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Feeling Sad about AI

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Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#211

Post by willchis »

notpachet wrote: post #172
simonw wrote: post #66

I'm not sure how useful it is to say this, but I think a lot of people (myself included, a few years ago now) have been through this moment of existential crisis and come out the other side. The initial reaction, when some coding agent does a piece of work that would have taken you a week in an hour and does it well , is to be very disheartened by it. Once you come to terms with the idea that translating an exact spe…

There's a larger existential crisis still in store for you. Our global civilization is collapsing. We are choking to death on the unchecked negative externalities of our own progress. It is our species' Achilles heel. Whether or not an individual developer adapts to this temporary capability blip (agentic coding) will not matter in the long run. The systems necessary for supporting these capabilities are too brittle…

I keep mentioning to people that last winter parts of the arctic were 10C hotter than the average for the last 100 years and I get blank looks.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#212

Post by notpachet »

qarl wrote: post #174
slowin wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The initial reaction, when some coding agent does a piece of work that would have taken you a week in an hour and does it well, is to be very disheartened by it. I think it depends on the person. I've been waiting for AI since I first saw Wargames as a child. As soon as I saw that agents could code at or beyond my level, it felt like the entire world was unlocked. Now I can explore so many ideas that I was bottle-n…

> it feels like a superpower I say "it feels like flying." People worry that I'm too enthusiastic about AI. My obvious answer is - wouldn't you love to fly too?

There's a mythological story about the hubris of flying; I'm sure Claude can pull it up for you.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#213

Post by slater »

erqtw1 wrote: post #140

I know a lot of people could be watching this and thinking, "where were you when they disrespected me?" - I was flagged in 2018 when I said DEI is industry propaganda to divide and conquer. This is now accepted. - I was flagged when they told coal miners to "learn how to code" because that was industry propaganda. - I was flagged when I said bitcoin is for money laundering. So the people with flagging power never car…

> DEI is industry propaganda to divide and conquer. This is now accepted.

Neither true, nor accepted.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#214

Post by augment_me »

ungovernableCat wrote: post #183
augment_me wrote: post #56

This points to the bigger issue of people tying their value and identity to their livelihood. There is way too much clout, ego and identity chasing going on in all informational fields. If you instead identified as a parent, as a hobbyist programmer, as a rock climber, as a learner, as a meditator, in essence as anything that is not directly tied to your occupation, you don't have anything to worry or be sad about. T…

>you don't have anything to worry or be sad about Except you know, if you lose your occupation feeding the kids and paying for a roof over their head becomes a bit difficult.

Income loss is a different question, it's not about your identity, which is what the post is about.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#215

Post by ericmcer »

abnry wrote: post #14

I did well in school and the praise I received for excelling in my math degree did shape my life and impact my motivations. I do like praise. But outside of social reasons, it's understanding I crave. Thoroughly understanding a topic is awesome. I remember the feeling of acing my qualifier exam in grad school. Those LLMs change nothing fundamentally about this motivation and need and capability. I can't type a prompt…

Well yeah it conditions you to turn towards it anytime you hit a roadblock.

It is in a precarious state right now where it is too good not to leverage but will bite you if you get sloppy.

I still write things by hand sometimes because it is fun, but it does make you feel stupid when you spend 2 hours fixing something a 2 min prompt could have fixed.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#216

Post by [deleted] »

landdate wrote: post #202
reenorap wrote: post #48

I feel the opposite of sad, I am very very excited. I love programming and I love technology, but the stuff I'm doing now is beyond what I could not do on my own, and now I'm spending a few hours building complete end-to-end stuff. This is the golden age for builders. I created a fully working house simulator, I made a math test creator for my kids, I fixed up some other side projects that I had and added observabili…

ambition: the feeling of innate dissatisfaction that motivates one into fixing a problem that doesn't exist. you ambitious people have destroyed the world and humanity. if you had an ounce of self awareness you would hide your face in shame. Those who decided its not enough to survive from hunting and gathering are demons. Farmers are rotten and their putrid large brains know nothing but more. Same mentality behind p…

[deleted]

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#217

Post by HEmanZ »

simonw wrote: post #66

I'm not sure how useful it is to say this, but I think a lot of people (myself included, a few years ago now) have been through this moment of existential crisis and come out the other side. The initial reaction, when some coding agent does a piece of work that would have taken you a week in an hour and does it well , is to be very disheartened by it. Once you come to terms with the idea that translating an exact spe…

The fear isn’t about now, it’s about trajectory. Everyone’s existential dread would evaporate if this is where it stops.

The dread is: where does this stop? Right now, with ai I can fly. But when does ai no longer need me? Just as an extreme example: a this pace, how far are we from “AI agent, here’s our assets, make money”? If every year 50% of the job disappears, how long until there is no human-ai team, just ai.

Idk, this conversation is endlessly frustrating, because people seem to have so much certainty one way or another about the future. Fear comes from not knowing more than anything.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#218

Post by qarl »

notpachet wrote: post #212
qarl wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it feels like a superpower I say "it feels like flying." People worry that I'm too enthusiastic about AI. My obvious answer is - wouldn't you love to fly too?

There's a mythological story about the hubris of flying; I'm sure Claude can pull it up for you.

HA! Yes, too true.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#219

Post by bornfreddy »

qarl wrote: post #174
slowin wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The initial reaction, when some coding agent does a piece of work that would have taken you a week in an hour and does it well, is to be very disheartened by it. I think it depends on the person. I've been waiting for AI since I first saw Wargames as a child. As soon as I saw that agents could code at or beyond my level, it felt like the entire world was unlocked. Now I can explore so many ideas that I was bottle-n…

> it feels like a superpower I say "it feels like flying." People worry that I'm too enthusiastic about AI. My obvious answer is - wouldn't you love to fly too?

I already did, before AI:

  import antigravity

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#220

Post by ungovernableCat »

augment_me wrote: post #214
ungovernableCat wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you don't have anything to worry or be sad about Except you know, if you lose your occupation feeding the kids and paying for a roof over their head becomes a bit difficult.

Income loss is a different question, it's not about your identity, which is what the post is about.

The author does say it's a potential threat to his career and income so clearly he would have something to worry about even if his identity was built on something else.

I agree with you though, the foundation of your identity shouldn't be your career. It's a very fragile thing in today's world.

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