Feels a little mean that people are flagging this, I wake up every morning thinking the same thing. I've started reading Humankind by Rutger Bregman in the hope of waking up feeling different.
Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
41–50 of 88 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#42> [chucking out slop instead of quality software]
I'll still program. I'm barely touching current "AI" other than certain bits of code completion that are on by default in VS and are the right mix of occasionally useful (saving a few tens of keystrokes) and easy to ignore when not. When it gets to the point where I can't compete without using LLMs heavily, I'll have to do something else. Perhaps wait tables somewhere with Spanish customers as I'm trying to learn the language, it won't be much or a pay cut because by the point where someone of my years can't compete at all, almost anyone will be able to do a shite job with LLMs so programming will be heading towards being a minimum-wage job anyway.
> Everything else is being destroyed by AI: art, music, books, personal websites.
Yours doesn't have to be. I started writing bits to go online again after many years not bothering. It isn't intended for public consumption, I'm deliberately doing nothing that would be called SEO in fact I'm going anti-SE in some ways, though it isn't hidden should I chose to pass a link to someone or if they decide to pass it on further. It is intended for me and a select few, if someone else finds it somehow and likes it then good the them, and much of the point of making it is the joy of making something. Everyone else using LLMs isn't going to take that from me.
> Why read a blog post, when Google AI Summary can just give you the summary?
Because the summary may be wrong, or technically correct but with entirely the wrong tone or missing key details a summary should have. Or because you want to read the post - you don't have to use the summary.
I don't read the summary generated as part of most searches these days, reading them is optional. I don't make effort to stop them being made though (using porn mode, adding “fuck”/“fucking” to search terms, etc.) - hopefully making them waste resources on generating things that are never used will et noticed and they'll ramp that down a bit at least for accounts like mine.
> Why read a book, when you can just get AI summary of it?
Before AI, did you just skip to the last few pages to see what happened? If not, then just keep reading like you did before.
Avoiding the slop books that are flooding the market ATM might be more of a concern, but there was plenty written before the LLM bubble started to keep you in things to read for a lifetime.
> The only thing you are left to do is to eat and take a sht throughout the day.*
Other hobbies. I like trail running (or if in a slower mood, country walking), AI isn't going to stop me doing that. HEMA and other activities with friends too.
> How should people make money? No idea, as in the "prosperous future", everything is replaced by AI.
That is a completely different question to the rest where you are asking about things that you would do for enjoyment, and is a bigger societal and philosophical concern than I have time to chew on right now…
> What's the point anymore?
Same as it was before: do what you need to do to survive, then do what you need to do to enjoy any remaining time after that. Perhaps I'm helped here by being back on the up after a couple of years recovering from proper burnout: I know the way things are going won't make me feel worse than that, and I survived that. Current politics and other social issues away from tech on the other hand…
> Why keep going?
When all hope feels truly lost, at least keep going out of spite.
> Why keep going and where to?
To paraphrase The Wild One: Where have ya got?!
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#43Hopefully your perspective will change over time, because it's short sighted.
My main critique is that we don't do everything merely for the "end" of it, we do it for the "why" or the journey.
No IA system will ever provide the "why".
Also, the humanity will develop an immune system for slop.
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flooded markets get bypassed. I see a future where real creatives simply don't post stuff online, and anything online is not trusted. What AI is going to kill is the Internet, not human creativity.
Had the same thought but feels too overly optimistic. I don’t think people “internet” for trust, but for dopamine.
A) The modern extreme thirst for dopamine predates the Internet. We've had powerfully addictive and destructive street drugs for decades now and art and creativity still thrive.
B) People who are not (or don't believe they are) in full control of their lives, which is most of the non-rich on the planet, generally are subject to having to spend a lot of time doing things they don't want to do, and want some form of escape.
Any medium will be a trap that can catch people who would prefer to escape permanently, whether it's good for them or not. I'm sure you had children and housewives addicted to radio shows in the 1940's.
For creatives who are dedicated to their craft and are not in it for mass-market leverage, this is fine, it's going to be a filter. The people who get caught in these traps are not going to be the ones that can appreciate or support art, even if it's not their fault.
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#45To put this in perspective: AI stuff is about talking to ghosts. Yes, there are a lot of things ghosts can do, but they lack something due to being immaterial. Robots are still pretty limited. There are lot of maintenance chores that ClawdBot can't do. It's not going to cook for you, rake the leaves, shovel the snow off your sidewalk, or pressure-wash your steps. You can still find some satisfaction in doing these th…
That’s my point. Technology is a dead end now. The only thing left to do is go back to doing mundane physical work in order to feed yourself.
I'm co-writing a design doc with Claude Opus 4.5 and it seems to me that it isn't over yet. Ghosts are pretty useful to collaborate with, but I have ideas too. We have power tools now, but that doesn't mean you have to give up. You can learn to use them.
Claude is sort of like a ghost dog in that it makes sure you know that it's up for doing whatever you want to do, but you're still in charge.
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't get it. You, and I, are in the minority. How do you expect authors to keep writing, when the market will be, eventually, flooded by AI generated slop? It's the same with coding: I no longer see point to write OSS by hand, as every day, 10 projects appear on HN front page, that are 95.9% AI generated. Becoming a successful writer / musician, is already hard. With software, it was easier, but in my opinion, i…
Flooded markets get bypassed. I see a future where real creatives simply don't post stuff online, and anything online is not trusted. What AI is going to kill is the Internet, not human creativity.
> I see a future where real creatives simply don't post stuff online, and anything online is not trusted.
This shift is already well underway. I know a fair number of artists of various sorts (most are writers), and almost half have disconnected their artwork from the internet entirely.
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#47Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#48Feels a little mean that people are flagging this, I wake up every morning thinking the same thing. I've started reading Humankind by Rutger Bregman in the hope of waking up feeling different. [0] https://rutgerbregman.com/books/humankind
Agreed, after years of software development only in the last couple of months have I started to think that maybe I need to reskill.
My current role should be ok for a few years, but hard to know if we will need any developers in 5 or 10.
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#49I remember back in the day, the days of chisel and hammer. I could feel the stone, and the impact of the hammer vibrating into my hand. It was pleasant, and I could feel that every hit really meant something to shape the future of the stone, and thereby the building. Customers and contractors alike told me how great it was to see me work that stone. So I kept swinging that hammer.
Then I was told about some electrical chisel that was supposed to make my life better. Sure, I made more money, but the work was gone. It just shakes; it doesn't vibrate. I get numb, not proud. I have to take breaks, because my hands can't handle it. It's awful. What's the point, I asked?
But then I started talking to my colleagues during those breaks. I even discovered I had a relative in common with one. While chipping away at stone, no one ever wanted to stand close to me, and I had spent all this time proudly creating stone chips all day long! I still chip away at stone sometimes, but only when there's no one else around to talk to at breaktime.
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You are not going to be able to stop change. The world never stood still, it's just that changes happen step-wise, and it's unlikely any one step affects _you_ profoundly. This time, the step affects you (and me.) You are standing in front of a steamroller and shouting "stop!"
We'll find a new way to be humans. It won't look like the Instagram times. It won't look like the Myspace times. It won't look like the Rolodex times. It'll be new. What can you do with it that makes you happy?
Re: Ask HN: What's the Point Anymore?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> just turn it off if you don't like it. How? Or do you mean, like, stop using the Internet entirely?
Notice that it's bad/slop/shit, turn it off, do something else. If you don't notice it, then is it really an issue? And if you notice, you're one click/keypress away from making it disappear.
Sorry, I thought your contention was that nobody is forcing me to consume AI BS content.