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

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

#171

Post by mmcnl »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #31
bm3719 wrote: 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.

Why are we not curing cancer? We should.

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

#172

Post by zingababba »

I think the hard lesson here that will probably get buried and obfuscated eternally is that we have literally just recreated all of the horrible parts of management but now at the IC level.

Every IC now has an entire army of claude or whatever agents indulging all their bullshit endlessly. I'm seeing it in fortune 200s all over the place at the moment. You have IC after IC just dopamine maxxing solutions left and right that don't play well with other IC solutions. Little fiefdoms exactly like what you would find at management barriers but so much worse somehow because for the majority of it you take one look and realize it's complete slop.

I honestly don't know how all this shit will get cleaned up but it seems like ICs are doing an insane amount of damage all over the place probably because everyone is depressed and demoralized and basically like 'fuck it'.

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

#173

Post by xboxnolifes »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #25
bm3719 wrote: 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…

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

Even if that were true: to save on inference costs.

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

#174

Post by red-iron-pine »

> “If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. "

- David Foster Wallace

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

#176

Post by Unknown_Unknown »

ryuuseijin wrote: post #47

I agree that AI is a gamechanger in many ways, however it is not the end of life or the end of civilization. Life will go on, and people will be happy productive members of society, even with AI becoming part of everyday life - at least that is what I believe, since believing the alternative would be self defeating. When I think back to the 90s when the internet became popular, to me, living in the middle of nowhere,…

> Life will go on, and people will be happy productive members of society, even with AI becoming part of everyday life - at least that is what I believe, since believing the alternative would be self defeating.

Unfortunately, I'm not so optimistic. If the rapid change in AI advancement continues at this rate, bar some world wars or an economic collapse, we will face an existensial crisis as humans. AI for me is not attacking or replacing human jobs, it is coming after the cost of our own intelligence. I fear that the cost of human intelligence will go down with time compared to AI. We will no longer be needed to perform tasks as part of an economic framework (capitalism or other will not matter). Money will not be worth anything and hopefully we get to UBI quickly. I don't believe that my son who is 5 will work till retirement age.

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

#177

Post by throw-the-towel »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #79
throw-the-towel wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is true too! I have ADHD-like executive problems, and sometimes doing the boring but necessary stuff is so painful I abandon the project entirely. Now, though? I entrust it to the agent, and even if it's slop it's still done, and this actually gives me the impetus to start moving again.

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

#178

Post by ejboy »

unified101 wrote: post #102
ejboy wrote: post #101

Totally. I've learned a lot this year, but the knowledge feels shallow. I'm now mostly outcome-oriented, rather than focused on the journey.

That seems to be in your control to fix? I have been on this journey, but capitalism does not make it easy.

[flagged]

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

#179

Post by piloto_ciego »

throw-the-towel wrote: post #177
piloto_ciego wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is true too! I have ADHD-like executive problems, and sometimes doing the boring but necessary stuff is so painful I abandon the project entirely. Now, though? I entrust it to the agent, and even if it's slop it's still done, and this actually gives me the impetus to start moving again.

I am not an ADHDer (though I often wonder if I'm on some spectrum or another), but this is one of the things I have found great success in. If I can yeet through most of the busy work associated with a project, and focus on the stuff that really matters?

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

#180

Post by t0bia_s »

tclancy wrote: post #20

Hey, congrats on coming up on a birthday that ends in 0. Mine was just 5-0. I can give you two pieces of possible advice: - nothing does matter. You will die. We may meet in the Bardo if you are spectacularly unlucky. - the trick is now being kind and enjoying your time after discovering this.

Sounds like only materialism matter. But life is more than that fortunately. You can care, you can explore, you can love, be thankful, look around, go out, behind our ego...
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