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Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#121

Post by jmloop »

Keep learning things, create, do it because you like it not because you want to sell it. Think of all the books, music and movies produced before AI, they are still there waiting for us to enjoy.

Can you imagine a world where AI is the only source of truth? Can you imagine the level of bias and manipulation that beast can have?

Let's keep playing without cheats.

===

"Don't Take the Black Pill - Andrew Kelley | SSW 2026"

Abstract: In our modern world, it's easy to feel like things are careening out of control; that the future is happening to us while we take a back seat... and all we can do is lie down and rot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLZwpH5lCD4

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#123

Post by [deleted] »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #104
solarized wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really feel for you. One of my friends was also a pilot, licensed to fly Airbus planes. He had to quit because of COVID. I still remember seeing Thai Airways pilots and crew working as street vendors during that time. It’s become much harder to get back into the airline industry now because of the supply-demand situation. Anyway, my friend now became regular staff at local factory, doing something completely unrela…

Not covid for me, but around that time. One of the last things I did before I got sick that year was fly Covid patients out of rural areas. It was a very stressful time - especially when I was so damn tired all the time for no real apparent reason. Whatever, I'm on the mend now more or less. I would go back tomorrow if I could, but I also recognize that chapter of my life is over, over 7000hrs is enough for one life…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#124

Post by wanderingpixel »

diydsp wrote: post #46

This is a form of ego death and should be taken seriously. Your/our place(s) in society have been shaken up like dice in a cup...and someone may not even care to pour them out and see what numbers come out. What are you like when no one is watching? Like any death, it will re-arrange your values. Fortunately existentialist philosophers have been grasping with this for some time. The secret is you have to make your ow…

> The secret is you have to make your own meaning.

Existentialism is one approach, or you can turn towards Camus and accept life has no ultimate meaning, and live intensely despite that knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#126

Post by anal_reactor »

I've been good at programming but I've never been passionate about it. I've always done the required minimum to meet the expectations. Therefore AI taking away passion doesn't really bother me.

My problem though is that I thought that at this point of life I'd already be married or something, while it looks like no matter how much effort I put into being social, at the end of the day I'm alone. It really sucks because it's not "just hang on a little longer" anymore, it's going into the territory of "you'll spend most of your life alone".

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#128

Post by EmeraldSky »

I used to contribute to large open source projects. I don’t anymore. I used to read books about various programming languages and CS topics, thinking it would all help advance my career somehow. I perceive all of these activities as too risky now. It takes away time I could spend with loved ones or on other topics I enjoy. I think the best engineers combine advanced CS knowledge with LLM tool use, but the ROI on obtaining that knowledge is much less certain now. Now I have a much higher threshold for what I spend time/money on, other than hobby stuff… if it doesn’t directly lead to some return (like investing) or a chance at some entrepreneurial success, it’s not worth bothering about these days imo. Probably was never a good choice, but contributing to open source projects with the hope it will advance your career is a fool’s errand these days, same goes for useless side projects and leetcode. I don’t think I’m articulating my feelings on this very well, but hopefully you get the gist.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#129

Post by thisisit »

It is often easy to fear the unknown. When you don't have a concrete fear or example it is easy to make the worse scenario in mind. And every reassurance can be swept away with a "But what if..".

The way I see it is that we are in Year 1/2 of the AI era. We can already see the issues too.

* Github can't keep up with the commits

* AI data centers build out being increasingly challenged

* Electricity grids unable to keep up the pace

Now all of this doesn't mean AI is not revolutionary. It absolutely is. It is to say that the pace of change will be slower

Also, I believe learning new CS concepts and side projects are still going to matter. Because as much as today is about anyone can code the long term challenge is going to be running and maintaining it the said code.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#130

Post by rbtms »

xtracto wrote: post #96
bm3719 wrote: post #11

Corollary to your complaints: Another downside that I haven't seen on anyone's AI hatelist yet is that it crowds out all other discussion. What happened to everyone talking about languages, protocols, algorithms, architecture, etc.? We can't have those conversations anymore because we're not even sure they matter now. In fact, we probably suspect they don't, hence the not bothering. Also, anything we do write will ju…

We need to start talking about real Software Engineering concepts. The stuff we will write to guide agents to build our software. We will be building architectural blueprints for software "buildings" same as Civic Engineers and Architects do for bridges and towers.

I don't think it speaks well of Software Engineers the will to delegate the construction of blueprints to unreliable workers. Architects and Civil Engineers know that licensed, professional people that have experience and know-how will execute it in a nearly flawless way. Compared to that, agents might hallucinate, build something completely different to the intended project or leave subtle bugs behind that, in the case of complex systems, the humans in charge will probably not even notice.
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