Engineering is a Discipline, Not Just a Prompt
The Digital Archaeological Dig I recently assisted a friend with a codebase that felt like a digital archaeological dig—a chaotic mixture of Python versions and conflicting modules. The modern instinct was to upload the lot to an LLM to “fix” everything. The result was absolute carnage. No version control or history meant “editing on master” in real-time. More time spent reversing AI “improvements” than fixing the original bug. A stark reminder: tools are getting smarter, but engineering discipline is becoming a rare commodity. The Return of the Artisanal Mess This mirrors the “artisanal” FrontPage websites of the late 90s. A lower barrier to entry does not guarantee higher quality output. ...