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Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

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Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#81

Post by simple-thoughts »

fleeno wrote: post #30

Can you elaborate on how you're actually using ChatGPT? I'm a developer and I haven't felt any need to use ChatGPT constantly. What tasks are you delegating to ChatGPT that were previously done by humans? Most of my input from others is regarding current information specific to the task at hand. I don't see how ChatGPT would have any idea what I'm talking about. Do you have some specific examples you could share?

For code I’ve found LLM mostly useless, since if I don’t understand something I need to read the docs anyway, and the generated code tends to be buggy even in react.

Where I have found LLM useful is in generating text. Where I used to use a thesaurus I now use LLM to find words to name things in themed UX. But it’s not great at function or variable names, it tends to pick names that look good but don’t precisely describe what something is. LLM is also great at generating text for role play.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#82

Post by agg23 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #71

I'm a software engineer and I don't find much value in ChatGPT. It provides a bit of help when writing very specific and short pieces of code for languages I know but don't use often. I'd be curious to have actual data on how other SWEs use it.

I have privacy concerns with both ChatGPT and Copilot, but I also don't get the desire to use these tools on a daily basis. I am very adept at talking to a computer, and figuring out what it's doing/wants (though it may take a while). Trying to convince a language model to act as an inbetween for me just seems like a massive hassle.

It's like delegating work to a junior that is completely untrustworthy, but instead of you working to level up your junior and gain a useful coworker, you're forever stuck with the kind of dumb, needs simple things explained person.

I read posts like this and I wonder if I'm really missing out by not writing English paragraphs a lot of the time instead of code.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#83

Post by mixmastamyk »

Sounds like run-of-the-mill obsessive behaviors to me. My advice to you (and myself) is always enforced moderation. Whether food, alcohol, social media, etc.

I personally put limits on myself... no eating after ~9 PM, no internet after 11 PM via router block, etc. The latter I can't undo until the next morning. Works well enough.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#84

Post by Animats »

JohnFen wrote: post #48
waffletower wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my vantage, short-term (3-5 year) fear seems unfounded. As a software engineer, I can clearly see what ChatGPT and its LLM ilk can and can't do that I can easily do myself. LLMs clearly accelerate my access to API documentation and provide excellent outline code. But hallucinations are omnipresent and can often necessitate additional iteration and rethinking of development approaches. I think the productivity bo…

> The intensity of employment displacement fear comes from an illusion that LLMs have agency. I don't think so. My concerns have nothing to do with agency, anyway. Nor are my concerns limited to (or even primarily about) impact on software engineering specifically. Even if LLMs perform worse, if using them will save companies money over employing people, then those people are gone.

LLMs have agency when given a goal and connected to an API that can do something. This is likely to be a problem now and then.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#85

Post by mahathu »

fleeno wrote: post #30

Can you elaborate on how you're actually using ChatGPT? I'm a developer and I haven't felt any need to use ChatGPT constantly. What tasks are you delegating to ChatGPT that were previously done by humans? Most of my input from others is regarding current information specific to the task at hand. I don't see how ChatGPT would have any idea what I'm talking about. Do you have some specific examples you could share?

type a function signature and an opening squiggly brace, wait for "copilot" to autocomplete, press tab, ????, profit

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#86

Post by garrickvanburen »

Maybe try going without ChatGPT for these tasks now - eg doing them yourself first?

My guess is the marginal difference between your abilities and ChatGPT is diminishing.

My experience with ChatGPT is it’s really good at generating non-controversial answers to well known topics.

Those are only so valuable.

Not as valuable as you creative abilities.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#87

Post by NovaDudely »

Havoc wrote: post #42

> Humans work 9-5 (or some schedule), but ChatGPT is available always and works instantly. So don't use it outside of work hours. If you feel compelled to solve work problems outside of work hours that isn't a ChatGPT issue. It's just vanilla workaholism

Exactly. At most, make a note of it, tackle it the next day.

Work to live, don't live to work and all of that.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#88

Post by Zetice »

yodsanklai wrote: post #71

I'm a software engineer and I don't find much value in ChatGPT. It provides a bit of help when writing very specific and short pieces of code for languages I know but don't use often. I'd be curious to have actual data on how other SWEs use it.

I used the hell out of copilot when plugged into vscode.

I became more of an editor, less of a coder.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#89

Post by ChatGTP »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #80
the_only_law wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am being told this by a white-collar worker who went to college themselves, and is just bloviating. Exactly. When I talk to plumbers, electricians, etc. many of them express the desire to leave because the hours and environments are hellish. Meanwhile some full of themselves tech bro is babbling on about how everyone (not them of course) should go into the trades. Or they pull some vague anecdote out of their ass…

My read is that the people who do well in trades are smart, hard-working and ambitious. That combination of traits tends to do well no matter where they are applied. While there is plenty of money to be made in the trades, one thing that gets ignored is, as you said, the working conditions. Further, those working conditions compound over the years and absolutely wreck bodies.

Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day will wreck your body too, don’t worry about that.

The happiest I’ve been in my life is spending about 2-3 hours a day at a desk. It’s a shit life but we don’t see it like that coz we love sitting on our ass.

Re: Ask HN: Burnout because of ChatGPT?

#90

Post by ChatGTP »

flanked-evergl wrote: post #74
simonw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a bunch of examples myself. Here's a good recent one (prompts are linked about half way down the post): https://simonwillison.net/2023/Aug/6/annotated-presentations... A few more: - "Write a Python script with no extra dependencies which can take a list of URLs and use a HEAD request to find the size of each one and then add those all up" https://simonwillison.net/2023/Aug/3/weird-world-of-llms/#us... - "Show…

I dunno what you do for a job but if that is your hard problems or even medium problems then I think you lucked out big time.

I felt the same, SWE with 20 years experience. Absolutely none of this is relevant to anything I’ve been paid to do for my whole career.

If someone on my team was doing things this unusually they’d probably be let go.

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