Author Christopher Paolini talks about Keyboards

"The more skilled you are, the less you need advanced tools..."

I wonder how well this claim holds up under strict scrutiny. At a high level, it makes sense: someone who is a master of their craft will understand their tools and how to use them much better than a beginner starting out. However, I think this is a different claim than the one Paolini makes.

One concrete argument against this is the history of technological progress. With each improvement came a step function in the tools available to builders, creators, etc., and those able to master them achieved a new level of ability and progress not seen before.

There is evidence for this everywhere. In sports, athletes today use modern technologies and knowledge to push their bodies and abilites to new levels (low-oxygen training, equipment specialized in each sport, etc.). If you didn't upgrade your golf clubs from wood to titanium, you are going to be left far behind. In other industries, this applies: a specific example might be in welding, where using a multi-process welder will significantly improve your productivity as well as the quality of your work. [1]

In tech, this distinction is also apparent. There are the dual cases of a programmer being completely ineffective with a modern IDE versus Jeff Dean (or insert your favorite programming legend here) with Emacs (or another text editor). However, this does not mean that a great programmer does not require advanced tools. Great toolchains (compilers, linkers, interpreters, debuggers, etc.), advanced computing capabilities (GPUs for LLMs), and high-speed Internet access will dramatically change the quality of your work.

I think that Paolini is more focused on the idea that a master craftsmen, when compared with a beginner, can still handily defeat the beginner using simple tools, as they understand both the tools and what they are trying to accomplish better. I agree with this point, but think that this relative comparison is distinct from the absolute comparison of a master using simple tools vs. the same master using advanced tools.

I appreicate his larger point that you want high-quality (even if simple) tools that you understand and that will last you a lifetime. This is one of the main benefits of mastering free/open source software [2]: freedom 0 of free software is to run a program as you wish, for any purpose, which is not guaranteed when using proprietary software.

[1] https://www.constructionequipment.com/light-equipment/weldin...

[2] https://gwern.net/choosing-software