Live data from Hacker News

With AI you need to think bigger

rodyne.com

21–30 of 182 posts

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#21
post #2

Insufficient Storage The method could not be performed on the resource because the server is unable to store the representation needed to successfully complete the request. There is insufficient free space left in your storage allocation. Additionally, a 507 Insufficient Storage error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

bugger! More than two visitors to my web site and it falls apart, I might fork out the $10 for the better CPU and more memory option before I post something in future.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#22
post #14

I wrote something similar about this effect almost two years ago: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Mar/27/ai-enhanced-developmen... "AI-enhanced development makes me more ambitious with my projects" With an extra 23 months of experience under my belt since then I'm comfortable to say that the effect has stayed steady for me over time, and even increased a bit.

100% agree with this, sometimes I feel I'm becoming too reliant on it - but I step back and see how much more ambitious of projects I take on, and finish quickly still, due to it.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#23
post #13

As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…

[flagged]

Probably all the hype and bs.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#24
I recently discovered that some of the Raspberry Pi models support the Linux Kernel's "Gadget Mode". This allows you to configure the Pi to appear as some type of device when plugged into a USB port, i.e. a Mass Storage/USB stick, Network Card, etc. Very nifty for turning a Pi Zero into various kinds of utilities.

When I realized this was possible, I wanted to set up a project that would allow me to use the Pi as a bridge from my document scanner (has the ability to scan to a USB port) to a SMB share on my network that acts as the ingest point to a Paperless-NGX instance.

Scanner -> USB "drive" > Some of my code running on the Pi > The SMB Share > Paperless.

I described my scenario in a reasonable degree of detail to Claude and asked it to write the code to glue all of this together. What it produced didn't work, but was close enough that I only needed to tweak a few things.

While none of this was particularly complex, it's a bit obscure, and would have easily taken a few days of tinkering the way I have for most of my life. Instead it took a few hours, and I finished a project.

I, too, have started to think differently about the projects I take on. Projects that were previously relegated to "I should do that some day when I actually have time to dive deeper" now feel a lot more realistic.

What will truly change the game for me is when it's reasonable to run GPT-4o level models locally.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#25
post #13

As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…

Yes. LLMs are the perfect learning assistant.

You can now do literally anything. Literally.

Going to take a while for everyone to figure this out but they will given time.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#26
The exciting thing about AI is it let's you go back to any project or idea you've ever had and they are now possibly doable, even if they seemed impossible or too much work back then. Some of the key pieces missing have become trivial, and even if you don't know how to do something AI will help you figure it out or just let you come up with a solution that may seem dirty, but actually works, whereas before it was impossible without expert systems and grinding out so much code. It's opened so many doors. It's hard to remember ideas that you have written off before, there are so many blind spots that are now opportunities.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#27
post #13

As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…

[flagged]

They didn’t say that they were invested in it.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#28
post #24

I recently discovered that some of the Raspberry Pi models support the Linux Kernel's "Gadget Mode". This allows you to configure the Pi to appear as some type of device when plugged into a USB port, i.e. a Mass Storage/USB stick, Network Card, etc. Very nifty for turning a Pi Zero into various kinds of utilities. When I realized this was possible, I wanted to set up a project that would allow me to use the Pi as a b…

Please, I would be delighted if you published that code... Just yesterday I was thinking that a two-faced Samba share/USB Mass Storage dongle Pi would save me a lot of shuttling audio samples between my desktop and my Akai MPC.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#29
post #13

As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…

[flagged]

Your framing is extrapolative, mendacious and is adding what could charitably be called your interpersonal problems to a statement which is perfectly neutral, intended as an admission against general inclination to lend credibility to the observation that follows.

Someone uncharitable would say things about your cognitive abilities and character that are likely true but not useful.

Re: With AI you need to think bigger

#30
post #13

As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…

[flagged]

I know you’re being disparaging by using language like “bake into their identity” but everyone is “something” about “something”.

I’m “indifferent” about “roller coasters” and “passionate” about “board games”.

To answer the question (but I’m not OP), I’m skeptical about LLMs. “These words are often near each other” vastly exceeds my expectation at being fairly convincing that the machine “knows” something, but it’s dangerously confident when it’s hilariously incorrect.

Whatever we call the next technological leap where there’s actual knowledge (not just “word statistics” I’ll be less skeptical about.

Post reply on HN