The ‘Hidden’ Costs of Great Abstractions

伟大抽象背后的“隐形成本”

In the world of computing, we tend to abstract away complexity. Doing so seems liberating. It enables us to focus on the bigger picture. Unfortunately, in doing so, the fidelity of our understanding often decreases. We sometimes end up blinding ourselves. 在计算机领域，我们倾向于将复杂性抽象化。这样做似乎是一种解脱，它使我们能够专注于宏观层面。遗憾的是，这样做往往会降低我们对事物理解的精确度，有时甚至会让我们蒙蔽自己的双眼。

Historically, running computer programs was expensive and time consuming. Errors were far more costly than they are today. Knowing the intricacies of how the machine operated was essential. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to get it to do much at all. 从历史上看，运行计算机程序既昂贵又耗时。当时的错误代价远比今天高昂。了解机器运行的复杂细节至关重要，否则你几乎无法让它完成任何任务。

Then the barrier of entry lowered. Memory and computation power grew. People ceased thinking about how to save a few bytes or CPU cycles. Many developers simply couldn’t. They imported libraries maintained by others, unsure of their quality and not fully understanding when or where to use the functions provided. This became the new normal. 后来，准入门槛降低了，内存和计算能力也随之增长。人们不再考虑如何节省几个字节或 CPU 周期。许多开发者根本做不到这一点。他们导入他人维护的库，却不确定其质量，也不完全理解何时或何地该使用这些函数。这成了新的常态。

As the required prerequisite knowledge decreased and developer velocity increased. The quantity of software grew, but much of it slow and buggy, more so than before. 随着所需的前置知识减少，开发速度加快，软件的数量激增，但其中许多软件运行缓慢且漏洞百出，比以往任何时候都严重。

Now, with the advent of LLMs, almost anyone can craft a prompt that produces something functional. It may even be pretty. It is unlikely that it will be good. Discerning good from bad requires expertise. The inexperienced prospector often mistakes pyrite for gold. 如今，随着大语言模型（LLM）的出现，几乎任何人都可以编写提示词来生成功能性的东西。它甚至可能看起来很漂亮，但它很难称得上是“优秀”的。区分好坏需要专业知识。缺乏经验的探矿者往往会把黄铁矿误认为是黄金。

You can purchase something that looks and feels like steel from Alibaba. It may seem like an excellent deal, but I would not advise you to build a skyscraper with it. The reality is that which isn’t “good” is sometimes sufficient. Wonder Bread isn’t artisan sourdough. It’s cheaper and it’s filling. It may not be as healthy, but it’s all some know. 你可以从阿里巴巴上买到看起来和摸起来都像钢材的东西。这看起来可能是一笔划算的交易，但我绝不建议你用它来建造摩天大楼。现实情况是，那些不够“好”的东西有时也足够用了。Wonder Bread（工业化面包）不是手工酸种面包，但它更便宜且能填饱肚子。它可能没那么健康，但这却是某些人所知的全部。

Why bother typing all of this? Why take on the role of Captain Obvious? My “copium” reserves are running low. After sustaining injuries that preclude physically laborious work, my options to earn a living are limited. 为什么要费心写下这些？为什么要扮演“显而易见先生”？我的“精神鸦片”（copium）储备快用完了。在遭受了无法从事体力劳动的伤病后，我谋生的选择变得非常有限。

As a child, I spent nights reading manuals, running services, writing scripts to automate away toil, tinkering with values in flash games using memory editors like Cheat Engine, and analyzing malware by stepping through it’s instructions in OllyDbg. I was thrilled that people would pay me to do similar things. 小时候，我曾彻夜阅读手册、运行服务、编写脚本来自动化繁琐的工作，使用 Cheat Engine 等内存编辑器修改 Flash 游戏数值，并通过 OllyDbg 逐条指令分析恶意软件。我曾为有人愿意付钱让我做类似的事情而感到兴奋。

Now, I am a father with a son who depends on me. I’ve been unemployed since July of 2025. I have spent months adjusting my resume, applying for all jobs where my skill set may be of use, building proof-of-concepts using Claude, and doing cold outreach to anyone who may be interested in my potential products or my services. The well has gone dry. Want to talk? Schedule time with me. 现在，我是一位父亲，有一个依赖我的儿子。自 2025 年 7 月以来，我一直处于失业状态。我花了几个月时间调整简历，申请所有能发挥我技能的工作，使用 Claude 构建概念验证（PoC），并向任何可能对我的潜在产品或服务感兴趣的人进行冷启动联系。但我已经山穷水尽了。想聊聊吗？请预约我的时间。