[analogpixel]

Some people like the making and tinkering with 3D printers, but have no actual projects they want to make with them, nor do they have the skills to use CAD to design them. On the other side are the people that have no interest in 3D printers, and just use them to implement their ideas.

I'm starting to think programming might become the same thing; people that program will be the people that just like to tinker with code and have no real ideas to implement, while the people that have ideas will use LLMs to implement the code so they can just work on their idea.

I've seen the same thing with Linux. There are people that like to tinker with Linux, playing with every setting and every window manager, but don't actually use the computer to DO anything, and then there are people that don't care what the OS is, and are just using the computer as an actual tool to get something done.

[foltik]

I disagree with this framing that people who tinker are unproductive, and that people who don’t care about their tools or OS are only focused on productivity. Perhaps you just fall in the latter camp and feel that way about tinkerers?

In reality I think depth of tinkering and productivity are two separate axes. I’ve seen plenty of examples of all combinations of each extreme.

[TacticalCoder]

> ... but don't actually use the computer to DO anything

So people installing and tinkering with Linux but somehow not being able to install a browser?

[card_zero]

I suspect there's a synergy between the two.

[heikkilevanto]

I think there must be a continuous spectrum between the extremes you describe.