I use large language models. I also have strong opinions about how they should be used, and a list of things I will not hand to them. This page is where I intend to be honest with anyone who visits about where I draw my lines.
The short version is that I am not interested in exchanging my humanity for expediency. When the essence of what I create becomes detached from who I am, it is not mine.
That said, there are things I use LLMs to build that would not exist otherwise. I don’t have time to learn Lua to configure Neovim for my specific use cases. If I need it, as is often the case for my job, I will use it. There are two types of security practitioners: those who use LLMs, and liars.
Lastly, you cannot (and maybe should not?) believe me just because I wrote these boundaries publicly. There are still two screens and miles of cabling between us. If you meet me and the integrity of our conversation doesn’t match the impression you got from my writing, take that however you will.
Verify what I say and do in person. I recommend this for anyone else, too. Otherwise, assume LLMs are involved in what you ingest digitally to some capacity and decide how much is too much for you.
What I Do Use It For
Unless I specifically state otherwise, this is the authoritative list.
Editing
Catching dumb mistakes, clarifying prose I’ve already written, and helping me with structure. The words and ideas are mine.
Research scaffolding
Surfacing leads, summarizing dense material, and pointing me at primary sources I then go read myself.
Code
Boilerplate, dev environment setup, and the unglamorous plumbing around projects like this site.
Rubber ducking
Talking through a problem out loud when no humans are around to listen to me ramble.
Niche tooling
Small tools I’d never have built otherwise, like taskdown.nvim (opens in new tab). Models built it, but it was specced and designed by me.
What I Don’t Use It For
Writing
Writing is one of the ways I think. If a model writes the post, not only have I lost ownership of the ideas, but I haven’t done the kind of mental weightlifting that got me to this point.
Final judgment
Conclusions, recommendations, and anything I put my name behind are mine to defend.
Anything I can’t verify
If I can’t check and verify it myself, I don’t trust it.