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Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#131

Post by mattgreenrocks »

j4yav wrote: post #101
hunter2_ wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On average, yes it's easy to get stuck in a rut with low quality content, toxic social media, attention-stealing recommendations, etc. but with just a reasonable amount of effort it can be avoided in favor of the good stuff. Just like a traveler can get stuck at tourist traps or with just a few more moments of planning find a local treasure; and how if you're at a buffet you could get locked into the mac & cheese or…

But we are surrounded by people not doing that, and not even through any fault of their own for the most part. They are wired into an endless machine that trades dopamine hits for their money. Children are wired in before they even have a chance to resist.

The Extremely Online crowd’s influence is waning.

Twitter is widely mocked as a cesspool of conversation. Facebook is seen as antiquated. Instagram and TikTok are the current darlings but they seem to have less of an iron grip than the OG social networks.

The future is probably not another winner-take-all network. We’ve tried enough of those. The future is probably smaller networks where users self-select into them based on affiliations, much like web forums.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#132

Post by logiduck »

I'm not sure how this will resonate here, but this past year my interests in side projects sharply declined. For reference I am early 30s, married no kids. Up until now I used to work on 2-3 large side projects a year, diving deep into them obsessed with sleepless nights working.

Now with LLMs it just feels kind of like whats the point? Either my work will be consumed by an LLM to train and get tossed aside or i should just wait 5 years and whatever i will have worked on will probably just be a prompt away. Even if that doesn't become true, nobody really cares about traditional software building anyways. Everything is just LLMs. All interesting things about AI that I really liked building with ML or RL now just seem completely obsolete. Any mention of AI is just overwhelmed by "oh so your just connecting to ChatGPT and boom no problem, right?" with the majority of the population completely blind to the fact that there are many types of ML and other things besides an LLM.

Its just hard to get motivated by anything. Unless you are working on a LLM right now nobody really cares what you are doing in software. Just seems futile.

I think also my own personal expectations get in the way of doing side projects. Its hard to work hundreds of hours on something knowing the end monetary value is going to be $0. So I end up in this state of wanting to work on something but then getting cynical, realizing there's little to no money to be made and just demotivate myself.

Anyways that is a long rant and this past year instead of building software i started to learn an instrument. it has been great. with software there is this notion of something being "optimal" but with music there is no optimal. Even the highest level artists are not satisfied with their work. The music is always above you.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#133

Post by fasterik »

reactordev wrote: post #6

If you find yourself thinking “this is all for nothing”, you’d be correct. You can’t take any of this crap with you when you pass. You do what makes you happy. What makes you happy? Searching for external validation of a pat on the back for a job well done is not what makes one happy. Take a moment, pause, just be, focus on your happiness and what that means to you . Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop trying to…

The problem isn't work per se, it's our attitudes toward work and the projects that we choose to work on.

"Do what makes you happy" is a cliche that we all accept, but if you think about it, it's actually a very self-centered and egoistic way of deciding what to do. If we used different heuristics, like do what's best for your family/community/world, it might lead to very different answers than doing what makes you happy. It might even involve quite a bit more of what we call "work". Not work for the purposes of financial gain or social status, but work that improves the world for current and future generations.

That said, it's clear that our culture doesn't optimize for rewarding the kinds of work that actually make the world better. That's something we should try to correct for, rather than abandoning work as a value altogether.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#135

Post by ryandrake »

j4yav wrote: post #101
hunter2_ wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On average, yes it's easy to get stuck in a rut with low quality content, toxic social media, attention-stealing recommendations, etc. but with just a reasonable amount of effort it can be avoided in favor of the good stuff. Just like a traveler can get stuck at tourist traps or with just a few more moments of planning find a local treasure; and how if you're at a buffet you could get locked into the mac & cheese or…

But we are surrounded by people not doing that, and not even through any fault of their own for the most part. They are wired into an endless machine that trades dopamine hits for their money. Children are wired in before they even have a chance to resist.

I used to feel like I wanted to "Save Them From Themselves" but I no longer care. As long as I and my family are not zombies, I could care less that the rest of these people we're surrounded by are lobotomizing themselves. As long as they aren't in my way they can do what they want. They'll be voluntarily stepping into their own Matrix Pods in 20 years and I won't be.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#136

Post by DANmode »

dharmab wrote: post #19

I'm currently working on nothing outside of work due to an illness. I hate it. I was halfway through dissembling my project car's engine for some upgrades and was hoping to get started on a bathroom demo for a remodel, and that's all been delayed. I'm also not really working on any tech right now, because for the most part, I've gotten my personal technology working how I like it. I have a spare PC I've been meaning…

Are you willing to share the class of illness? That's awful to hear...

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#137

Post by gopher_space »

castalian wrote: post #103
amelius wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the early 90s the internet was great. The problems started with companies and their inherent greed.

No, it was the people. Early internet users demographics was a result of extreme selection. Companies did exist back then.

Barriers to entry that revolve around level of interest are ok.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#140

Post by Muromec »

I'm doing boring stuff. Forms with 5 to 20 fields that people put data into. Nothing AI, not a startup, regulated industry, kind of slow, low stress. I can focus on delivering on quality, I close laptop at 5pm and do other stuff. I feel that it's valuable to society to have this basic stuff not in a half-broken state, I enjoy the people around -- no tech bros with inflated egos or anything.
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