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Expertise in the age of AI

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Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#101

Post by brilee »

j_w wrote: post #77

In the section "Everyone should learn some coding": > I would say that the major unlocks are at: 1-2 weeks: Basic understanding of what the field is about and what general words to use when asking the AI to do something. 1-2 months: Basic understanding of how and when to ask the AI something. 4-6 months: Ability to check the output for correctness (using external sources as needed). 1-2 weeks for enough of an underst…

(author here)

As a serial successful field-hopper, I agree that I'm not the right person to be making these estimates.

But the external view is that college courses roughly expect you to do what I'm claiming, in roughly the time investment that I'm claiming -- and undergrads are typically in 4+ classes at a time. So is it that the whole educational system is delusional? (I fully acknowledge it might be so!)

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#102

Post by mwigdahl »

dakolli wrote: post #52
bijowo1676 wrote: post #38

AI compresses the time to acquire expertise. A high schooler can become an expert very quickly with AI, that used to require years and years of education and experience. but the real expertise still will be to translate real world problems to technical solutions and iterate on design.

This is already studied, people do not retain knowledge when learning with AI. Learning with AI only creates the most mediocre of people, I've witnessed this myself over and over and over again over the last couple of years. Read a book, write, think and you'll be fine. Use LLM and your brain is going to become completely reliant on its ability to access some billionaires thinking machine in order to read and write.…

This effect is certainly real, likely even the default, but it's not inevitable.

I had great results using AI to help my son study for his final exams in chemistry and math. We went through the review guide the teacher provided, he did the problems, I checked them, and I had Claude generate additional targeted problems as permutations of the ones he had difficulty with. He worked them and got more practice in exactly the areas he was weak.

I could have set these problems up myself, but it was much smoother to have Claude set them up and I validate them. It let him get a lot more reps in, in exactly the areas he _needed_ more practice, than he would have otherwise.

The key is that to learn you have to do the work. AI can help you figure out where you're weak and provide the wherewithal to get additional practice, and there's huge value there. But you have to lift the mental weights yourself.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#103

Post by b3kart »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #89
b3kart wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so universities become trade schools? one concern is where does one get theoretical knowledge required for e.g. going to graduate school and then doing research to push the state of the art. that's one of the reasons universities emphasize theory: it's seen as the first step on the academic ladder, not as a trade school

First off I don’t like the tone most people use when they say “trade school”. Most cs students go to a job out of school. Of the roughly 10% who go on to grad school, 10% will pursue a PhD. So 99/100 students in undergrad will not be pursuing higher computer science. We should acknowledge that and the new circumstances where writing code by hand is harder to do in corporations who use AI. Universities can provide a p…

“education” is not the same as “job training”. there’s more to education than learning skills you can apply at your job. it’s learning how to think critically, study literature, problem solve, collaborate with others, etc. etc. skills that I believe all humans could benefit from, irrespective of their job. yes, trade schools are more immediately valuable in the strict capitalist sense, but I wish we lived in a world where everyone could spare a few years to grow as a person, not immediately start optimizing for salary. alas, could be wishful thinking

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#104

Post by vjvjvjvjghv »

xp84 wrote: post #26
btilly wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that professors say "learn to think critically", then actually just want the students to learn to sound like them, and agree with them. Actual critical thought has been on the decline for some time. This is especially true in the humanities and the social sciences. Where truth is hard to ascertain, and therefore it is easier to substitute political correctness for critical thought.

