ATFLLM

Are we all out of a job soon because of our LLM/ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini overlords?

What do I know. But I can imagine a future where we’re all just a little less annoying.

25+ years ago, I was hanging out on forums, trying to figure out how to install networking equipment on Linux. Needless to say, I ran into my fair share of RTFM (Read The F%&#ING Manual) comments.

It strikes me that so much of our communication is still basically just that:

Someone who doesn’t know how to do something asking someone else who might.

Here’s a recent example at work. I’m on one team. Another team made a change that impacted me, and suddenly I need some new environment variable pointing to… I don’t even know what?

My gut reaction was to bug the team and ask what to do. There’s no manual.

But then I remembered: ATFLLM (Ask The F%&#ING LLM).

Even though I use LLMs all day, it’s still not always muscle memory.

So before I even heard back from that busy team, I asked Claude Code:

“There’s a requirement on: ‘$VENV_QR is required’. Is there something you see I can do?”

I didn’t even phrase it well, but Claude nailed it. Spun up a new Python virtual environment, set the env var, and boom—problem solved.

We all have fears this stuff is coming for our jobs—and yeah, it kind of is.

But maybe it also just makes life less annoying. And makes us less annoying.

That other team doesn’t need me pinging them for answers if I can just ATFLLM. I don’t have to wait hours for their help if I can just ATFLLM.

Now I can unblock myself faster. And build cooler stuff, quicker.

If I just ATFLLM.