Re: "it's about saving the planet" - according to Jevons paradox [0] if the cost of AI will decrease its total usage will increase. Definitely not saving the planet in this scenario.
Why I Joined OpenAI
211–220 of 236 posts
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#212To answer a few people at once: I did mention compensation as a factor in the post, but I didn't elaborate details, so easy to miss. Comp is important of course, but so are the other factors. It feels like I can't go for a day without reading about the cost of AI datacenters in the news, and I can do something about it.
Hey Brendan - first time listener, first time caller. Inferring the overall tone from the comments, I think the folks here are struggling with what sounds like a logical fallacy from someone who is certainly a logical thinker. > how I could lead performance efforts and help save the planet. The problem on the face of it being: Performance gains will not translate to less energy usage (and by extension less heat relea…
Given the widely reported issue of AI environmental cost, and being among the top people in the world who can fix it, I don't feel comfortable with _inaction_. I can reduce datacenter sizes, so I'll do that.
As a performance engineer I'm familiar with Jevons paradox, but it does not discourage improving efficiency.
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Again, many comments here saying I only care about the money, and while comp is an important factor I think it characterizes me as someone I'm not, and forgets what I've been doing for the past two decades. I've spent thousands of hours of my life writing textbooks for roughly minimum wage, as I want to help others like me (I came from nothing, with no access tech meetups or conferences, and books were the gateway to…
Hi Brendan, I am a long time fan, I have the physical copy of each and every book that you have authored, I have watched each and every video that you are in, and I walk team members and clients through your USE method at every engagement I am on. I would say to you that the "make the world a better place" has been excessively misquoted. Even the Silicon Valley episode on Tech Crunch parodies show how anything and ev…
Thanks, I never saw the Tech Crunch parodies before. I also didn't use the words "make/making the world a better place".
I actually said "it's about saving the planet" based on all the environmentally worried news articles I've seen.
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#214It’s so jarring to hear this reality-detached writing style coming from someone who’s otherwise a great systems thinker. This is like my worst nightmare as a systems engineer: that years of navigating bureaucracy at a place like Intel slowly brainrots me into prioritizing politics and self-promotion over the technical truth. I hope this is just PR reflex and not an actual loss of grounding.
imo the engineers who stay in their nuts-and-bolts lane - those are the ones who are at a real risk of 'brainrot', who sometimes at the ripe age of 50+ continue to misunderstand what motivates management, the executives, seemingly unable to model anyones minds other than their own (or that of a very predictable entity, like a computer.) infact, you could argue that politics is in some sense the biggest, most complex…
Sure, some PR and self-promotion are usually required to move things forward. That doesn’t make it a grand or particularly deep problem, and certainly not the primary thing to optimize for.
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi Brendan, I am a long time fan, I have the physical copy of each and every book that you have authored, I have watched each and every video that you are in, and I walk team members and clients through your USE method at every engagement I am on. I would say to you that the "make the world a better place" has been excessively misquoted. Even the Silicon Valley episode on Tech Crunch parodies show how anything and ev…
Thanks, I never saw the Tech Crunch parodies before. I also didn't use the words "make/making the world a better place". I actually said "it's about saving the planet" based on all the environmentally worried news articles I've seen.
I apologise for the incorrect "make the world a better place" attribution to you.
It does appear that for many of us "saving the planet" has become akin to "making the world a better place".
I was excited last night thinking about what you might uncover at OpenAPI. While we can all speculate (device drivers? File systems? Python itself? DB queries? Memory architecture? Inference algos? ) I recall “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data” by Sherlock Holmes in "A Scandal in Bohemia".
All the best with your work at OpenAPI. We will all hopefully learn about writing more energy efficient code and about more efficient LLMs and more thanks to your work!
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use it as something to talk to about incredibly nerdy and/or obscure things no one else would be willing to talk about.
Asking ChatGPT about safety of someone traveling instead of asking that person is the nerdy thing to do. Somehow a hairstylist doesn't invoke image of a nerd in me. That is why I find this story implausible.
[deleted]
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use it as something to talk to about incredibly nerdy and/or obscure things no one else would be willing to talk about.
That’s honestly just sad. Not the fact you doing it, but rather the fact you have nobody to talk to about those things.
When I say nerdy and/or obscure, I mean things like "are quantum fluctuations ergodic and how does this affect affect the probability of a quantum fluctuation triggering a new big bang?"
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#218> ...it's not just about saving costs – it's about saving the planet There's something that doesn't sit right with me about this statement, and I'm not sure what it is. Are you sure you didn't just join for the money? (edit: cool problems, too)
Probably because "making the world a better place" has been a trope used so much in the industry that it's made it to a TV show [1]. It's fine to be passionate about your job. It's fine to be paid well. You don't need to make us believe that you're mother Theresa on top of it. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso
I’ll see your Art and raise you Life https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdrey6U5dU&pp=ygUSVGVjaGNydW5...
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#219I want to save the planet by getting the most amount of heat out of the tire fire we are currently tossing tires on.
Re: Why I Joined OpenAI
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey Brendan - first time listener, first time caller. Inferring the overall tone from the comments, I think the folks here are struggling with what sounds like a logical fallacy from someone who is certainly a logical thinker. > how I could lead performance efforts and help save the planet. The problem on the face of it being: Performance gains will not translate to less energy usage (and by extension less heat relea…
Given the widely reported issue of AI environmental cost, and being among the top people in the world who can fix it, I don't feel comfortable with _inaction_. I can reduce datacenter sizes, so I'll do that. As a performance engineer I'm familiar with Jevons paradox, but it does not discourage improving efficiency.
But that's just it,you're not going to reduce sizes. You're deluding yourself.