AN LLM IS A VERY FAST APPRENTICE

The first time it wrote a hundred lines that compiled on the first try, I felt the specific vertigo of a craftsman watching an apprentice move faster than he ever did. Then I read the hundred lines, and the vertigo passed.

Fast is not the same as right

An apprentice who is fast but green needs the same thing a slow one does: review, context, and a master who knows which corners must never be cut. The speed changes the rhythm of the work, not its responsibility.

I keep two eyes open. One watches what it builds. The other watches what it assumes — because the assumptions are where the quiet bugs live, and a fast apprentice can plant a great many of them before lunch.

Hand it the soldering iron. Stay in the room.

Used this way it is the best tool I have picked up in years. Used the other way — eyes closed, trust unearned — it is a very fast way to make a mess.