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You Had No Taste Before AI

matthewsanabria.dev

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Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#31

Post by StilesCrisis »

philipp-gayret wrote: post #17

I very often hear from developers at clients I work with that code they (not me) generate with AI is not of enough "quality". So I ask them what quality means. So far, I only get the most basic feedback: it should be in X style, pass Y linter, have N% coverage, have documentation... At the same time, most, if not all manually written repositories do not pass the newfound quality metrics that must apply to AI code to…

Most manually written repositories are hobby projects where 0% test coverage is fine because it doesn’t matter.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#32

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

kraftman wrote: post #14
A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #9

While I am not sure I actually agree with the author, I think he touched on something interesting. LLM is probably the first tool, where I consciously adapted to using it. For better or worse, it can change you and you get to pick direction of that change. edit: As I am thinking about it more, it may be function of age. I am picking up some additional hobbies now and my whole approach has become much more intentional…

did you not adapt to google search by just typing keywords you know will get results instead of typing full sentences about what you're searching for?

Fair point, but I did not attempt to integrate google search into my processes or workflow ( shows what I know about future predictions ), because while it was useful and did provide access to information, it was obviously limited in a sense that it could only take a mule like me to the water.

I don't want to delve into specifics, because it is a public forum. But the difference between learning google syntax and llm handling ( which I suppose would include prompt engineering ) should not be understated.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#33

Post by ivape »

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #20

As someone who works with a lot of creatives, I've noticed people tend to get really defensive and self-righteous anytime "taste" comes up, on both sides - the haute designer-types vs. the scrappy I-can-do-it types. So I won't be surprised if this post is controversial. But it's insightful. Having poor taste (or more charitably, having no taste) can be covered up or ignored by the ability to choose from a pre-curated…

The problem is there is a mindfuck dynamic the arena of taste brings. Popular taste can overwhelm all other taste. A society may not even know they’ve lost taste for a significant amount of time.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#34

Post by StilesCrisis »

kraftman wrote: post #14
A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #9

While I am not sure I actually agree with the author, I think he touched on something interesting. LLM is probably the first tool, where I consciously adapted to using it. For better or worse, it can change you and you get to pick direction of that change. edit: As I am thinking about it more, it may be function of age. I am picking up some additional hobbies now and my whole approach has become much more intentional…

did you not adapt to google search by just typing keywords you know will get results instead of typing full sentences about what you're searching for?

Agree, I think OP doesn’t remember learning to ride a bicycle either.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#35

Post by oftenwrong »

I have been struggling with some team members who don't have taste, and amplify that via this sort of uncritical application of AI. The issue for one if them seems to be that they think the AI is perfect. They think: "If it comes up with it, it must be good/correct. If people are not using it for everything, they are wasting time doing something that the AI could do." It's frustrating to work with people like this because they rapidly produce bad results. I find it disrespectful to generate a large design document in one go, probably without even reading it, and then put it up for review, wasting the reviewers' time picking it apart. Someone "with taste" could produce something decent to begin with.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#36

Post by rhetocj23 »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #27

AI just lets us do the same things but faster if you had bad taste, your taste is just badder faster i think this is why so far there hasnt been any real moment of innovation from AI because its not doing anything new. same crap as before just faster

Yeah.

I mean another way to think about it is - eating artificially produced food.

What happens when you consume it? Your taste for good stuff is eroded away - somehow, the artificial crap is acceptable. Most notably because of its lower price.

The same phenonomon with food, will prevail with information.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#37

Post by banannaise »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #22
btbuildem wrote: post #4

Having taste is one thing, having the standards to hold yourself to a certain level of quality, that's another thing altogether. Generating profits is about the most tasteless thing one could do, yet it underpins all of our professional efforts. The paradox is baked in, and some of us do our best to navigate it.

> Generating profits is about the most tasteless thing one could do, yet it underpins all of our professional efforts. Absolutely not. Profit simply means other people find it valuable enough to compensate you to use whatever you’ve made. Art is rarely profitable for its own sake, but that doesn’t mean everything that is profitable is intrinsically devoid of taste.

Rephrased: Any artistic direction done in the interest of creating or increasing profits is overwhelmingly likely to be tasteless.

I don't think that's particularly controversial. Profitability doesn't imply tastelessness, but profit motive certainly does.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#38

Post by phyzix5761 »

StilesCrisis wrote: post #28
mattgreenrocks wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Generating profits is about the most tasteless thing one could do, yet it underpins all of our professional efforts. Absolutely not. Profit simply means other people find it valuable enough to compensate you to use whatever you’ve made. Art is rarely profitable for its own sake, but that doesn’t mean everything that is profitable is intrinsically devoid of taste.

Maybe by the textbook definition, sure. Not a single user finds advertising valuable, and yet it’s the focal point of profit maximization nowadays. Welcome to late-stage capitalism.

How do consumers discover new products and services if not through advertising? A product on a shelf at a store is also a form of advertising proven by how much money is spent on packaging. Word of mouth is also one of the most effective forms of advertising.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#39

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

qsort wrote: post #15

Eh, kind of. In a way, AI does not change at all the problem of having taste. There are more books you'll ever read, movies you'll ever watch, games you'll ever play, software you'll ever use. I remain completely unconvinced that "dead internet/dead youtube" is a problem: you had to filter before, you have to filter now. What AI does, being highly weird technology, is that it destroys heuristics. Good English used to…

Yes. Oddly, for once, English majors may actually benefit, because they may be better prepared than most to prepare prompts for the jobs of tomorrow ( mild sarcasm, coffee didn't kick in yet ).

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#40

Post by strken »

I had taste before AI and I have taste now. I am not convinced by arguments like "I have noticed that people who [belief that applies to the majority of the population being discussed] also do [negative thing that is also incredibly common]" because I have taste.
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