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Comment by vallavaraiyan | Hacker News Reader

What is novel code?

  1. LLM's would suck at coming up with new algorithms. 
  2. I wouldn't let an LLM decide how to structure my code. Interfaces, module boundaries etc

Other than that, given the right context (the sdk doc for a unique hardware for eg) and a well organised codebase explained using CLAUDE.Md they work pretty well in filling out implementations. Just need to resist the temptation to prompt while the actual typing would take seconds.

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Yep, LLMs are basically at the "really smart intern" level. Give them anything complex or that requires experience and they crash and burn. Give them a small, well-specified task with limited scope and they do reasonably well. And like an intern they require constant check-ins to make sure they're on track.

Of course with real interns you end up at the end with trained developers ready for more complicated tasks. This is useful because interns aren't really that productive if you consider the amount of time they take from experienced developers, so the main benefit is producing skilled employees. But LLMs will always be interns, since they don't grow with the experience.

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