Re:Position: LLMs Can't Jump
by kskdkwkdjw on Wednesday August 05, 2026 @11:46AM
(#49184528)
> The codebase is the memory.
Were that the case LLMs would’ve been phenomenal code monkeys from the get go. They were not. They still are not.
Okay then why do software engineers still exist. And if companies are making an error keeping people on instead of LLMs, why isn't there an all agent company making money off of it?
1/ LLMs are doing increasingly bigger share of work of SWE with an increasing success rate
2/ SWE are doing way more than "writing code", and since those areas are less "computational verifiable" (what is a good architecture that will stand in 5y?) and more "connected to real world" (what are the requirements?), LLMs struggle with them
My opinion of claims like "LLMs need memory to manage codebases" has also hit the dumpster bin a while ago.
Why would knowing how to make a maintainable change to a codebase require any more "memory" than knowing how to play an optimal chess move? The codebase is the memory. A sufficiently capable LLM can ingest it, figure out what changes to make, and make them.