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Ending my elixir exploratory writing

lucassifoni.info

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Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#21

Post by troupo »

ch4s3 wrote: post #9
sodapopcan wrote: post #7

> discussion has collapsed I used to be extremely active on Elixir Forum. It was the main place I would interact with people online, and HN was a bit of a distant second. Now HN usage has spiked a bit and I now have a... ugh... reddit account. There is still some decent discussion there, but it's largely library announcements (many vibe coded), some blog posts (that are often about AI), and news posts. Questions abou…

It doesn't help that the default page changed from the form to whatever the fuck it is now that requires multiple steps to see comments.

I still have no idea how to use that abomination of a page. Any obvious clicks lead to some weird states and places that are completely unobvious.

I need to get to the list of topics in a forum, or to comments on a post damnit

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#22

Post by ch4s3 »

troupo wrote: post #21
ch4s3 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't help that the default page changed from the form to whatever the fuck it is now that requires multiple steps to see comments.

I still have no idea how to use that abomination of a page. Any obvious clicks lead to some weird states and places that are completely unobvious. I need to get to the list of topics in a forum, or to comments on a post damnit

I'd complain over there but it's historically been pointless.

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#24

Post by sodapopcan »

chantepierre wrote: post #18
sodapopcan wrote: post #7

> discussion has collapsed I used to be extremely active on Elixir Forum. It was the main place I would interact with people online, and HN was a bit of a distant second. Now HN usage has spiked a bit and I now have a... ugh... reddit account. There is still some decent discussion there, but it's largely library announcements (many vibe coded), some blog posts (that are often about AI), and news posts. Questions abou…

Hey, post author here, just to say that I've appreciated your presence on the forum a lot since I started using Elixir. You are one of those who brought a warm tone there :)

Oh Lucas! Ha, I searched your name on the forum before even reading the article but did so hastily, a thread for a talk which I guess you commented on came up, and I thought you were the guy from the talk and was like, "Nope, don't know him" and closed the page.

Anyway, thanks, and back at you, and hi, and nice article :)

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#25

Post by chantepierre »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #23

It’s sad that in the face of seeing AI content out there, so many writers are retreating to not feed the beast: it’s a white flag that speeds up the war being won by AI. We need more human writing, not less. I hope this trend reverses sometime soon.

I agree that we need more human writing. I will simply stop in-public exploratory programming for the time being.

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#26

Post by evnp »

sarreph wrote: post #3

The most enlightening experience I had from programming was picking up Elixir for Advent of Code[0] 3 years ago. At that point in my career, I knew what I was doing and had built various apps and systems. TypeScript and React was my safe-space, but which I often committed the sin of over engineering things to be as functional as possible in. I'd tried Go, which I didn't really like because it was too imperative for m…

> It's just a shame to hear that the author is, for now at least, stopping their engagement with the community due to how they perceive it's changing!

Want to clarify for others reading that the author of _Elixir_ isn't stopping, just the author of this post. José has been shockingly responsive on recent issue/pr threads I've posted on Elixir-related repos recently, often same day. They also don't seem to use any bot-based code review, which is incredibly refreshing in contrast to many other repos[1] in 2026 (Sorry for the callout, it's just such a good example). Elixir projects have been a joy as a fairly new contributor, compared to other ecosystems.

[1] https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/pull/13188

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#27

Post by jimmaswell »

Years before gen AI took off, when I wrote internet-facing prose or code, I thought "even if nobody reads this, maybe some AI will read it some day and find it useful, so I should still make it accurate", never expecting such a day to come so soon.

Now that it has, I'm overjoyed that my work has had some tiny part in training the models that are helping millions of people implement their tech ideas or even just write some text.

"The machine superintelligence learned from your ideas" is awesome sci-fi, not a reason for pearl-clutching. To stop publishing purely because you don't want AI to learn from you is misguided at best and misanthropic at worst.

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#28

Post by jimmaswell »

astro-lizard wrote: post #4

I have come to the same conclusion in my personal technical writing. I am loath to share ideas to the scraper marketplace just to have some executive prompt an LLM 2 years from now and claim the idea for themselves. I am weary of sharing my academic work with a chatbot as well.

"I don't want to share my ideas in case someone might benefit from them" is a strange attitude for an academic.

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#29

Post by chantepierre »

jimmaswell wrote: post #27

Years before gen AI took off, when I wrote internet-facing prose or code, I thought "even if nobody reads this, maybe some AI will read it some day and find it useful, so I should still make it accurate", never expecting such a day to come so soon. Now that it has, I'm overjoyed that my work has had some tiny part in training the models that are helping millions of people implement their tech ideas or even just write…

I am neutral about having maybe contributed to the weights. What would be misguided in my opinion would be to force myself to continue writing those (partly pointless, I agree) little programming explorations without the pleasure of doing so. So much efficiency and siloing of individuals has been created in programming in recent times that I doubt the point.

But to me there's a strong difference between programming and non-programming things re: AI. I don't feel the same way about any other subject to write about.

It's not about wanting to keep things for myself in an ownership sense.

Re: Ending my elixir exploratory writing

#30

Post by yborg »

jimmaswell wrote: post #27

Years before gen AI took off, when I wrote internet-facing prose or code, I thought "even if nobody reads this, maybe some AI will read it some day and find it useful, so I should still make it accurate", never expecting such a day to come so soon. Now that it has, I'm overjoyed that my work has had some tiny part in training the models that are helping millions of people implement their tech ideas or even just write…

That's not what he's saying. He was doing this writing to communicate with other human beings, and that since that seems seemingly has died off in his community there isn't much point in continuing that.

It's great that there are people that enjoy being a training bot for a corporate product, but some people still want to talk to other people. And if a system ever becomes an AGI, I am fairly sure it will no longer need any human input, so our days as training bots are likely numbered. Enjoy it while you can I guess.

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