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I'm Archiving Picocrypt

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51–60 of 159 posts

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#51
post #22
post #6

LLMs are glorified "LMGTFY" tools. AI assistance doesn't make people experts at anything. Some genz vibe coder isn't getting your job guys calm the heck down.

I think people who are afraid that AI coding is going to replace them should try using it a bit seriously. They should be quickly reassured. What worries me more (on coding related impact of AI - because of course all the impact on fake news and democracies are much more worrying IMO) is having to deal with code written by others using AI (yes, people can write shity code on their own, but with manageable pace)

Tell that to C-level executives. They don't understand this, and until then, we, developers, can only be afraid of losing our jobs to a mediocre AI.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#52

I don't get it. (I'm not trying to throw shades at the author. I know they have no obligation to maintain an open source project. I'm simply having a hard time gasping what's happening.)

I believe you need to separate two things:

- The author enjoyed writing quality open source code

- The author needs to make strategic decisions for his own career and livelihood and he doesn't have enough bandwidth for both

I don't feel he is happy about the decision he needs to make and he is pointing to something dark happening to software development and open source.

Now this is not new, and didn't start with LLM. I am sure if we ask the OpenBSD devs what they think about the modern mainstream open source ecosystem, docker, full stack development, etc. they see it like we might look at LLM generated code. This is just a question how much of a purist you are.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#53

Nice post really . I like the meta conversation . But in my opinion, it's a bit hypocritical to blame / be mad at LLMs etc. ruining the fun of coding because & then use AI generated profile pictures. Why not draw your ghibli styled profile picture yourself? Why use an AI generated image? Doesn't using image generators ruin the fun of drawing? Vibe-drawing? > He criticizes "Large tech companies and investors" for prio…

I second this, plus their responses are petty. As an example: > you're not helping anything or making some resonant statement with that thing above or your avatar > Sorry for breathing and producing CO2. That's not what the commenter argued, and that response is incredibly petty. It's a way to defuse the argument entirely (is that a straw-man? no idea).

Is it a strawman? I think so

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#54
post #37

https://github.com/Picocrypt/Picocrypt/issues/134#issuecomme... This to me is the crux of the whole thing. Almost like a knitter throwing away their needles because they saw a loom.

I mean your analogy is almost there. The loom is pretty old.

What your grasping for is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-loom_riots

Where a precipitous drop in earning power, combined with longer working hours, high inflation and large companies making people unemployed cause large social unrest.

And yeah, I can see why they rioted.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#55
post #2

Wow. That was strangely...something. Simultaneously not what I expected and yet just nailing the vibe of vibe slop frustration.

It's a nice message and I sympathize with the frustration, but the critique falls flat with the author's decision to pivot into AI research.

> falls flat with the author's decision to pivot into AI research.

yeah but _what_ part of AI research. There are loads of it that are nothing to do with slop, and might even have practical and useful benefits....

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#56
post #22
post #6

LLMs are glorified "LMGTFY" tools. AI assistance doesn't make people experts at anything. Some genz vibe coder isn't getting your job guys calm the heck down.

I think people who are afraid that AI coding is going to replace them should try using it a bit seriously. They should be quickly reassured. What worries me more (on coding related impact of AI - because of course all the impact on fake news and democracies are much more worrying IMO) is having to deal with code written by others using AI (yes, people can write shity code on their own, but with manageable pace)

As someone whos a bit older, and remembers the latter wave of offshoring, I can tell you that quality doesn't matter.

Yes, fake news driving by AI slop is a big problem, but that is only enabled by social media personality fiefdoms.

The shit is going to hit the fan if 10% of the highest paid US working population is laid off for AI outsourcing. That kind of social change brings revolution. and thats before the fracture of US social fabric.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#57
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the author is explicitly going into AI research, has an AI-generated profile picture, and claims front-and-centre on their website they are excited about LLMs, I don’t think that analogy works. Or rather, it is like a knitter throwing away their needles to eagerly go work in the loom manufacturing industry.

I dont think many people would be excited at the thought of going from handcrafted artisan knitting to babying machines in the knitting factory. You need a certain type of autism to be into the latter.

Fortunately this is the software industry. We've got a lot of those autists and that automating urge is the best part about software. If someone don't like the idea of sitting around babysitting factories of machines they certainly shouldn't go into DevOps. It would be safest to just avoid programming in general, given how much of the industry centres on figuring out how to deploy huge amounts of computing power in an autonomous fashion.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#58
post #6

LLMs are glorified "LMGTFY" tools. AI assistance doesn't make people experts at anything. Some genz vibe coder isn't getting your job guys calm the heck down.

You don't need an equal replacement to lose your job, just a good enough and more economical one.

Lots of graphic designers lost their jobs or at least a lot of their work now that image generation models have gotten decent at rendering text. Now any idiot can whip up some advertising graphics at half the quality of a designer, but in 1/10th the time and 1/100th the cost (or even for free!). It doesn't matter that it looks like ass and makes no sense in context, they produced an acceptable result for a fraction of the cost.

Quality does not matter in the market, it never has. Whoever can produce the most slop at the lowest price nearly always wins. Yes, there are exceptions, many of them even. But not enough to employ nearly as many of us as there are now.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#59
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with it?

It was clearly AI generated. So the author is clearly OK with using AI to generate slop in an area they don’t work in, while simultaneously decrying its use in an area they do work in. If they believe so strongly that AI use is destroying their industry, they should reflect on its effect on other industries too (it is well-documented how artists are being negatively impacted). I agree with the commenters above that i…

I didn't interpret it as decrying the use of AI. Especially because he plans to dedicate his time and energy into researching the very same AI he rants about, basically promoting its use!

Instead, I see it as a deeply personal rant about the state of affairs which he considers inevitable himself. That is why he leaves the ship.

Before AI slop, there has always been just the agile slop of the bare(ly) minimum product, good enough to woo the ones making a buying decision, or at least until the career sharks have moved on to the next thing. That kind of slop has always been there and everywhere actually. Its called capitalism, or consumerism. The trick is to work for a place that isn't squeezed too hard, because its still in the investment phase or because it just earns money on its own merit.

AI will certainly transform things, just like higher level languages and frameworks have done so. Maybe programming without AI will be the 'micro optimization' of the future: something that is still there and valuable, but only sometimes and only in a certain niche. Slop is eternal, it just has a new face and a new name.

This blog to me is a nice personal rant about a smart young developer coming of age, trying to find his way and guard his ideals or standards against the onslaught of consumerism, just as ambitious young developers always have tried to do.

Re: I'm Archiving Picocrypt

#60
post #50
post #6

LLMs are glorified "LMGTFY" tools. AI assistance doesn't make people experts at anything. Some genz vibe coder isn't getting your job guys calm the heck down.

Your last sentence should have been: CEOs calm the heck down.

They can't. Shilling is practically their whole job.
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