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The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

thoughts.hmmz.org

211–220 of 252 posts

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#211
post #38
post #22

I think this blames the technology way too much. > Except for the SaaS, almost none of this is useful and I don't want to maintain any of it. So don’t. Nobody’s twisting your arm. Nobody told the author to sit down and write a bunch of random useless stuff. This is like blaming your bicycle for enabling you to stop at too many shops that you didn’t mean to go to when you originally meant to ride straight to the groce…

I don’t think he’s blaming the technology he’s saying that AI is like crack for people with certain types of ADHD who are always thinking up new projects or going down rabbit holes. I can relate to this greatly I have started dozens of projects since last summer but have been having a hard time turning these into real value. Not even money but just something that people find useful beyond my own learnings.

AI isn’t an addictive thing at the level of sugar, nicotine, or alcohol.

We can’t blame bicycles or dumbbells for exercise addiction.

You started those projects because you felt like starting those projects.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#212
post #99
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is. Young people are always more eager to adapt new tech while older people yell at clouds. AI usage is MUCH higher among young people.

No, GenZ is AI critical, no matter what a one-liner optimized model trained to discredit comments says.

GenZ might be outspoken and booing commencement speakers, but the usage numbers don't lie.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#214
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, GenZ is AI critical, no matter what a one-liner optimized model trained to discredit comments says.

GenZ might be outspoken and booing commencement speakers, but the usage numbers don't lie.

I would trust usage numbers as much as I trust DJT when he said we defeated inflation :)

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#216

I wonder how many of the responses here bifurcate by age. The post resonates with me, but I am now in my early fifties. When I was in my 20's and 30's, I would have happily chased rabbits down all those holes, but now that time seems so brutally finite, I feel that anything encouring me to spend time on stuff other than what really matters is a strong negative. (Where "what matters" includes work, family, friends, an…

I'm 39 and the post resonates with me too. I think it's more a temperamental or values thing than an age one, but I might be wrong.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where does this idea come from that good programmers were ever cool with that? Copium from folk who were never developers before, but who now want the badge anyway. Too bad the same badge can be given out to a bright 12 year old who doesn't know the difference between a variable and a type. I suppose I'd have to admit to not being a "developer" anymore, because developers in the age of AI won't know how to write co…

With that Github and personal portfolio I wouldn't be making such sweeping statements.

> With that Github and personal portfolio I wouldn't be making such sweeping statements.

Where's yours?

After all, my CV (online like everything else) shows almost 30 years in the field, 7 of which as a research scientist, 6 of which was spent writing software for munitions, many of which were spent as an EMV developer, a stint at a FAANG...

All you've done is state the things that very junior devs state, with just as much confidence.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#218
post #215

It doesn’t sound like the author has a real business? This is a common problem with devs - they don’t understand how code fits into a business model, and generally massively underestimate non technical elements such as focus and sales

I love how everyone is repeating conjoined triangles of success shit like it’s “a wake up call”, now.

Mike Judge is a fucking genius. But every person who has every tried knows that selling your tech prototype can be hard.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#219

> In recent times, at least once per month someone sends a screenshot for an awesome tool they are working on. I'm like whoa, that's really something and the sender is obviously proud and enthusiastic. I try not to ask, but am always thinking "and where will you market it?" What a strange perspective. His dismissal of the long list of projects at the top is also odd. What's wrong with making something cool and functi…

The problem is, that working on lots of little random code projects makes you fall into some kind of local minimum of overall joy and satisfaction. You are robbing yourself of the motivation of focusing on something truly substantial, that is still just a hobby, but the end result will leave you far more proud and fulfilled. At the end of your life, if all you've done are little half baked throwaway projects, you mig…

> At the end of your life, if all you've done are little half baked throwaway projects, you might look back and realize one day you never made anything of any particular significance, just thrashed around building stuff people had already done so many times before that some unthinking, unfeeling LLM can spit it out almost verbatim just so you can say "me too".

The big difference is, prior to LLMs, that you spent no money but gained something in the process of doing that little half-baked throwaway project.

Now, you spend some money, and get nothing in return.

Re: The solution might be cancelling my AI subscription

#220

I've been having the opposite experience; I've been GAINING focus through AI use. In my day, when there's something that is distracting me from moving my objectives forward, I'm asking "Can AI help me automate this?" The answer is surprisingly often "yes". I call these "rough edges" and have been doing a lot of work over the last few weeks to "file the rough edges down".

Same. I focus on the part that matters. As someone with ADHD I feel like AI is a salve for my mind. I used to listen to intense EDM while working. Now I sit in silence and talk to my agents. I maintain inbox zero. I absorb and comment across all relevant projects, even outside my team. I literally feel like I have a support team for the first time.

What's your setup for using voice with the agents and for handling your inbox zero? OpenClaw?
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