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The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

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Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#161

Post by hliyan »

I can provide a data point for what the article calls pseudo productivity: I extensively use LLMs as semantic search engines or expert systems (but not as agents). Recently I asked one how to consume a Google Pub/Sub topic using Python (context: I come from an C++/Java/JS background with some Python knowledge). The LLM gave me a good intro and some code. As it usually happens, I had a few follow up questions/clarifications, and then had to clarify the intent behind the code I requested. After a few relatively effortless rounds of back and forth, I got what I needed. It felt productive. But looking at the clock, about 20 minutes had passed without me even realizing it. Then I went and looked at the official overview page for the Google Pub/Sub Python client. It had everything I needed (including the code), in a more condensed, well-structured form. I could probably have arrived at the same outcome in 5-10 minutes. The only difference was that the latter method required some focus/discipline.

I'm wondering whether this is what they call pseudo-productivity: a lot of low-friction back and forth that feels productive, and perhaps even enjoyable, but in objective terms, takes longer?

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#162

Post by lukeschlather »

augment_me wrote: post #129
prmoustache wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> your bottlenecks are meetings [...], and you make an agent take notes and summarize things for you. An agent taking notes and summarizing things is of no use. You are supposed to participate to a meeting, otherwise it is just a memo and the meeting doesn't have to take place. The correct solution is just to not attend it if you know you aren't requested to participate and are just here to grow the numbers and make…

> The correct solution is just to not attend it if you know you aren't requested to participate and are just here to grow the numbers and make your company waste money. If this argument actually worked in practice, the world would be a better place

I had a coworker at Amazon who always said "just do what I do, accept the meeting invite and then don't go." Linkedin tells me he's now a director at Google.

Personally I make sure meetings are a good use of my time and I complain when they are not. I also am starting to complain about AI summarizers because they frequently misrepresent what is said in meetings and they're potentially worse than nothing, although I am starting to think that they're potentially valuable if Google is trying to datamine them for info about our company meetings as a way of poisoning their datasets. But I am worried my coworkers may be thinking they are reliable.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#163

Post by chamomeal »

Aurornis wrote: post #88
iainctduncan wrote: post #63

I wonder how many of the responses here bifurcate by age. The post resonates with me, but I am now in my early fifties. When I was in my 20's and 30's, I would have happily chased rabbits down all those holes, but now that time seems so brutally finite, I feel that anything encouring me to spend time on stuff other than what really matters is a strong negative. (Where "what matters" includes work, family, friends, an…

I think the bifurcation is between people who want to write code and people who want to have the end product of the code. People who want to write code hate AI because it's doing the part they wanted to do. People who want the end product of the code love AI because they want anything that helps them get to the end product faster. The person who wrote this post feels oddly in neither camp. They like playing with the…

> I think the bifurcation is between people who want to write code and people who want to have the end product of the code

I think most developers are both! Depends on the task. Sometimes I want the result, sometimes I want the process.

Also sometimes, if I want the process, it’s because it’s something I want to have intimate knowledge of. There’s a practical benefit to writing stuff yourself, even if most of the time that benefit is tiny.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#164

Post by CamperBob2 »

cladopa wrote: post #107

I don't thing the problem is AI, but the mindset and trainning. I have probably as many or more AI projects that this man has but they are extremely useful, even if most of them I won't even sell. This is like a kid playing videogames instead of studying, you take the console away and force the kid in front of a book and the kid will spend most of his time looking at the wall and dreaming. I am engineer with very dee…

You don't spend two years doing a Game only to realise later that is not fun

That does happen on occasion, the commonly-cited example being Half-Life. How awesome would it have been if the Valve team hadn't had to waste so much time, money, and personal energy on their initial failed prototype?

Unfortunately most studios ship their failures, either because they don't realize they built something crappy or because the alternative is bankruptcy. A cynic would say that if AI can reduce the cost of experimentation, it will only result in more bad games, while an optimist would argue that it will result in more good games. I think we'll find that they're both right.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#165

Post by deadbabe »

filoleg wrote: post #75
Jordan-117 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk, I'd put it in the same category as doing a crossword puzzle, building a LEGO set, doing some DIY task around the house, etc. A nice diversion that's not entirely creative but stimulating enough, and at the end you have something functional/interesting or at least satisfaction that a particular problem has been solved. It won't change the world or your life or make a million bucks, but not everything has to.

Very much agreed. There is a difference between learning woodworking as a fun hobby that would allow you to make a chair for yourself vs. doing it in hopes of turning it into a profitable business venture that would make an impact on the world. By the grandparent comment logic, there is no point in doing anything, unless it can somehow lead you to making an outsized impact on the world. Thus essentially declaring mos…

The analogy would be more like just buying a premade wood chair and assembling it vs doing any actual woodworking.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#167

Post by saltcured »

logicchains wrote: post #125
FuckButtons wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you are learning something, just the thing you’re learning has an even shorter usable lifespan than programming languages, namely you’re learning what works to get useful responses from ai agents. Whether or not that has value to you is a different matter, but it’s worth bearing in mind something is being learned, even if it’s not engineering or programming.

You're learning to manage idiot savants, which is a very useful skill.

> You're learning to manage idiot savants, which is a very useful skill.

I think the real bifurcation is whether you will settle on that belief.

Some of us are settling on the belief that the idiot savant, lacking the coherence of a functional mind, cannot be managed. It's essentially a chaos agent masquerading as something more cooperative.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#168

Post by CoffeeOnWrite »

chamomeal wrote: post #163
Aurornis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the bifurcation is between people who want to write code and people who want to have the end product of the code. People who want to write code hate AI because it's doing the part they wanted to do. People who want the end product of the code love AI because they want anything that helps them get to the end product faster. The person who wrote this post feels oddly in neither camp. They like playing with the…

> I think the bifurcation is between people who want to write code and people who want to have the end product of the code I think most developers are both! Depends on the task. Sometimes I want the result, sometimes I want the process. Also sometimes, if I want the process, it’s because it’s something I want to have intimate knowledge of. There’s a practical benefit to writing stuff yourself, even if most of the tim…

We should brace ourselves to find less and less satisfaction from the process as we become more comfortable embracing AI. At least, that's what the first chapter in the evolution of the AI-assisted software developer role has taught me.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#169

Post by gitaarik »

I don't really understand; the author first describes a personal planning / management issue, and then blames a particular technology for it. Apparently the author seems to think that the technology is the cause for the personal planning failure. But to be honest, I think the technology just exposes it. The underlying problem was there all along, just because of AI this problem is becoming very clear.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#170

Post by einpoklum »

logicchains wrote: post #125
FuckButtons wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you are learning something, just the thing you’re learning has an even shorter usable lifespan than programming languages, namely you’re learning what works to get useful responses from ai agents. Whether or not that has value to you is a different matter, but it’s worth bearing in mind something is being learned, even if it’s not engineering or programming.

You're learning to manage idiot savants, which is a very useful skill.

The thing is, LLMs are more like the opposite: Sophisticated ignoramuses.
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