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

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131–140 of 195 posts

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

#131

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…

We need direct democracy. Representative democracy is a crutch and a workaround for the real thing.

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

#132
Yes, all that and more. It doesn't feel to me like cheats are available, it feels like a cheater has entered the game and there is no point in taking the game seriously anymore.

I heavily invested into dream of learning throughout all my life and benefiting from it financially and socially. Now it seems that won't come to be true. I've always been taught since childhood that the important things are those that you can carry in your head, because no one is going to take it away from you. I guess now they are wrong, while it cannot be taken directly it can be heavily debased to the point of pointlessness of having it.

On top of that, the enshittification of everything tech-related, tightening grip on privacy. Quality collapse, not just what I am doesn't have any value, but nothing produced by anyone does. For example, I don't consider reading books that came after ~2024. On top of that, fear of bigger changes and turmoils related to redistribution of wealth (always upwards, of course), dystopic vision of the future. On top of that, war in my country with no end in sight and shifts to authoritarianism.

I'm trying to find a way out of this, and I'm finding interesting observations. For example, one shouldn't overinvest themselves into anything - "never keep all you eggs in the same basket", because nothing is permanent. For me that was the idea of continuous self-improvement that would allow me to keep both a fulfilling job and middle-class lifestyle. It was the most important thing in life, and, of course, when it shattered the pain was substantial. It is possible to find and have other important things in life, some of them could be friends, family, community.

Then, no one is going to take away what you do with your mind, especially in free time. You could give up on everything AI related and just enjoy the things you like. Maybe on the worse side of job market there won't be much apart from mercenaries, drug dealers and prostitutes. But in all better cases there's going to be something to occupy yourself with and live relatively serene life. Janitor, any kind of manual laborer that cannot be automated, small farmer, to name a few that came to mind. In free time (or during work even) you could read/listen to anything you like.

And then, this is just the baseline, things could actually turn out better.

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

#133
This trend started even before AI but just go accelerated recently. Us software engineers are sitting in the front-row experiencing it first and hardest. Not just the fact AI can code now, adjacent terms of similar symptoms are also "loneliness epidemic", "cost of living", etc.

Before this turns into an endless rant, back to the question: in the age of "100:1 agents to human ratio soon?", we should be even more nicer to each other fellow human beings. That may help us find purpose/motivations again.

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

#134
post #11

Corollary to your complaints: Another downside that I haven't seen on anyone's AI hatelist yet is that it crowds out all other discussion. What happened to everyone talking about languages, protocols, algorithms, architecture, etc.? We can't have those conversations anymore because we're not even sure they matter now. In fact, we probably suspect they don't, hence the not bothering. Also, anything we do write will ju…

To go along with that, it's also crowding out a whole generation's worth of labor and innovation. We're not curing cancer, we're churning out TPS reports faster and drowning in Show HN shovelware.

To be fair, i dont think there is a huge overlap in the people who can cure cancer and the people vomiting out Show HN projects

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

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Ask HN received 116 points and was on the front page. How come it vanished from the front page, the 2nd page and so forth here on HN? This is important topic to a huge portion of HN readers and to see how were feeling / thinking during these times of uncertainity.

Yeah it seems dang has some kind of nether region to vanish these types of discussions to. Shame, seemed to have really hit a deep nerve.

I think it might be because of the comment to like ratio or something. Hope I am wront, but its like someone doesnt want something generating lots of discussion… in a discussion forum

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

#136
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…

[flagged]

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

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think (5) is called "democracy", but it sounds nice. Democracy is "everyone gets a vote", which devolves into a battle of populists. There's nothing in democracy that would guarantee the kind of accountability you are describing. Besides, as soon as you introduce this kind of checking, you'll just cement the oligarchy. The winning strategy would be for a billionaire not officially in government to work their…

> Democracy is "everyone gets a vote" It is that we are governed by those chosen by us to represent us. In a perfect democracy the government is (the majority of) us . Hence the saying … “in a democracy the people get the government they deserve”.

Government is whatever fills a power vacuum, most likely gangsters and warlords. The function of democracy is to disrupt and confound government.

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

#139
post #96
post #11

Corollary to your complaints: Another downside that I haven't seen on anyone's AI hatelist yet is that it crowds out all other discussion. What happened to everyone talking about languages, protocols, algorithms, architecture, etc.? We can't have those conversations anymore because we're not even sure they matter now. In fact, we probably suspect they don't, hence the not bothering. Also, anything we do write will ju…

We need to start talking about real Software Engineering concepts. The stuff we will write to guide agents to build our software. We will be building architectural blueprints for software "buildings" same as Civic Engineers and Architects do for bridges and towers.

You underestimate the amount of detailed tedious work that is done in those fields. It’s far from being all about architectural blueprints.

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To go along with that, it's also crowding out a whole generation's worth of labor and innovation. We're not curing cancer, we're churning out TPS reports faster and drowning in Show HN shovelware.

To be fair, i dont think there is a huge overlap in the people who can cure cancer and the people vomiting out Show HN projects

The overlap comes from the cancer-curing-capable people also drowning in AI slop and people using AI to flood the space with ideas on how to solve cancer and funders wanting to see people using AI because they think it will solve cancer, etc.

It affects everybody.

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