Ask HN: GPT4 Broke Me

I created this throwaway account to talk completely openly. I am an engineer with 20 years in, working mostly on web development. I have a pretty high salary in the top %5 band of my area and sector.

I don't know where to start this. So let's just jump right into it.

I can't tell what will happen immediately next year. This has never happened to me before professionally. I was born a nerd, started programming early, and jobs just came to me.

AI scares me for job security. My entire pitch to get to top %5 of salary band has been that I have many years of experience in my specialty. Thus securing me high roles in my field along with high salary.

I have been already working nearly at a burn-out level for many years to reach this comp.

Rent is sky high. I don't feel comfortable taking on mortgage despite having multiples of needed deposit, because I am not sure how much longer I can maintain my comp. with AI automating everything.

Many people share the comforting stories, that there will be other jobs for engineers/programmers.

How am I supposed to retain my TC if I have to switch to another field from web?

I am unable to enjoy any content, movie, tv show anymore. Even the SciFi from last year, feels outdated. Reddit comments feel like they're all AI-generated. I made an AI reddit bot myself. None noticed.

I use ChatGPT on a daily basis to build projects, and the more I use it, the more scared I get. It is just too powerful. The more I use it, the less proud I feel for my output. It just feels like anyone could do it.

Where are we really going? Can we just stop the optimistic techie talk and accept UBI is not happening... They don't give you healthcare, do you think they will give you CASH like that???

I hope this doesn't get flagged, because I really need your inputs.

Welcome to real life. I've had similar thoughts to you but in the context of writing. Many coding tutorials I wrote last year can now be done with GPT-4. The same tutorials that I wrote last year got me a lot of exposure on various sites and directories, but that hasn't been the case since early this year.

I imagine it's like this for many people. And, personally, I'm trying not to think/dwell on it, and simply move on with life and projects and work. Whatever happens, I know for a fact I don't have control over it.

The seed of disruption has now been planted, so we have to wait and see in which direction it grows. But I think a big wave will eventually come that will displace a lot of jobs in one big swoop.

yes. anyone could do it. can anyone do it well? not yet. not for a while. possibly never.

a human is still very necessary in the loop. there is no loop without the human. currently, there should be no loop without one. cost prohibitive if nothing else.

the better the instructions, the better the output. something must be done with the output, and it has to be done safely and consistently.

there will be new challenges. there will be new careers. (lol no prompt engineering is not it.) there will be new and old jobs.

content not so compelling? take a walk. touch a hand tool, or a crochet needle. escape the screen. blame the content before yourself. was it ever that good? or just good enough? have you already read the good stuff? maybe nothing good as of late. maybe chatgpt is simply causing you to question what makes content… good.

spend a little less. save a little more. your compensation is likely “a little high,” and may suffer a little bit. keep solving problems and it isn’t yet an existential crisis.

where are we going? too many variables, someone will successfully guess, plenty will unsuccessfully. somewhere new yet familiar.

if any of this wasn’t useful, didn’t resonate, or didn’t even make sense, throw it out. just like one should do with language model output.

>I don't feel comfortable taking on mortgage despite having multiples of needed deposit

This is great. It means you have more financial security than most in the event of a worst case scenario and the financial aspect appears to be underpinning a lot of your concerns so give yourself some credit for that.

The most valuable antidote to the concept of AI replacing skilled workers is depth of experience. Before your job becomes obsolete, the jobs of every engineer with half your experience need to become obsolete and we're a very long way away from that happening.

Don't wanna make you feel worse but a friend of mine and nearly 20% of the company got fired a few days ago. CEO's justification? "We don't need you anymore, we will compensate your loss with chat-gpt & co. It's nothing personal, just business". To this day I can't tell whenever CEO's reasons were just outright lies, or if he genuinely thinks he can replace a fifth of his workplace just like that.