Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Not everyone is using AI for everything

gabrielweinberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 565 posts

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#121

Post by retired »

hypfer wrote: post #109
emodendroket wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.

I mean maybe that is because I live in a still mostly not failed state (Germany), but I can't imagine that these things would be _so bad_ that living in fear of saying the wrong thing would be something worth considering. Plus, and leaving that aside, I have my doubts that even if you did that, that that company would stay alive for very long. Reality has the habit of eventually ripping this kind of unproductively de…

How is Germany relevant in this?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#122

Post by acc_297 »

whinvik wrote: post #107
acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> re-factoring a big repo of decades old fortran+C cod Having been in academia in the past and now in software I can say with a lot of certainty that this will take a lot more upfront work than otherwise. Academic code does not have a lot of structure. And usually lacks a lot in terms of tests. While AI is best when it can mimic patterns as well as there are tests to target. So you will probably need to budget a few…

exactly yeah it was a code base written by atmospheric physicists I assume and I had an idea that maybe copilot could get it working to interface with some more modern software and it just didn't really have what it takes.

Even with 3 weeks I'm just not the Fortran/C programmer to get that job done so I moved on to other things.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#123

Post by hypfer »

retired wrote: post #121
hypfer wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean maybe that is because I live in a still mostly not failed state (Germany), but I can't imagine that these things would be _so bad_ that living in fear of saying the wrong thing would be something worth considering. Plus, and leaving that aside, I have my doubts that even if you did that, that that company would stay alive for very long. Reality has the habit of eventually ripping this kind of unproductively de…

How is Germany relevant in this?

Acknowledging that my perception might be skewed because there are still a ton of social safety nets in place.

The same might not be true everywhere.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#124

Post by sroerick »

emodendroket wrote: post #99

> People are consuming AI like they eat meat: some are embracing it, some are limiting their use of it, and some are avoiding it altogether. That's an interesting analogy as, despite the real ecological issues with it and principled arguments against meat eating, in general meat consumption has trended upward globally in country after country for decades.

Maybe this is because I live in Wyoming, but "AI is not ubiquitous, there are some people, like Vegans, who eschew it" is not the most compelling argument.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#125

Post by whehhshs »

krona wrote: post #90
whehhshs wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because typing “code” takes time and significant amounts of it. We are slowly waking up to the fact, which was always true, that “coding” is just a fanciful preparatory task in order to appease the spirits properly so that we may invoke the spirit of what we are actually after: a live, running process that does useful things. Code is completely useless when separated from that fact. Typing it is a complete waste of t…

The typing was never the bottleneck.

Can you type a hundred lines a second? If not, then it is.

Code is obscenely low level.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#126

Post by lukevp »

hypfer wrote: post #109
emodendroket wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.

I mean maybe that is because I live in a still mostly not failed state (Germany), but I can't imagine that these things would be _so bad_ that living in fear of saying the wrong thing would be something worth considering. Plus, and leaving that aside, I have my doubts that even if you did that, that that company would stay alive for very long. Reality has the habit of eventually ripping this kind of unproductively de…

The US has no social safety net. Healthcare comes from your employer. Everything is centered around having a job. Opinions on AI diverge significantly and someone’s response to this question would be pivotal to me in a hiring role. The market is not great for job seekers. The hiring manager can wait for someone who aligns with their company’s perspective on this.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#127

Post by blitzar »

hypfer wrote: post #82
acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

> Have you considered just answering truthfully?

I remember the graduate recruitment days - If you told the truth you were the only candidate they saw all day that wasn't the captain of the football team, top of the class and voted most likely to succeed - aka the worst candidate they saw all day.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#128

Post by sfn42 »

mikert89 wrote: post #117
variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

models will get smarter, this wont be an issue

Come talk to me when it isn't an issue.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#129

Post by retired »

hypfer wrote: post #123
retired wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Germany relevant in this?

Acknowledging that my perception might be skewed because there are still a ton of social safety nets in place. The same might not be true everywhere.

Last time I was in Germany I saw elderly people going through garbage bins in the park I sat at. I think you overestimate the safety net in Germany. In my European country the elderly sit at cafes drinking coffee, not going through bins.

Update:

Every street corner has a yellow garbage bin for recycling. That is where your plastic bottles go. Seems like a better system than having elderly going through bins.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#130

Post by inigyou »

whehhshs wrote: post #73
JCTheDenthog wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just write it yourself?

Because typing “code” takes time and significant amounts of it. We are slowly waking up to the fact, which was always true, that “coding” is just a fanciful preparatory task in order to appease the spirits properly so that we may invoke the spirit of what we are actually after: a live, running process that does useful things. Code is completely useless when separated from that fact. Typing it is a complete waste of t…

No serious programmer is regularly bottlenecked by typing speed. Even the ones who type slowly.

If you find yourself writing repetitive code you should consider adding a layer of abstraction. If your language isn't powerful enough you can write a code generator.

Post reply on HN