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   Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸 (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 13-Sep-2026 07:47:52 JST Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸

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   • @robpike.io

   @robpike Have you programmed with them before? Or are you concerned that once you tried them, you wouldn't be able to stop?

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     @robpike.io (robpike@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 13-Sep-2026 07:47:53 JST @robpike.io

     in reply to

     Our tech overlords believe that's OK. Maybe it is. I like calculators, I like maps. But I worry every day about what LLMs are doing to people's brains.

     It's why I won't touch the damn things. I like my ability to think.

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     @robpike.io (robpike@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 13-Sep-2026 07:47:54 JST @robpike.io

     RE: https://mastodon.social/@dabeaz/117259349418891202

     In the early 1970s, most folks could do some mental arithmetic. They had to. The arrival of pocket calculators quickly reduced most people's ability to do "math" in their heads.

     Ditto with Google Maps: people can't navigate without it. A recent study of Polish radiologists using LLMs to assist showed a measurable drop in the doctor's own ability to diagnose without them

     LLMs will have that effect on programmers' ability to code.

     More broadly: for people to be able to think for themselves.