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I'm Tired of Talking to AI

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Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#801
People say using it is lazy but you're not going to outperform it yourself. The resistance to reality by people is what's crazy. Being a developer now means being a code reviewer. That's just the way it is now.

My career was using C# and JS, and LLMs have caused me to lose interest in learning more. I was always a hobbyist Python and Ruby user. I prefer to put my efforts towards skills that are still useful. Software as a craft is dying, no different than being an expert at riding a horse.

The important part now for a developer is a very strong command of the English language, for both the LLM as well as the rising importance of client interactions. As the space is very competitive, so you need to offer value or form a union so you can regain back some of your lost negotiating power.

Most of the developers I worked with were very poor in that area. I worked hard and was deemed a "top performer" in my last job, but it was equal parts perception management. This is what you should be thinking about and focusing on going forward. Improving your linguistic skills, and polishing your social skills.

Otherwise, for someone like me who grew up in a machine shop and mechanic's environment, anything new I learn is more brawn and brain going forward so I stay relevant as a human being. And no longer just brain like software was.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#802

I think using AI to help you write or rewrite something you want to convey is fine, the difference is using it as a replacement of thinking instead of a tool. The screenshots part is crazy.

I promise every last single person would rather read your actual thoughts than some clanker slop.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#804

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every use of AI for these robs the employee culture of a genuine trust building moment. Spot on. The erosion of communication and relationships between people in the workplace (or even outside it) that AI contributes to is something that we don't talk about nearly enough. Society today has already suffered greatly in these areas thanks to social media, and AI just makes it worse. People (in general) are really stru…

Norms surrounding the use of LLMs are in the process of being established, it's a new frontier. Many people rely on these signals over common sense. The feedback loop will lead to corrections in time, for now people are sussing out where the boundaries of appropriate-use are. Corp/gov policy is still lagging as well.

I really am not a big fan of this... Hand-waving, I guess? Around this problem. Saying "well the norms are still being established" feels kind of like a "well don't really get mad at the people doing it, they're still trying to figure out the boundaries of acceptable use" kind of thing to me. People should already know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. The fact that they don't is very, very telling and says a lot about the people doing it IMO.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#805

I dont even ask people questions anymore. I'm tired of the sneer and the "Did you ask Claude?" responses. I had a manager say "I'm here to help in any way I can", and then every way I brought up was "We expect a Senior to be able to answer that themselves" or "Did you ask claude"... thanks for the help, so much for teamwork.

Turning people down when they ask questions is such a short-sighted perspective. When you answer, you can tailor it to them, you can give extra context, you can elaborate, you can dive into specific nuances. Long-term it will be very likely a positive thing as the person will trust you more, they will be comfortable asking more questions and the knowledge might actually help them to contribute in the future.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#806

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are not self-sufficient entities. 10% are so unable to think that they are simply not able to be a net positive in any job, it takes more energy/time to micromanage them, even for simple tasks, than they put back into the business. 50% are incapable of real innovation. Having met people in my life, an AI is better than most of them by any objective measure IMO.

I agree with your assessment of people. I find that there is a lot of overlap with this old quote: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. AI is the perfect product for that third group. However I disagree in that I don't want to "talk to AI" either. Any time anyone sends me AI output, I simply reply that I can prompt GPT myself, if I want; just send me the inputs.

> Any time anyone sends me AI output, I simply reply that I can prompt GPT myself, if I want; just send me the inputs.

In my experience their prompt is usually a verbatim copy-paste of the message I sent them, personal info and all. They simply put zero thought in it.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#807
I remember when working for one of my old clients last year that the business as usual slack conversation was:

- lead AI engineer asking tech advice - me proposing something (out of my experience and knowledge) - he invoking inline slack bot to ask if what I said made any sense - me telling that the AI arguments were kind of off - he invoking again the same both asking why I said that - .... so on... - third developer kicking in responding with obviously ChatGPT generated message

I left the company shortly after.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK I am bracing for the downvotes.. What about when the llm is smarter than the person? Sometimes I get material that is so bad I wish they had had AI do it. Then it would be poor to mediocre. There was an episode of the podcast “Question Everything “ where they talked about how LLM s can sometimes talk people out of conspiracy theories by patiently refuting the arguments with facts. There have been academic studies…

If the LLM is smarter than the person, the person cannot look at the output and judge to see whether it is correct.

True, but that's a people problem.
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