading them. If the goal is to finish all the problems quickly then an LLM is great. If the goal is to properly learn math/physics, then doing the thinking yourself and use the LLM as last recourse or to double check your work is the way to go.
Back to the carpenter, I think there is a lot of value on not using power tools to learn more about making chairs and become better at it.
I am using many LLMs for coding everyday. I think they are great. I am more productive. I finish features quickly and make progress quickly and the dopamine release is fantastic. I started playing with agents and I am marvelled at what they can do. I can also tell that I am learning less and becoming a lot more complacent when working like this.
So I question myself what the goal should be (for me). Should my goal be producing more raw output or produce less output while enriching my knowledge and expertise?