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Not everyone is using AI for everything

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#341

Post by AnotherGoodName »

tomrod wrote: post #243
acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I'm an old hat on both sides of this type of discussion from a post-grad view. Recommendation: use it to own the conversation and to signal mutual fit. Yes, your idea of AI lover versus hesitant matters. I recommend refram…

Just in general these questions are probes on curiosity and ability to show depth too. I’m astounded by suggestions of stating flat out refusal to even try out LLMs or suggestions to over praise the merits as if the interviewers want to hear binary answers. A well thought out pros and cons story wins over binary yes/no answers at pro and anti ai companies alike.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#342

Post by retired »

Avalaxy wrote: post #148
retired wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I was in Germany I saw elderly people going through garbage bins in the park I sat at. I think you overestimate the safety net in Germany. In my European country the elderly sit at cafes drinking coffee, not going through bins. Update: Every street corner has a yellow garbage bin for recycling. That is where your plastic bottles go. Seems like a better system than having elderly going through bins.

Maybe in your country they also don't have a deposit on bottles/cans, making it pointless to go through trash cans?

Plastic bottles go in the yellow recycling bin. Deposit systems are dumb.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#344

Post by maxbond »

d_silin wrote: post #288
plandis wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly find that quite hard to believe. Lack of adequate calories and nutrition negatively compound. You lose the ability to focus, you increase your medical risk. I experienced that in my childhood. It’s terrible. I did very poorly academically when I did not have access to food. It’s astonishing to me how fast my academic performance improved after consistently having access to food. Saying you would rather put…

Correct. I did it anyway (and yes, it was awful).

That's fucked up. If those are your values, that's all well and good, but you can't expect someone else to make the same decision.

Job interviews are a performance where you demonstrate you understand what professional expectations are and can abide by them. It's not dishonesty to not respond "I drink too much" when they ask "what's your biggest weakness?" just like it's not dishonesty to respond "can't complain" when someone asks "how are you today," even if you have a lot to complain about.

Once I interviewed someone and they described their tax fraud scheme to me. We didn't go with that candidate. Not per se because they committed tax fraud; because they demonstrated terrible judgment.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#345

Post by quintushoratius »

zerobees wrote: post #308
hypfer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

> Have you considered just answering truthfully? ... That sounds not like a job but a toxic relationship. It's a job, not a relationship. It's best not to confuse the two. In any workplace, you will occasionally have to do things you find boring or objectionable. And if you're hoping to find a corporation that is a "perfect match", it will only hurt more when they unceremoniously fire you because the quarterly revenu…

> It's a job, not a relationship. It's best not to confuse the two.

A relationship is defined as two parties that interact.

It's not friends, it's not romantic, and it's definitely not family, but a job _is_ a relationship.

That said, GP is absolutely correct that you can fall into toxic relationships with your employer. Especially in the US where, realistically, we're forced to rely on our employer for too many things (e.g. healthcare coverage), employers can and do take advantage of the situation.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#346

Post by themafia »

acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge

You should just be honest. If you're not a good fit for the company then you should honestly be eager to discover this.

> I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer

"I don't. I personally don't find value in them for the type of work I do. I am also uncomfortable with using their outputs under the current copyright regime. I also question how competitive any organization can possibly be if LLMs become the main driver of their work products."

> I've had more bad results than good the few times I've tried them

"I prefer to write correct code rather than debug bad code generated from a limited context window."

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#347

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

hypfer wrote: post #82
acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

Even a truthful answer can require a lot of long-winded disclaimers because an interview is a new relationship without shared context. You have to state the obvious because nothing can be taken for granted.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#349

Post by serial_dev »

ErrantX wrote: post #237
satvikpendem wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny, Google Gemini and AI mode in search has replaced my ChatGPT prompting, because I know Gemini will correctly cite sources (as of course it's by Google) rather than hallucinating. Also, Gemini is free or at least has much higher usage limits than ChatGPT or Claude, and it's well integrated into Android and soon Apple with their new Siri, so things like circle to search just work well.

That's totally fair and things may change. For me its the history and the fact I can come back to it. If I am honest I believe my final solution will be a combination of Open Claw, a custom knowledge wiki based on Wikmd. I just need a good all for Claw with history that is as good as gpt Edit: and context too. It inferred my energy supplier from previously chats and so when I just asked a pertinent question it refere…

Gemini also has it all, it learns and knows who you are, you have history of chats where you can just jump back into a conversation a week later if you want to.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#350

Post by sdesol »

moregrist wrote: post #234
vibe_that_works wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but please don't give job seekers false hope with this statement. I commonly see 60 - 180 applicants for one open position. Good luck finding a hiring manager who wants to take a bet instead of going with proven experience. I think upskilling is the right move in this environment and it is dead simple: Invest a couple of days to show initiative, learn agents yourself and be able to speak from true experience.

I love that we’re already talking about “proven experience” for a technology that’s essentially 15 months old, arguably only broke into the mainstream 3-6 months ago, has an unclear RoI for many companies, and seems to be changing quickly in both cost and “best practices.” You’re more or less admitting that you’re playing trendy tech lottery. Which is fine, but maybe not generalizable to the whole industry.

> playing trendy tech lottery.

I don't know about that, and I am 100% biased so take what I say with a grain of salt. My position is very much this: you may not trust coding agents to make code changes, but if you're not willing to treat them as a research aid or have them work for you, you're pretty much saying they can't help you work more efficiently.

I'm working on a Show HN post that includes:

https://github.com/gitsense/smart-ripgrep

It's a fork of BurntSushi/ripgrep. What I hope to show with it is that you don't have to use coding agents to code. They can be used to surface knowledge that's buried in documents, issue comments, PR discussions, and other places.

Believing coding agents are trendy would be like saying search was trendy in 1998. They're not going to change the world the way Anthropic wants us to believe, but they will shape how humans develop software. And I think for the better, since AI is capable of processing information at scale to help you move forward.

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