A while back, I noticed that using Claude all day left me feeling mentally tired.
After thinking it over, I realised the problem was Claude’s complex language. I’ve used English daily for years, so that shouldn’t be an issue. To compare, I switched Claude to my native language and had the same problem the author described. The text still needed to be literally deciphered before I could understand it.
After talking with Claude, I updated the settings to ask for simpler language and less dense information. Natural language works better with some entropy in the text. This change has made things easier.
Don't be a meat proxy
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Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#472I've been on the receiving end of too many "Slop Grenades" as well, to the point where I simply reply with https://noslopgrenade.com/ these days.
I have this set as my slack bio
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#473[deleted]
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#474I will frequently post the output of a computer to slack as a part of an engineering discussion. For Claude output I'll treat it the same, wrap it in code blocks, and say something like "Claude's analysis". If its ok to post system logs, why is it less ok to post claude's output (also a computer), especially if I declare this? Is the difference that its plausibly human-level speech and thus breaks an implicit contrac…
But you're now just passing on the mental effort to decipher that analysis, without spending any effort of your own, onto someone else. Do you see the issue?
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#475I love the word "meat proxy" :) For me what matters most is whether the person understood the core of the thing they are forwarding. Usually a wall of text is contraindicative of that. I want my team to be able to write the core idea on a whiteboard without any help before going ahead and sharing or implementing it. Wrote it up here of when (instead of if) to use AI in any given context: https://assistedeverything.su…
Not sure why I first heard it, but I think the crux of the issue is that you can outsource intelligence, but you can’t outsource understanding
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#476I will frequently post the output of a computer to slack as a part of an engineering discussion. For Claude output I'll treat it the same, wrap it in code blocks, and say something like "Claude's analysis". If its ok to post system logs, why is it less ok to post claude's output (also a computer), especially if I declare this? Is the difference that its plausibly human-level speech and thus breaks an implicit contrac…
The problem is that there is no signal to the folks involved whether you have bothered to understand what you’re posting or are simply offloading that work to others.
Same issue as dumping a system log or a stack trace without any of your own analyses to be honest - people are going to wonder “okay. but what do you want me to do with this?”
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#477Rough opinion: If you're a developer who chose to be a meat proxy, you shouldn't whine if/when you're laid off, because clearly LLMs can do your job.
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a lot of that is people who were always very insecure because they’re mediocre engineers. Previously asking questions or not understanding something was a bit painful but now you can hear “you’re absolutely right!” and make progress all day every day. Until you need to interact with actual humans and that’s why you try to minimise it, hiding behind ai generated content.
Maybe that's how you get people in HN claiming to be infinitely more productive now thanks to AI.
I do believe there's a tiny subset of people who are more productive with AI, in the same way that Erdős was more productive with amphetamine.
But most who keep on going about their 10x productivity gain are indistinguishable from that one obnoxious guy at a party who won't shut up about his Ayahuasca retreat last spring. And they think they're Erdős.
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#479When you say "X proxy" the 'X' stands for the thing that is being proxied not the thing that is doing the proxying.
Re: Don't be a meat proxy
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who uses the word "obnoxious" are also obnoxious. There are many unpleasant words, you have to use some of them and people don't like any of them.
Would you refer to someone as a midwit in a typical office environment and expect your professional reputation to remain intact? If you were to do this on an ongoing basis for whatever reason, how long before you're asked to have a little chat with the folks in HR? Would you then attempt to explain it away as one of those unpleasant words that you just had to use? I want to be there for that conversation.
Engaging in direct open conflict in a sanitized environment like an office is shooting yourself in the foot. Different norms for different rooms.