Math is a language to explain systems. Teaching someone that force varies linearly to mass is a helpful first pass. It isn’t exactly linear but is not exponential at all.

Gaining expertise is always the hard part and our new LLM overlords are making that much harder. So the simple “pure” functions as a teaching aid have never been more important.

End users have never cared about how the sausage is made though.

> LLM overlords are making that much harder.

LLMs can explain complex things to humans with tons of specific context that you don’t find in textbooks or even a google search.

It’s probably never been easier to grasp a large codebase than it is today for example. You can probe and ask specific questions without going through a maze of imports and relationships and config files yourself.

Learning things will always be up to the person, it’s still a choice and dedication to a craft can still be taught.

> LLMs can explain complex things to humans

I keep meeting people who think this and have enormous understanding gaps in the topics they've had an LLM teach them.

The absolute worst judge of how well someone understands a complex topic is the novice themselves.

The difference now is that the learning is optional (more often but not always) to getting the task done.

When gaining mastery is not a requirement to doing novice-level work, many fewer people will get there. It takes more dedication than it did before.