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Recently saw using LLMs for development compared to eating meat and, in an attempt to shutdown discussion, shaming LLM use being likened to a vegetarian shaming meat eaters. I have a better analogy: using #LLM #AI agents for software dev is like smoking in public. 1/🧵

If you smoke in your own home (use AI on a personal project), I don't much care. Though if you tell me about it I will judge you quietly. If you smoke in a public place (use AI at work or on open source), you are harming others (creating review burden with low effort code, suppressing wages). 2/🧵

Your smoking is bad for you, with many of the impacts being long term. The initial hit of stimulant doesn't make that untrue. (Your initial productivity gains will cede as you become a worse developer and market wages are suppressed you'll be paid less for it) 3/🧵

Your smoking habit is most harmful to the most junior of those around you (labor being displaced is primarily junior and junior devs are using AI instead of learning). Similarly, we should discourage those folks from picking up your bad habits. 4/🧵