Mar 28, 2026

Quoting you have to know what to wish for by Chris Dickinson.

The programmer has a theory of the system, developed in concert with that system. That theory is a mental model, a map of the system, problem space, and how it might react to changes in the future.

This is how I’ve been thinking about the value I bring to the company for a long time. Mental model of the problem space, simplified model for the software solving the problem, and the ability to translate between them. Many times I saw how the engineering team has the best understanding of business at the technical level. And how adding new requirements for an existing product requires rethinking the model.

On a surface level you can’t tell much difference between a commit of a senior and a new team member. That’s what makes people think that LLMs are a threat to the craft of programming. But there’s no substitute to the deep understanding of a system that people posses. LLMs has to rebuild the context in every session, it’s different every time and never complete.