On growing new software engineers, even when it’s inefficient In the broad software engineering space, debates about whether using LLMs in coding is a good or a bad idea are raging. On the extremes, there are some people who think that any use of LLMs in coding is indefensible, and other people are ready to throw out the whole field of software engineering as too expensive and unnecessary. I’m fascinated by this discussion, particularly from my sociologist’s perspective, because so much of the conversation seems to be about whether an LLM is useful .