Some will probably dismiss your comment as partisan but it is very hard to (honestly) argue that this isn’t the case. “Think critically…” but only about the cliché punching bags of academia: capitalism, Western culture, American foreign policy, The Patriarchy, etc. I didn’t witness any college classes that encouraged us to think critically about socialism, or think critically about Islam, or think critically about no…

100% agree. But this seems to be standard now for most political dialog. Either one group will call you a racist or the other group will call you communist. Or maybe antisemitic.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#105

Post by yw3410 »

brilee wrote: post #101
j_w wrote: post #77

In the section "Everyone should learn some coding": > I would say that the major unlocks are at: 1-2 weeks: Basic understanding of what the field is about and what general words to use when asking the AI to do something. 1-2 months: Basic understanding of how and when to ask the AI something. 4-6 months: Ability to check the output for correctness (using external sources as needed). 1-2 weeks for enough of an underst…

(author here) As a serial successful field-hopper, I agree that I'm not the right person to be making these estimates. But the external view is that college courses roughly expect you to do what I'm claiming, in roughly the time investment that I'm claiming -- and undergrads are typically in 4+ classes at a time. So is it that the whole educational system is delusional? (I fully acknowledge it might be so!)

Noone trusts a new graduate to do a code review - especially for big or novel features.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#106

Post by m0llusk »

peab wrote: post #56
hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

AI is the most important, impactful and disruptive technology of today. It makes sense to be talking about it.

And yet, some of the most important questions that come up with technology is which one should I use, how much does it cost, what are the best practices, what serious risks should I look out for, and that sort of thing. With generative LLms we are being told use the latest, or maybe the full super intelligence expected in a few months, pay whatever, best practices are just emerging but focus on not using it too much and avoiding overload, and the risks are seriously deteriorated skills and focus which don't matter anymore anyway. And while these critical questions lack compelling answers people are seeing kids who can't answer basic questions or think things through, data centers causing massive complications, and theft of intellectual property on a grand scale. Instead we go over and over about what you can do with this technology and what human employees are good for anyway.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#107

Post by j_w »

brilee wrote: post #101
j_w wrote: post #77

In the section "Everyone should learn some coding": > I would say that the major unlocks are at: 1-2 weeks: Basic understanding of what the field is about and what general words to use when asking the AI to do something. 1-2 months: Basic understanding of how and when to ask the AI something. 4-6 months: Ability to check the output for correctness (using external sources as needed). 1-2 weeks for enough of an underst…

(author here) As a serial successful field-hopper, I agree that I'm not the right person to be making these estimates. But the external view is that college courses roughly expect you to do what I'm claiming, in roughly the time investment that I'm claiming -- and undergrads are typically in 4+ classes at a time. So is it that the whole educational system is delusional? (I fully acknowledge it might be so!)

The reality is that most people write horrible code.

The programming knowledge of a university student that just completed their intro programming course is abysmal. The programming knowledge of a university student that just completed the 4 year degree, but didn't spend hundreds to thousands of additional hours working on programming outside of that is abysmal. College classes don't expect you to learn programming to any real extent, they expect you to learn computer science. And the rigor of most schools is even questionable there.

I've been programming for a long time and I'm still not sure if what I write is very good. I know it's better than a lot of what I see, but shiny trash is still trash. I've seen astoundingly bad production issues (bugs are sometimes an understatement) produced by senior engineers. Those people have years of experience and I wouldn't trust them to properly review my code, let alone LLM code.

I do think people should try and learn the basics of any and everything, and I mean everything literally. But if you know the basics of biology are you now able to credibly review ChatGPT's medical advice?

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#108

Post by myhf »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

Hacker News is like an enclave of soldiers who haven't heard that the war is over. Those who don't make an effort to rejoin society will be left behind after "AI" companies bankrupt all of their customers and "AI" investors move on to the next fad.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#109

Post by pbgcp2026 »

peab wrote: post #56
hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

AI is the most important, impactful and disruptive technology of today. It makes sense to be talking about it.

... and so was the Big Data! (Remember 3xVs of it? I do – but most people who made a serial promos out of it don't. AI will have its winter. Again. Another one. Soon.)

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#110

Post by pbgcp2026 »

WolfeReader wrote: post #24
hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

It's polluting the world, gobbling up hardware, and making us dumber. And HN and LinkedIn just can't get enough. People say AI is the new internet. I say AI is the new tobacco.

It also kills humans at scale. And helps developing that field more ...
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