no way, the time to tinker is now
Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#22[dead]
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some tinkerers, the tinkering is writing the code. That's you. For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing. That's maybe Matthias Wandel. I used to be like you (when I was a pro coder), and now I'm more like Matthias (I have a homestead and a small business). You're welcome to write the code and enjoy yourself that way. I want to enjoy the thing I've built, with the help o…
> For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing Those are not tinkerers then, as there's no tinkering involved. Or there might be in other parts (e.g. with electronics to hook up and house the code AI wrote for you, if it's something that will run on a Raspberry Pi), but not in the coding part. The question implies: "do you still enjoy nerding out and tinkering by writing code y…
> Those are not tinkerers, as there's no tinkering involved.
This seems closed minded view of tinkering. There are plenty of ways to tinker aside from just writing code. It could be in driving traffic to a website, selling a product, combining datasets, automating a task, etc.
I personally love economics and have used AI to tinker with combing multiple datasets to create new ways of viewing economic growth at the metro level across variables.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd further say it's not a TRUE Scottish tinkering unless you're hand writing machine code yourself and feeding it via punch cards.
"I asked somebody else to do this hobby project for me" is not the same as "I tinkered" whether that somebody else is a person or AI. Same how you're not a musician just because you had Suno create something. So, no, sticking to the actual meaning of a thing is not true scotsman fallacy.
> Same how you're not a musician just because you had Suno create something.
In this analogy, the person calling themselves a musician would have to be falsely calling themselves a programmer after using AI to code something. The word used here was "tinker" which can be any number of things. One can "tinker" with business ideas, investment theses, hardware designs, economic models, gameplay concepts, baking recipes, brewing formulas, and more.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#25Opposite for me. I'm reading & understanding more because I know most people will depend on it 100% without understanding. That gap feels like leverage.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some tinkerers, the tinkering is writing the code. That's you. For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing. That's maybe Matthias Wandel. I used to be like you (when I was a pro coder), and now I'm more like Matthias (I have a homestead and a small business). You're welcome to write the code and enjoy yourself that way. I want to enjoy the thing I've built, with the help o…
> For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing Those are not tinkerers then, as there's no tinkering involved. Or there might be in other parts (e.g. with electronics to hook up and house the code AI wrote for you, if it's something that will run on a Raspberry Pi), but not in the coding part. The question implies: "do you still enjoy nerding out and tinkering by writing code y…
I don't redefine my words because someone else used them poorly in context or something.
Matthias is obviously a tinkerer.
The post didn't say anything about code, maybe you didn't notice that.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some tinkerers, the tinkering is writing the code. That's you. For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing. That's maybe Matthias Wandel. I used to be like you (when I was a pro coder), and now I'm more like Matthias (I have a homestead and a small business). You're welcome to write the code and enjoy yourself that way. I want to enjoy the thing I've built, with the help o…
> For other tinkerers, the tinkering is accomplishing an objective or building a thing Those are not tinkerers then, as there's no tinkering involved. Or there might be in other parts (e.g. with electronics to hook up and house the code AI wrote for you, if it's something that will run on a Raspberry Pi), but not in the coding part. The question implies: "do you still enjoy nerding out and tinkering by writing code y…
This is on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49711544
If the guy didn't write any code, don't you still think he's a tinkerer? I do. Don't you think he's nerding out? I do.
I'm using AI to mess with all kinds of things I didn't do before AI. Like working on 90s Ford trucks.
If you've narrowed the scope of the question, or narrowed the definition of "tinkering" to require writing code, I'm just left scratching my head.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#28No. Before AI, I have never wrote any code outside of work because nothing I could do in a reasonable time would be worth the effort.
With AI, if there's software I wish existed, I can make it happen without making it an unpaid second job.
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#29[flagged]
Re: Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
#30Either I use GenAI when I feel like it, or I don't, so no.