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Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

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71–80 of 195 posts

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#71
Sounds like you're burnt out. Maybe its time to touch some grass and think about what is really important and meaningful to you.

About 150 years ago, Nietzsche wrote

> God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?

about the secularization of society. Perhaps something similar is happening to knowledge work now, but I think it was never a great idea to derive all your life's meaning from it anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#72

1. why haven't we developed blood in the lab yet? 2. why haven't we developed organs in the lab yet? 3. why haven't we invented space travel yet? 4. why haven't we solved food, shelter, cover for all human beings on planet earth yet? 5. why don't we have absolute democracy and have hold politicians accountable for their inaction, exploit and abuse? (specifically using Software and AI). Where are the dashboards of all…

5.1. where are the alerts when a politicians takes a bribe or does insider trading?

But they say its okay for them to do it, just not the teleprompter man or any of us

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#73

1. why haven't we developed blood in the lab yet? 2. why haven't we developed organs in the lab yet? 3. why haven't we invented space travel yet? 4. why haven't we solved food, shelter, cover for all human beings on planet earth yet? 5. why don't we have absolute democracy and have hold politicians accountable for their inaction, exploit and abuse? (specifically using Software and AI). Where are the dashboards of all…

Because AI isn't for us. It's for those ruling over us. A simple proof would be that working hours haven't reduced despite "increase in productivity" claimed by everyone. Some companies more demand 30 to 50% more work due to AI

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#74

I think the phenomena we are experiencing is "change". That's what change looks like. Out with the old, in with the new. It feels like nothing matters only because this is all happening too fast. Since we are talking about AI, I'll bring up one thing that hasn't changed, or hasn't been solved at least by AI. Understanding. We are producing so much more than ever, yet we are not understanding the world better. You can…

So the next step is to make machines understand the things it needs to understand to solve the problems we care about.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#75
post #46

This is a form of ego death and should be taken seriously. Your/our place(s) in society have been shaken up like dice in a cup...and someone may not even care to pour them out and see what numbers come out. What are you like when no one is watching? Like any death, it will re-arrange your values. Fortunately existentialist philosophers have been grasping with this for some time. The secret is you have to make your ow…

Sound advice.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5.1. where are the alerts when a politicians takes a bribe or does insider trading?

But they say its okay for them to do it, just not the teleprompter man or any of us

Because we let them by not having the dashboard and alerts

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a backend/full-stack engineer I still receive at least a few linkedin recruiter messages a week.

curious how long have you been in the field? Ive been wondering if it's my age or my LinkedIn algorithm changed for the worse in February once I updated it. I hadnt updated it in many years previously.

I am not the one who posted before. But try this to maximize LinkedIn.

Consciously, "Like" job posts. That is, in the feed section of linkedin, "like" any type of jobs that you see others post. Linkedin will show you more job posts in your feed, which others post. You "like" that too. Then it will show more job postings. Keep liking that too from your feed. But don't like or view or read any other posts while you do this. Not even your friends/partner's posts.

Do this at least 3-4 times a day, with 5-10 likes in each batch.

In a week's time, Linkedin will flood your feed with job posts from actual users. Now you become selective and like only design/web developer posts that your skills align with. Then it will bring more of it and you might be able to find something.

There are two things that happens. Recruiters/hiring managers see that you liked their post, so they check your profile. Keep it updated. Your profile visits will also go up. Linkedin sees that your profile is viewed by more recruiters, and your profile will be shown above other profiles when recruiters search using their tool.

I hope you get a job soon, and you can thank me later!

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#78
It’s not unusual to feel this way right now. The world is arguably in an interesting state.

One thing to keep in mind is the world probably felt this way a few times as well. During the Vietnam War and the administration at the time probably made people feel powerless to do anything. 1930s crash. Lots of other examples like this.

AI certainly seems like a unique tipping point that reaches into all aspects of humanity. So, maybe it’s different this time.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why write programming languages if LLMs are fast enough to talk plaintext everything to eachother with perfect memory

Why go see Rome when you can google up some photos? Why climb Mt Everest? Why have your own sex when there's so much porn? The answer is going to be the same it's always been: because we fucking can .

This is totally how I’m feeling right now.

This stuff has empowered me to finish the BS I don’t want to do rapidly then do other cool stuff I want to do.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like nothing matters anymore?

#80
post #6

Yes. And math too. I think there's lots of beauty remaining in understanding these things, and using that understanding to craft things cleanly rather than as slop, but no one will pay us to do it, so we will never have the opportunity to do it.

You don’t have to get paid to make contributions to math. There are still loads of hobbyists making contributions around the world. The guy that found the aperiodic monotile was a hobbyist who collaborated with a researcher. There was a significant proof in combinatorics (lower bound on superpermutations) contributed by an anonymous 4chan poster!

Hobbyist mathematics may long outlive a lot of research mathematics, and I think that’s okay. There’s nothing in the human spirit of inquiry that necessitates academia as an all-powerful institution. Heck, there have been a lot of problems with the institution in recent years, and those have everything to do with perverse incentives and nothing to do with AI.

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