The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing

Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by Wowfunhappy on Sunday April 05, 2026 @11:13AM (#47650263)

> People would have said the same about graphing calculators or calculators before that.

As it happens, we generally don't let people use calculators while learning arithmetic. We make children spend years using pencil and paper to do what a calculator could in seconds.

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Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by yoyohello13 on Sunday April 05, 2026 @11:55AM (#47650700)

This is why I don’t understand the calculator analogy. Letting beginners use LLMs is like if we gave kids calculators in 1st grade and told Timmy he never needs to learn 2 + 2. That’s not how education works today.

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Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by Wowfunhappy on Sunday April 05, 2026 @11:58AM (#47650728)

I think this is exactly why calculators are a great analogy, and a hint toward how we should probably treat LLMs.

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Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by bigstrat2003 on Sunday April 05, 2026 @02:58PM (#47652682)

Unfortunately there are many posters here who believe we should, in fact, let children use calculators and not bother with learning arithmetic. It's foolishness, but that argument does get made. So I wouldn't be surprised if people also think we should let students use LLMs.

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