> Job as a programmer
> Work on a program to order stuff internally for the company
> New guy comes in the team
> Talks about how he wants to implement machine learning in the program
> "At least I can see where he is coming from"
> Says he wants to use llms for the task
> "Well, fuck"
> Higher-up says I should teach him machine learning for that reason tomorrow

How do I tell him and my higher-up, without sounding like an asshole or making it awkward, that it makes no sense to use ml (let alone llms) for this instead of some simple math? Also, if I have to teach him how ml works regardless, how do I explain it quickly, I really don't wanna give a whole presentation...? (Neither of them even know what an vector or matrix is, so I can't use math)