Comment on Show HN: Grepathy – Claude made a decision nobody approvedparentComments−pavel_lishin1moDoes it matter if the developers understand the system they maintain?Are they maintaining it if all they do is type prompts into Claude?−NateEag1moYes, they are.They may be doing a poor job of it - time will tell.But, at present, they're still the ones merging PRs and deploying changes to production.−pavel_lishin1moIt brings to mind the Chinese Room argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_roomIf a person in a Chinese Room doesn't actually understand Chinese, though the system as a whole behaves as if it does - can we say that the engineer merging PRs and deploying to production understands the system or maintains it?
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Are they maintaining it if all they do is type prompts into Claude?
Yes, they are.
They may be doing a poor job of it - time will tell.
But, at present, they're still the ones merging PRs and deploying changes to production.
It brings to mind the Chinese Room argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room
If a person in a Chinese Room doesn't actually understand Chinese, though the system as a whole behaves as if it does - can we say that the engineer merging PRs and deploying to production understands the system or maintains it?