We're all bad at writing software

After several discussions with fellow software developers about whether we could truly “let go” and trust LLM-generated code, and a high-profile quality facepalm case, I've been reflecting on my thoughts on the matter. More often than not, I end up advocating for giving LLMs a chance, but I wouldn't count myself as a hyped-up AI booster. At least I wouldn't want to count myself as an unrealistic Kool-Aid drinker. I don't think LLMs are so good at generating code that we can just trust them and let go. No, they're capable of producing convoluted garbage and then politely apologizing for it. No, my optimism comes from quite a different direction: I don't trust LLMs, but I don't trust humans either. People (myself included) are exceptionally bad at writing software. We're so bad we've constructed an elaborate Tower of Babel to help us with the task—and still we fail. From little things, like syntax highlighting to make the code easier to read, through linters, type checkers, correctness…

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