I think this is more true now than ever. Before LLMs, when someone came up with an ADR/RFC/etc you had to read it because you had to approve it or reject it. People were putting effort and, yeah, you could use them in your next perf. review to gain extra points. You could easily distinguish well written docs from the crap (that also made the job of reviewing them easie)
Nowadays everyone can generate a 20-page RFC/ADR and even though you can tell if they are LLM generated, you cannot easily reject them based on that factor only. So here we are spending hours reading something the author spent 5 min. to generate (and barely knows what’s about).
Despite using an ai while programming I still have open Java doc and other api documents and find them very useful as the ai often gives code based on old apis instead of what I'm actually using. So I do read those documents.
But also, I have a somewhat mentally ill (as in he takes medication for it) coworker that sends rambling extra-long emails, often all one paragraph. If I can't figure out what he's asking by reading the first couple and last couple of sentences I ask him to summarize it with bullet pouts and it actually works. Lol.
This principle applies to the following:
- User documentation
- Specifications
- Code comments
- Any text on a user interface
- Any email longer than one line
The Laravel documentation is GREAT when you're getting started. Every chapter starts by answering the very question you might ask yourself if you're going through it top to bottom.
I'm a one-man-band so if I write code comments, I write them for future me because up to this point he has been very grateful. Creating API documentation is also easy if you can generate it based on the comments in your code.
Maybe rename it the Filler principle. Nobody reads mindless comments that are 'filler'.
I think this is more true now than ever. Before LLMs, when someone came up with an ADR/RFC/etc you had to read it because you had to approve it or reject it. People were putting effort and, yeah, you could use them in your next perf. review to gain extra points. You could easily distinguish well written docs from the crap (that also made the job of reviewing them easie)
Nowadays everyone can generate a 20-page RFC/ADR and even though you can tell if they are LLM generated, you cannot easily reject them based on that factor only. So here we are spending hours reading something the author spent 5 min. to generate (and barely knows what’s about).
Same goes for documentation, PRs, PRs comments…
I wish this was the case. Then we wouldn't have a minority of us deeply frustrated :)
'Thanks for the doc, let's set a meeting' (implied: so you can read the doc aloud to us ) is the bane of my existence.
Despite using an ai while programming I still have open Java doc and other api documents and find them very useful as the ai often gives code based on old apis instead of what I'm actually using. So I do read those documents.
But also, I have a somewhat mentally ill (as in he takes medication for it) coworker that sends rambling extra-long emails, often all one paragraph. If I can't figure out what he's asking by reading the first couple and last couple of sentences I ask him to summarize it with bullet pouts and it actually works. Lol.
It's one of the main things I learned when working as tech support and I talked with users all day. Nobody reads anything.
I read this entire post and all the comments this disproving the Miller principle
Damn, I guess I didn't read it closely enough
Should probably be "The Miller Principle (2007)"
Yeah, i'm also surprised people just read post title and jump to conclusions ...
The LLMs read everything.
It doesn't mean they're paying attention.
Only because they are architecturally unable to not read something.
until one day
The agents will read them
I have found much value in reading the python and sqlite documentation. The Arch wiki is another reliable source.
Good documentation is hard.
I don't know. Under pressure and stress all docs are ugly.
I would love to answer your comment but I didn't read it :P
The Laravel documentation is GREAT when you're getting started. Every chapter starts by answering the very question you might ask yourself if you're going through it top to bottom.
I'm a one-man-band so if I write code comments, I write them for future me because up to this point he has been very grateful. Creating API documentation is also easy if you can generate it based on the comments in your code.
Maybe rename it the Filler principle. Nobody reads mindless comments that are 'filler'.
..and emails
> Any email longer than one line
it's in there