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Please Use AI

shawnsmucker.substack.com

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Re: Please Use AI

#181

Post by [deleted] »

sushshshhs wrote: post #129
ryandrake wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever since I started experimenting with AI coding, I've totally lost that feeling of accomplishment. For projects I actually developed by typing in the code, it feels like I actually did something--like here's something I built and am responsible for bringing into the world. When I finish an AI-built project, I feel...nothing. Just that empty: "Code now exists where it didn't exist before, but I didn't really do anyt…

If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file ha…

[deleted]

Re: Please Use AI

#182

Post by klabb3 »

sushshshhs wrote: post #95
annnoo wrote: post #55

I had this moment when we designed shirts for the marathon we ran as a group. Instead of Brainstorming something funny, we just prompted ChatGPT and chose one of the results. I felt lost immediately. All the creativity, the humanity, the endless hours of putting soul into something. Gone For one hour or so I had some kind of existential crisis. Just because of a funny slogan on a shirt. And sometimes I still feel emp…

Endless hours of putting soul into your shirt? I mean, good for you, but it sounds like your team wasn’t so stoked about that as you are. So I’m not sure you can blame AI for that one. Give it time. This is a skill (and tooling) issue. AI enables so goddamn much creativity. You literally don’t know what to do with it, but once society adapts and we all calm TF down we are free to create in whatever capacity we like.…

> As you said it is hard to create with AI without losing your soul but that’s not inherent to the tech.

It definitely appears inherent so far. You could say infinite feeds optimized for engagement is just neutral tech too. The biggest mistake we made in the last tech revolution of ”social” media was to judge tech by its potential rather than the business model.

> You get to pick! How awesome is that?

It's awesome if you don’t derive meaning from the process. Like cheating in a single player game, you can just skip and watch the credits.

Ironically one of my most memorable game experiences ever is just walking and climbing for ages in Death Stranding, in poor weather, slipping, picking up baggage. It was miserable. But effort seems to create meaning.

Re: Please Use AI

#183

Post by ryandrake »

TakeItToTen wrote: post #170
sushshshhs wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file ha…

I have landed here myself. I have always enjoyed writing code, but I find lately that I am getting so much more satisfaction from the process of exploring and designing systems more, and code is simply the substrate. I am becoming a better architect with AI, because I am spending more mental energy in that lane, getting less embroiled in the nitty-gritty of the code.

There was a thread[1] about this the other day! People have different goals, motivations, and reasons for developing. I guess I just like sorting colored blocks. I'll agonize over the code... I really will go back to a class I wrote months ago and ask "Do I really need this member variable?" and "Does this really need to go on the heap or can it live on the stack and be automatically cleaned up?" "Can I use a pImpl C++ pattern here and reduce the number of headers that this header file includes?"

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316056

Re: Please Use AI

#184

Post by doug_durham »

annnoo wrote: post #55

I had this moment when we designed shirts for the marathon we ran as a group. Instead of Brainstorming something funny, we just prompted ChatGPT and chose one of the results. I felt lost immediately. All the creativity, the humanity, the endless hours of putting soul into something. Gone For one hour or so I had some kind of existential crisis. Just because of a funny slogan on a shirt. And sometimes I still feel emp…

It really depends on your goal. If your goal is to spend the evening coming up with funny things to say with your friends, then you shouldn't use AI. If your goal is to finish the t-shirts so that you can move on to the next topic in organizing a very complex event like a marathon, then perhaps you should use tools. Using AI tools isn't a problem. It's lack of care and thoughtlessness. That is the problem. That's always been the problem. AI didn't create it, nor is it making it worse.

Re: Please Use AI

#185

Post by bko »

When your router is not working, please use AI. Don't call your friend who is "good with computers" have him drop everything he's doing and have him trouble shoot the problem for you over the phone.

This is just obnoxious. People still bond, have discussions and arguments without pulling out their phones every few minutes. Relationships are still a thing. But for 99% of questions or tasks, I just want to get it done and not drag in friends and family.

