Are you seriously comparing deterministic code formatters to nondeterministic LLMs? This isn't just a change of scale because it is qualitatively different.

> Kansas certainly didn't develop their website [2] using an LLM.

Just because the software industry has a problem with incompetence doesn't mean we should be reaching for a tool that regularly hallucinates nonsense.

> IMO, the real problem with software is the lack of a warranty.

You will never get a warranty from an LLM because it is inherently nondeterministic. This is actually a fantastic argument _not_ to use LLMs for anything important including generating program text for software.

> It really shouldn't matter how the software is made

It does matter regardless of warranty or the qualities of the software because programs ought to be written to be read by humans first and machines second if you care about maintaining them. Until we create a tool that actually understands things, we will have to grapple with the problem of maintaining software that is written and read by humans.

Yes, the determinant should be taught and defined as the volume of the parallelepiped in n-dimensions defined by the columns of the given square matrix. This perspective makes it immediately obvious that the eigenvalues scale the parallelepiped in each of its dimensions (a basis of eigenvectors makes it even simpler). Of course the volume (determinant) must be the product of these scaling factors (eigenvalues)! Since algebra is too convenient for solving problems, this geometric intuition is often an afterthought if it's even taught at all.

Edit (addendum):

> but then I remember to never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Even though there's plenty of evidence of malice in Hollywood. For an example that everyone agrees on, there's military propaganda in almost all movies and video games made about the military.

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