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AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

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Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#231

Post by embedding-shape »

juvoly wrote: post #76
embedding-shape wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? How long you've been a developer? I've been almost exclusively doing "agent coding" for the last year + some months, been a professional developer for a decade or something. Tried just now to write some random JavaScript, C#, Java, Rust and Clojure "manually" and seems my muscle memory works just as well as two years ago. I'm wondering if this is something that hits new developers faster than more experienced…

Experience isn't the problem. I have 20+ years of C++ development, built commercial software in Java, Rust, Python, played with assembly, Erlang, Prolog, Basic. Played with these coding agents for the last couple weeks and instantly noticed the brainrot when I was staring at an empty vim screen trying to type a skeleton helloworld in C. Luckily the right idioms came back after couple of hours, but the experience gave…

> Played with these coding agents for the last couple weeks and instantly noticed the brainrot

Very interesting, wonder what makes our experiences so different? For you "playing for a couple of weeks" have a stronger effect than for me after using them almost exclusively for more than a year, and I don't think I'm an especially great programmer or anything, typical for my experience I think.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#232

Post by asxndu »

neals wrote: post #15

I had to code something on a plane today. It used to be that you couldn't get you packages or check stackoverflow. But now, I'm useless. My mind has turned to pudding. I cannot remember basic boilerplate stuff. Crazy how fast that goes.

I wrote about this and the response from most friends was mostly dismissive.[0]

The early this year, in my country (Uganda) the entire internet was shutdown during elections for close to 1 week.

A lot of devs in the country couldn't do anything during that period.

So much, some actually claimed the moved to nearby Nairobi Kenya.

https://asindu.xyz/a-single-reason-to-not-vibe-code/

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#233

Post by HWR_14 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #34
HWR_14 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I gladly pay the (modest/token) late fees to help keep them open at this point Keeping movies longer and paying late fees may be hurting them more than helping them. It's entirely possible that the late fees are underpriced to avoid scaring away customers. New customers going away disappointed they movie they want wasn't returned on time hurts them more than your late fees help.

Not keeping them on purpose, I’m just not sweating the fee because I’m happy to pay them. Additionally, the odds that my kids are holding on to exactly what somebody else wants in that timeframe is very small. It’s a small shop within a larger co-op situation with a modest following and pretty substantial stock. I know for instance we’ve never had an issue of wanting something that was rented. Has it happened? Maybe.…

I'm glad that it's not a negative in this case!

If the owner is waiving fees sometimes, then obviously they don't think it's an issue.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#234

Post by grtteee »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #228
randcraw wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more the role of the tool, the less the role of the craftsman.

If the tool is reliable, it's a win. Saved brain power doesn't disappear, it can be applied elsewhere. If the tool is powerful enough to do a better job than our brains would, it's a big win. In fact, we built the entire technological civilization on one such fundamental tool: writing . Or from another perspective: our brains excel at adapting to the environment we find ourselves in. The tools we build, the technolog…

This argument has held up in the past but there’s no certainty that during this current period where LLM’s are not perfect (and in many cases far from perfect) - they can ever become perfect that it’s fine for one’s existing human capital to depreciate.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#235

Post by pixl97 »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #155
pixl97 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Robotics? lights-out operations in automated factories are already a thing, so I don't know if they're the "next thing". Eh, I do think this is kind of underestimating the changes in robotics that are occurring. LLMs incorporated with other ML kernels extend the capabilities a long way. That and the amount of computing power now usable to train robotics is far far larger.

Are large Language Models of use to move robot limbs around?

I mean yes, just tell a robot to go pick up a green apple that has an integrated LLM and it can setup a course of actions to the other things like movement models to accomplish that task.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#236

Post by grtteee »

alexjplant wrote: post #230
embedding-shape wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? How long you've been a developer? I've been almost exclusively doing "agent coding" for the last year + some months, been a professional developer for a decade or something. Tried just now to write some random JavaScript, C#, Java, Rust and Clojure "manually" and seems my muscle memory works just as well as two years ago. I'm wondering if this is something that hits new developers faster than more experienced…

I recently had to write a coding interview question for candidates at my current job. I wrote the outline and had Claude generate synthetic data for it. I then wrote the solution without assistance to make sure it was viable (and because I wouldn't ask somebody to do something I wouldn't myself). I had no trouble getting it done in 20 minutes in a language that I haven't used actively in around a year and a half. I d…

That’s exactly why you haven’t lost it.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#237

Post by bdangubic »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #125
bdangubic wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the "boilerplate" in that comment as "basic" meaning "I don't know how to center a div" or "I do not know how to remove duplicates from a collection"

Does anyone know how to centre a div? Last time I looked there were at least seven ways to do it.

I think "How to center a DIV" was at the top of HN way more times than it should have been :)

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#238

Post by helle253 »

gilleain wrote: post #124
malfist wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Einstein famously refused to learn people's phone numbers, stating that he could look them up in the phonebook whenever he needed it. I don't think there is that much value in memorizing rarely used, easily looked up information.

Agreed, it interests me how much some people emphasise knowing facts - like dates in history or dictionary definitions of words. Facts alone are like pebbles on a beach, far better (IMO) to have a few stones mortared with understanding to make a building of knowledge. A fanciful metaphor but you know ...

Knowing facts matters quite a lot imo, even if it doesnt 'seem' like it.

To use another metaphor, you can't REALLY see the forest amongst the trees, if you don't consider the trees themselves.

One of the reasons I like history so much is because, with enough facts accumulated, you can see how one piece of information flows into another - e.g. dates matter, because knowing the precise order in which important events occur helps you determine how those events may or may not have affected each other in the course of their unfolding.

Sure memorizing dates is boring on its own, but putting them in contexts is exciting - you still need to comb the beaches to find the right stones!

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#239

Post by bayarearefugee »

wanderingstan wrote: post #139
jimbokun wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The staggeringly effective compression of LLMs is still under appreciated, I think. 2 years ago you had downloaded onto your laptop an effective and useful summary of all of the information on the Internet, that could be used to generate computer programs in an arbitrarily selected programming language.

Yes! Continuing on thoughts of LLM compression, I'm now convinced and amazed that economics will dictate that all devices contain a copy of all information on the Internet. I wrote a post about it: Your toaster will know mesopotamian history because it’s more expensive not too. https://wanderingstan.com/2026-03-01/your-toaster-will-know-...

> Your toaster will know mesopotamian history because it’s more expensive not too.

But will it know the difference between too and to?

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#240

Post by simianwords »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #213
simianwords wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Exploit labour” is just outdated Marxism. No self respecting economist believes this kind of rhetoric anymore but it only exists amongst west coded leftist. It’s a sort of cynical fatalism to think everything is exploitation — directly coming from Marx. It’s not exploitation to mutually agree on a deal. Most of population know this except Marxists!

Ah, peak HN pseudo-libertarianism a) just hand wave away that there is a massive power and wealth differential involved in this "mutual agreement" b) dismiss all discussions which recognize that fact... as "outdated Marxism" Plenty of mainstream economists are capable of seeing the real world which you are pretending doesn't exist. Even Marx meant the word "exploit" in relatively value neutral terms, just recognizing…

Massive power and wealth differential is just simply a reason to be jealous. It is precisely this concept of mutual agreement (capitalism) that brought most of humanity out of poverty.

>Plenty of mainstream economists are capable of seeing the real world which you are pretending doesn't exist.

Not really. There are total of zero economic policies made by analysing economy through Labour Theory of Value or whatever other crap Marxists believe.

The above poster used "exploit" in non value neutral terms. Marx tried very hard to be value neutral about it (but its clear what the intentions were) but his readers don't play that game.

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