Ask HN: Will I get left behind if I don't jump on AI train?

You should try to understand what it is useful for and what it isn't. You don't need to vibe code at all; in fact, it's the exact opposite. You should read the code and be able to figure out what LLMs are bad at and how they make inhuman mistakes.

I personally like the prompt completion of functions. The act of manually writing out in detail what needs to happen and how help me think about what I want to have done.

Anyway, the main argument I have that you should be using it is that the first and experience of using it will teach you about what to look for in broken LLM code and also help you guide others into producing less broken LLM code.

So if you want to work and adopt AI, make your own workflows. Interact directly with ChatGPT or even the API as opposed to learning cursor shortcuts or Lovable prompts.

I use AI very frequently and I love to spell out my thinking and even have AI critique it. Once done, I generate code in phases to save typing. I dont think anything will replace software engineers but engineers with more knowledge will replace those with less. You have to snatch that knowledge. Moronic VCs and tool vendors wont help, direct involvement will.

Back in my day we used learn x in y minutes to get up to speed on a new language and then a week to get comfortable.

Now I can do that for anything in like 15 minutes.

Of course, coding is the easy part and anyone can do it.

Software engineering (key word: engineering) is the hard part and requires that you understand the computer, design patterns, and how to build robust systems.

I applied this methodology to mobile, cryptocurrencies, Web3, VR, and AI. I ended up being bearish about cryptocurrencies and Web3 and bullish about mobile, VR and AI. VR is having a fair amount of trouble taking off, but I think AI is not facing the same challenges. As such, I'm betting very strongly that it's going to be part of our future, and that means now is a good time to start understanding how it works and what people are saying about it and what might come next. I do this by putting my hands on the technology and running lots of different models locally and also experimenting with cloud models, as well as exploring what tools companies are building with these technologies. Simply reading doesn't quite do it for me.

I don't do this because I'm worried about being left behind, nearly as much as I want to be able to deploy these tools effectively in the future to solve problems. It's also fun!