I don't think LLM's are making us stupider

I think it's not that developers' skills are getting rusty with LLMs. It's that we're interpreting our code less linearly, and more spatially.

Code has two aspects, tree-like and web-like:

* In its tree-like aspect, code is seen like an express train on rails: full of branching pathways. Forks on the highway and roads not taken. Extremely technical and complex. This is more of an 'algorithmic' view.

* In its web-like aspect, code is seen like a city: diverse places of interest that have grown unevenly across your project. Those spaces can be zoned in different ways: low-rise commercial, high-density industrial. This is more of an 'architectural' view.

With LLMs, I'm interpreting my code less and less like a tree... and more and more like a web. It's less about the branching logic now, and more about the places and spaces. The LLM takes care of the algorithmic details, while I can do the higher-level urban planning.