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Expertise in the age of AI

moderndescartes.com

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Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#21

Post by amelius »

wg0 wrote: post #17

Actually - to disillusion yourself from AI, try dabbling into something you do not know. Try writing a production quality 3D engine. Trust me, a 3D engine has its own domain knowledge besides just graphics. No, seriously. And then see how helpless you feel when you yourself do not have the expertise to judge whether the direction being taken is the right or wrong. At that time, you wish if there were some pipe throug…

> Try writing a production quality 3D engine.

Actually I tried that and you are correct about this.

With Claude it took me hundreds of iterations and I'm still not happy.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#22

Post by speak_plainly »

I think 'expertise' is a bit of a red herring when what is being discussed is experience.

I've always believed that coding and development is an art and something analogous is the experience of a visual arts student. There's a level of experience required when one applies to an art school. The student builds a portfolio of passion projects and demonstrates a passion and skill along with creativity and other beneficial traits. If they are accepted, they learn the deeper theory, techniques, and more that will aide them in their career. This increases their exposure and overall experience.

Experience for a young developer is going to start with passion projects and be supplemented and bolstered through education in a similar way. You can take shortcuts as an arts student or a developer but you really just end up hurting yourself.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#24

Post by WolfeReader »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

It's polluting the world, gobbling up hardware, and making us dumber. And HN and LinkedIn just can't get enough.

People say AI is the new internet. I say AI is the new tobacco.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#25

Post by ygouzerh »

I get the analogy of the calculator. The thing however, is that in college, we had dedicated time to learn how to not use it: classes without it, exams without it, etc.

In current job market and pressure, we doesn't have time anymore. You need to be constantly delivering the new jira ticket, and the time expected to perform a task now decreased, as it's expected of the workers that now they are "more productive with AI".

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#26

Post by xp84 »

btilly wrote: post #6
mbernstein wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument for universities to be a place to learn to think critically and not learn specific skills is an even stronger value prop in an era where useful skills likely change rapidly.

The problem is that professors say "learn to think critically", then actually just want the students to learn to sound like them, and agree with them. Actual critical thought has been on the decline for some time. This is especially true in the humanities and the social sciences. Where truth is hard to ascertain, and therefore it is easier to substitute political correctness for critical thought.

Some will probably dismiss your comment as partisan but it is very hard to (honestly) argue that this isn’t the case. “Think critically…” but only about the cliché punching bags of academia: capitalism, Western culture, American foreign policy, The Patriarchy, etc. I didn’t witness any college classes that encouraged us to think critically about socialism, or think critically about Islam, or think critically about non-Western countries’ foreign policy aims, or think critically about third-wave feminism’s impact on society. Instead, even questioning any of those sacred cows usually brands you as “far right” and professors sometimes even get fired for making others “feel unsafe” if they even try.

Note: you can still be an avowed and serious leftist and have my respect if you allow your ideas to be questioned, hold yourself to a standard of proof, and tolerate dissent. What I’m criticizing is the way especially in universities, people jump right to “You’re a Nazi/fascist and the only acceptable response is to shut you down and eject you from the community” if someone doesn’t embrace all the same political dogma as you.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#27

Post by jghn »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

5 years ago it was web3. 5 years before that it was Haskell and monads. It’s how things work

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#28

Post by LurkandComment »

xp84 wrote: post #16
LurkandComment wrote: post #8

AI is cheap right now. Let's re-ask this question when it's priced to recover profit and ROI.

What’s built with all that VC money is already built though; I don’t foresee a future a few years out where we don’t have access to an open-source model roughly as good as the current flagship models for the cost of the compute itself.

Variable costs - electricity etc. Current model is very resource intensive. You know when they build all those Olympic Venues and then once the Olympics is done the ongoing cost is too expensive and then they become derelict buildings.... like that...

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#29

Post by SoftTalker »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

Been away for a while? It's been like this for at least a year.
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