Re: Please Use AI

#186

Post by elliotbnvl »

jimbokun wrote: post #135
elliotbnvl wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t they continue to do so? If anything an underlying truth about humanity is being exposed: we take the easy way out far more often than we’d like to admit. Perhaps, this truth being made explicit is a wakeup call that will teach us the value of that hard work anew. After all, nothing the author’s written isn’t also true about Google, but nobody realized how bad of a mistake that was.

> Why can’t they continue to do so? Because we are talking to the AIs instead of talking to them. > After all, nothing the author’s written isn’t also true about Google, but nobody realized how bad of a mistake that was. There was plenty written about how Google was making us dumber because we didn't need to remember anything any more.

> Because we are talking to the AIs instead of talking to them.

Speak for yourself. This is a sweeping generalization.

> There was plenty written about how Google was making us dumber because we didn't need to remember anything any more.

Oh yeah, and that other new-fangled technology the Greeks were complaining about – books.

Re: Please Use AI

#187

Post by inanutshellus »

vitally3643 wrote: post #136
cstever wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Take, for example, speeches. I do not let AI write my speeches. But my speeches are better for having been critiqued by AI. But the result is still my speech. My thoughts, my ideas, my words, and my meaning. Just improved with rounds of feedback about where it fell flat, where I was likely to lose people, and so on. Feedback that I had to fix. > So do not let AI write your speeches. But do use it to push yourself ha…

> This used to be the job of our friends, families, and coworkers: To push us harder. I think we are losing something. No, and if you think that, your friends, family, and coworkers probably don't like you that much. You can push yourself harder for someone else, but it is and has always been something you do. Making it everyone else's problem to improve you makes you a codependent asshole. You can and should find pu…

I interpreted GP's message as "We used to lean-on and learn-from our friends, families, and coworkers, and insodoing we ourselves improved in a symbiotic way".

The "job" in the speech example would be "hey Joe, can I run this speech by you?"

In that scenario, the friend would:

  * feel valued, 
  * connect with you, 
  * have something to do socially instead of "sooo uh whatcha been up to... uh... nice weather...", and
  * get to hone their own speech skills by critiquing in a safe environment.
And.. yeah... it is the "job" of a friend/coworker to say "yes" to that question, right?

Re: Please Use AI

#188

Post by boringg »

culopatin wrote: post #105
ryandrake wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever since I started experimenting with AI coding, I've totally lost that feeling of accomplishment. For projects I actually developed by typing in the code, it feels like I actually did something--like here's something I built and am responsible for bringing into the world. When I finish an AI-built project, I feel...nothing. Just that empty: "Code now exists where it didn't exist before, but I didn't really do anyt…

AI is like cheap void calories. Writing by hand is calories from a good home cooked meal with all the nutrients and love, AI code (unless maybe you worked on putting together an AI system and the harness is your build), feels like calories from a Sprite. Also I’ve been thinking that ai code is like cheap amazon furniture and hand crafted is well… hand crafted.

Your analogy is apt. The challenge is that most of the world runs on cheap calories and cheap furniture and that seems to be growing more and more.

Re: Please Use AI

#189

Post by Lerc »

LetsGetTechnicl wrote: post #130
Lerc wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What the fuck?

Perhaps Geoffrey Hinton was right about sarcasm.

I was suggesting that telling people to avoid a technical solution because there is a preferable solution does not guarantee the preferrable solution is possible.

Re: Please Use AI

#190

Post by ilikecakeandpie »

Gomotono wrote: post #164

For the sake of it: Just do everything manually. Stop using the computer to talk to strangers, take your feed and go to your neighbour and talk to them. Stop buying online. Spend your free time in the crowded city and ask someone in the electronic store who doesn't know shit. Just go to the place everyone else is going at the same time because its a lot more fun than trying to pre analyse it upfront. How about stop b…

You're being intentionally intellectually dishonest with your take here and this an absurd whataboutism. The author isn't telling people to stop using AI for work, coding tasks, etc he's saying to stop using it as a replacement for human interaction.

Anecdotally, I've seen the effects that people delegating their executive functions to AI have had and the damage is quick and harrowing

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