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This doesn't match my experience talking with people outside of tech, and as such, the whole essay feels like a straw man. There definitely are some people who drank the kool-aid, but they seem like a minority? I don't live in the Bay Area though.
That said, every major technology wave has needed a similar level of push, hype, and momentum to reach mass adoption. The Internet existed for decades before the public knew what to do with it. AOL gave such a huge push with the “You’ve got mail”, endless free trial CDs and an almost manic push to bring it into homes for it to become the foundation of modern life. The same was true of personal computers: early machines like the Apple II or IBM PC were expensive, clunky, and had little practical software. But without the evangelism, marketing, and cultural hype that surrounded them, the entire ecosystem might never have matured. So while the AI frenzy can feel excessive, some level of over-excitement may be what turns the technology from niche tools into something broadly accessible and transformative — just as it did for the web and the PC before it.
I've found it very weird observing how CEOs across many companies behave as if they're part of some hivemind. When to do layoffs, how to implement office policies, and now pushing AI in the same way as if they have no brain of their own. It's very offputting. I can't tell if its collusion or whether maybe capitalism has its own goals that are pursued in lockstep by its creepy agents. I think the end goal is definitel…
What makes you think that it's only CEOs who look like they're part of a hive mind? It's got nothing to do with capitalism or it's "creepy agents". It's simply the human condition. It's literally company/human see company/human do. One company/management loudly kangs whatever their position is and others simply follow it because they think it's either "industry standard" or it's convenient somehow to them. That's all…
That lot of people literally cannot get hired anywhere but startups because everyone else isn't so naive
> things happen downstream of these unmanaged expectations
It sounds like a metric fuckton of people need to retire or get out of the way already if they can't set expectations despite being in the exact position where they should be able to talk to multiple audiences
None of these excuses appease the investors nor the heads-down employees. Shit will have to change sooner rather than later. Many factors will make it so. This is exactly what defines a tech bubble.
I think this piece makes a fair and important point about LLM hype and the need to treat it as a normal technology rather than a cult movement. The over-the-top marketing and constant “AI will change everything” drumbeat can definitely obscures the more grounded, practical ways it can be used day-to-day. That said, every major technology wave has needed a similar level of push, hype, and momentum to reach mass adopti…
No one gets fired for suggesting no change.
It takes a special level of hype where “doing nothing” is no longer the sensible choice.
Do I wish this hype was spread around to other technologies that are also awesome, of course. I’d love to help someone figure out a way to do that but as of now, we don’t know how to do that. Humans are very bad at holding two different ideas in their head.
> yet nobody outside of that cohort will mention this reality ... you'll basically only hear hype ... This doesn't match my experience talking with people outside of tech, and as such, the whole essay feels like a straw man. There definitely are some people who drank the kool-aid, but they seem like a minority? I don't live in the Bay Area though.
That, and nontech folks tend to assume it can do all the jobs except for the ones they actually know enough about to explain why actually an LLM can’t do that reliably enough to be even slightly okay.
I've found it very weird observing how CEOs across many companies behave as if they're part of some hivemind. When to do layoffs, how to implement office policies, and now pushing AI in the same way as if they have no brain of their own. It's very offputting. I can't tell if its collusion or whether maybe capitalism has its own goals that are pursued in lockstep by its creepy agents. I think the end goal is definitel…
This hivemind is called Blackrock.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think that it's only CEOs who look like they're part of a hive mind? It's got nothing to do with capitalism or it's "creepy agents". It's simply the human condition. It's literally company/human see company/human do. One company/management loudly kangs whatever their position is and others simply follow it because they think it's either "industry standard" or it's convenient somehow to them. That's all…
> This tilts the skill set of the general tech market towards the One True Way making it gospel to a lot of people That lot of people literally cannot get hired anywhere but startups because everyone else isn't so naive > things happen downstream of these unmanaged expectations It sounds like a metric fuckton of people need to retire or get out of the way already if they can't set expectations despite being in the ex…
As Picard says, "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This tilts the skill set of the general tech market towards the One True Way making it gospel to a lot of people That lot of people literally cannot get hired anywhere but startups because everyone else isn't so naive > things happen downstream of these unmanaged expectations It sounds like a metric fuckton of people need to retire or get out of the way already if they can't set expectations despite being in the ex…
Sure, plenty of incompetence out there, but nobody wakes up thinking they’re doing wrong. They overpromise, they play it safe. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. As Picard says, "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life"
I'm skeptical the majority of tech experts are struggling to find the utility of them.
I think this piece makes a fair and important point about LLM hype and the need to treat it as a normal technology rather than a cult movement. The over-the-top marketing and constant “AI will change everything” drumbeat can definitely obscures the more grounded, practical ways it can be used day-to-day. That said, every major technology wave has needed a similar level of push, hype, and momentum to reach mass adopti…
I think this is exactly the right intuition. I think people hopelessly underestimate the human tendency to do nothing. We have this idea that if an innovation is good enough it should “sell itself”, and that’s almost never true because across all organizations, it’s almost always safer to do nothing, adopt nothing, keep doing what you’re doing. No one gets fired for suggesting no change. It takes a special level of h…