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AI makes you boring

marginalia.nu

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Re: AI makes you boring

#201

Post by JohnMakin »

ByThyGrace wrote: post #198
JohnMakin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am saying a lot of the time these type of posts are a nonexistent problem, a problem that is already solved, or just thinking about a "problem" that isn't really a problem at all and results from a lack of understanding. The most recent one I remember commenting on, the poor guy had a project that basically tried to "skip" IaC tools, and his tool basically went nuts in the console (or API, I don't remember) in one…

I've read opinions in the same vein of what you said, except painting this as a good outcome. The gist of the argument is why spend time looking for the right tool and effort learning its uses when you can tell an agent to work out the "problem" for you and spit out a tailored solution. It's about being oblivious, I suppose. Not too different to claiming there will be no need to write new fiction when an LLM will wri…

It's a reasonable question - I would probably answer, having shipped some of these naive solutions before, that you'll find out later it doesn't do entirely what you wished, is very difficult/impossible to maintain, has severe flaws you're unable to be aware of because you lack the domain expertise, or the worst in my opinion, becomes completely unable to adapt to new features you need with it, where as the more mature solutions most likely already had spent considerable amount of time thinking about these things.

I was dabbling in consulting infrastructure for a bit, often prospects would come to me with stuff like this "well I'll just have AI do it" and my response has been "ok, do that, but do keep me in mind if that becomes very difficult a year or two down the road." I haven't yet followed up with any of them to see how they are doing, but some of the ideas I heard were just absolute insanity to me.

Re: AI makes you boring

#202

Post by dingnuts »

tptacek wrote: post #142
fhd2 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users typically don't read code, developers (of the software) do. If it's not worth reading something where the writer didn't take the time to write it, by extension that means nobody read the code. Which means nobody understands it, beyond the external behaviour they've tested. I'd have some issues with using such software, at least where reliability matters. Blackbox testing only gets you so far. But I guess as opp…

Developers do not in fact tend to read all the software they use. I have never once looked at the code for jq, nor would I ever want to (the worst thing I could learn about that contraption is that the code is beautiful, and then live out the rest of my days conflicted about my feelings about it). This "developers read code" thing is just special pleading.

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Re: AI makes you boring

#203

Post by sillyfluke »

josefresco wrote: post #62

While I agree overall, I'm going to do some mild pushback here: I'm working on a "vibe" coded project right now. I'm about 2 months in (not a weekend), and I've "thought about" the project more than any other "hand coded" project I've built in the past. Instead of spending time trying to figure out a host of "previously solved issues" AI frees my human brain to think about goals, features, concepts, user experience a…

I think you're missing the general point of the post.

>AI frees my human brain to think about goals, features, concepts, user experience and "big picture" stuff.

The trigger for the post was about post-AI Show HN, not about about whether vibe-coding is of value to vibe-coders, whatever their coding chops are. For Show HN posts, the sentence I quoted precisely describes the things that would be mind-numbingly boring to Show HN readers.

pre-AI, what was impressive to Show HN readers was that you were able to actually implement all that you describe in that sentence by yourselves and also have some biochemist commenting, "I'm working at a so-and-so research lab and this is exactly what I was looking for!"

Now the biochemist is out there vibe-coding their own solution, and now, there is no way for the HN reader to differentiate your "robust" entry from a completely vibe-code noobie entry, no matter how long you worked on the "important stuff".

Why? because the barrier of entry has been completely obliterated. What we took for granted was that "knowing how to code" was a proxy filter for "thought and worked hard on the problem." And that filter allowed for high-quality posts.

That is why the observation that you know longer can guarentee or have any way of telling quickly that the posters spent some time on the problem is a great observation.

The very value that you gain from vibe-coding is also the very thing that threatens to turn Show HN into a glorified Product Hunt cesspool.

"No one goes there any more, it's too crowded." etc etc

Re: AI makes you boring

#204

Post by multjoy »

overtone1000 wrote: post #123
uean wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen people say something along the lines of "I am not interested in reading something that you could not be bothered to actually write" and I think that pretty much sums it up. Amen to that. I am currently cc'd on a thread between two third-parties, each hucking LLM generated emails at each other that are getting longer and longer. I don't think either of them are reading or thinking about the responses they…

Honest conversation in the AI era is just sending your prompts straight to each other.

I mean one thing we have learnt from Epstein is that the 'elite' don't spend much time crafting the perfect email!

Re: AI makes you boring

#205

Post by insanewow »

overtone1000 wrote: post #123
uean wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen people say something along the lines of "I am not interested in reading something that you could not be bothered to actually write" and I think that pretty much sums it up. Amen to that. I am currently cc'd on a thread between two third-parties, each hucking LLM generated emails at each other that are getting longer and longer. I don't think either of them are reading or thinking about the responses they…

Honest conversation in the AI era is just sending your prompts straight to each other.

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Re: AI makes you boring

#206

Post by waldopat »

Slop is probably more accurate than boring. LLM assisted development enables output and speed. In the right hands, it can really bring improvements to code quality or execution. In the wrong hands, you get slop.

Otherwise, AI definitely impacts learning and thinking. See Anthropic's own paper: https://www.anthropic.com/research/AI-assistance-coding-skil...

Re: AI makes you boring

#209

Post by themafia »

serf wrote: post #143

AI doesn't make people boring, boring people use AI to make projects they otherwise never would have. Non-boring people are using AI to make things that are ... not boring. It's a tool. Other things we wouldn't say because they're ridiculous at face value: "Cars make you run over people." "Buzzsaws make you cut your fingers off." "Propane torches make you explode." An exercise left to the reader : is a non-participan…

Buggy whips are a tool.

No one in their right mind would use one.

Using the wrong tool for the job results in disaster.

It's like watching a guy bang rocks together to "vibe build" a house. Good luck.

Re: AI makes you boring

#210

Post by kazinator »

If actually making something with AI and showing it to people makes you boring ... imagine how boring you are when you blog about AI, where at most you only verbally describe some attributes of what AI made for you, if anything.
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