Elevator Pitch

• The article argues that while AI tools like LLMs can be helpful, over-reliance on them is eroding critical thinking and problem-solving skills, especially among new programmers, and poses serious long-term risks for the industry.

Key Takeaways

• Outsourcing critical thinking to AI tools leads to rapid skill degradation, particularly for beginners who need to learn foundational problem-solving.
• The proliferation of AI-generated content is contaminating code quality and research, with LLMs increasingly training on their own "slop."
• Without investment in human learning and mentorship, the tech industry could face a future devoid of skilled developers.

Most Memorable Aspects

• The vivid analogy of forgetting how to write basic tests due to habitual LLM use, highlighting how quickly skills can atrophy.
• The fear that schools and educators are pushing students to use LLMs just to keep up, rather than to learn.
• The warning that programming is both a craft and an art, requiring lateral thinking that AI cannot replicate.

Direct Quotes

• "You blink and suddenly, you have no idea how to do a simple lookup without firing up your LLM agent."
• "If you stop investing in the human first cuts, where do you think the industry will end up? Dead in a ditch."
• "It needs serious guardrails, documentation, oversight, usage data, research, and it should definitely be banned from schools."