I'm Tired of Talking to AI • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#781

Post by butlike » Wed, May 27, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #634

adithyassekhar wrote: post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hurts that I relate with this so much. I am wasting my 20s. I see people who advocate for permanent wfh has plans with their social circle. Either already has a family or friends. Sucks to be the one trying to build a new life. Btw, I don’t believe them a bit. All I see are rotten people who no longer speaks new things, or is a living instagram bot.

Different strokes for different folks at different stages in their lives. If I wrote OP's post 7 years ago before WFH, I'd have said: "on my death bed I'm going to realize I spent my life driving 2.5 hours each way to an office to type into a machine and to maintain physical proximity to people I don't really like or dislike. It's just so gruesomely UNNECESSARY."

I can see your point. Right now, it's really on the opposite spectrum of how it used to be. Forced commute + interaction vs. forced isolation. Sure either side could take steps to mitigate, like renting the "quiet cubicle" on the one side or "working from a coffee shop" on the other, but as it stands, "WFH" is really the downswing of the "commute to office" upswing.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#782

Post by thenoblesunfish » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

Perhaps part of the issue is that people feel compelled to respond, even though they don't have anything to say. Maybe people think if they burn some tokens for you that's somehow a more polite way to ignore you and hope you go away?

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#783

Post by narrator » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

torben-friis wrote: post #60

>But even when I talk to people, they forward my questions to AI and send me the AI’s answer. This is the killer issue. It's so profoundly saddenning, it feels like watching an adult being asked a question and calling mom to answer for them. There is something deeply disturbing in it that makes me feel I'm not talking to a self sufficient entity.

I have been saying for a while that when AI gets smarter than us we will be like 5 year old children totally dependent on our AI mommy and daddy to interpret and understand the vast and mysterious world of things that are too complicated or obscure for us to comprehend. We'll spend all day experiencing the natural world and watching kids shows. Any hard questions go to mommy and daddy.

At least we'll be able to tell people our authentic emotions without AI, and AI will listen to our emotions, much like parents listen to their children's feelings.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#784

Post by butlike » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

anal_reactor wrote: post #601

butlike wrote: post #362

I agree and on my death bed I'm going to realize I spent my life working from home, talking to a machine, and not enriching any person's life directly. It's just so gruesomely LONELY.

Yeah but that's because people suck so fucking much. 1. "Sorry can't come" an hour after we were supposed to meet - this alone kills 80% of my friendships 2. "I like edgy humor" and then a month later "I'm going to report you to HR" literally had this happen to me 3. Most people have very little depth and stick to superficial smalltalk, which I find very exhausting And when on top of that you say "I wish my friend ha…

#1 seems like abnormal behavior.

#2 seems situational so I can't speak to that

#3 I think anxiety pervades people's lives, and I often wonder how many of them are "holding on by a thread" and literally don't have capacity for ANYTHING that may stir the pot, like a new friend, so they give any tired excuse to avoid rocking their boat.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#785

Post by autoexec » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

azath92 wrote: post #452

jvanderbot wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I hate about this whole thing, is that there are many reasons someone might reach out to a coworker with questions. Not all require the knowledge in fancy markdown with emojis. Maybe they want to show respect to a person by asking their opinion before proceeding with a change Maybe they want to share context and make that person aware of what they're thinking without being so obvious Maybe they need _that person…

In a small team, or an aware team, where AI is being used all the time and we are figuring out the best way to do it, i often just preface my messages with - "from my ai to yours" where ive pointed my ai at some relevant context, and asked it to transform it for other ai context that a coworker needs - "my thoughts prettied by AI" where i just polished up my own words, often for outside coms, but indicating that i wr…

I could see that being useful. Maybe have a different color or font for each one so that its easy to see them at a glance and you don't have to keep prefacing everything.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#786

Post by basch » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

flextheruler wrote: post #768

basch wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The writing is on the wall. We are headed for a world where everybody interprets everybody through a personalized model. (corporations too.) Our models need to understand each other, we don't need to understand each other. A call and response to the tower of babel. We eventually all learn to speak our own custom language known only to us. Our inner monolog moves externally, and we offload "understandability" to an ex…

It's trained on the internet so it's wrong just as much as the internet is wrong or misleading.

Maybe the current implementation

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#787

Post by witx » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

It's a good thing we're ruining the climate so that we can also erode job quality and social interactions.

I can only hope aerospace and medical industries are raising strict constraints against this slop otherwise I fear for the future. Eroding engineering AND communication? Thats a good formula for success

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#788

Post by phendrenad2 » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

patwolf wrote: post #494

Before AI was a thing, I tried a few times to post a question on reddit. Something like "Any recommendations for solving X? I've already tried Y, and it didn't work because of Z". Most of the responses were to try Y, even though I clearly stated I had already tried that. The others were telling me I was wrong about Z (I wasn't), or silly for even wanting X. I don't consider AI in its current state a significant downg…

Online user groups are falling apart because AI gives better answers, isn't looking for an opportunity to condescend to new users, doesn't try to gatekeep by scaring away new users, and doesn't just point you to the FAQ regardless of if your question is answered in there or not, along with the "XY problem pathological case" you noticed. I think AI is only going to get better (unless they enshittify it intentionally).

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#789

Post by jerf » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

hectdev wrote: post #660

jerf wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in a particularly fiesty mood you can lean into that. "If all you are is a proxy to an AI, exactly what value are you adding to the organization?" While most of us actually commenting are obviously firmly on the "don't do this" side, for any lurkers who may have done this in the recent past or are considering doing it in the future, I would advise you to consider this point for your own actions. If all you…

I'll give the counter example: I'm currently leading the adoption of AI at my company and given my extensive use of it both at work and in my personal life, my value at the company has risen as someone that knows how to get the most out of the tool. The whispers are towards needing to get more people to move as fast as I can with the subtle implication that not using AI is seen as less productive or at least slower.…

If you are taking AI output and interactively working with it to come to some particular solution, that process of working with it is the value you are adding. The "AI proxy" is specifically about the case where you send a question to someone and literally all they do is paste it to the AI, then send back what the AI said without further work. Literally all they did was proxy your question to the AI.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#790

Post by AlecSchueler » Wed, May 27, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

frank_nitti wrote: post #289

wateralien wrote: post #53

One of the most amazing things happened during the day long power cut in 2025 in Spain and Portugal... eventually the cell towers went down and everyone just went to the parks and socialised. Connected with friends, strangers. Everyone was so in the moment because there was nowhere else to be, nothing else to distract them. People would pick up their phone and realise there was nothing there for them and put it back…

This also happened in the LA area back around 2015, lasting about 36-48 hours - no power and consequently no internet. Out in suburbia, it was the first time many neighbors even met each other, or the first time some neighbors had spoken in person in years. Standing in our driveways chatting, lending tools or supplies to one another, what used to be very standard suburban life. It was amazing that we had become so di…

Did you ever meet up again afterwards?