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Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

nytimes.com

91–100 of 199 posts

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#91

We are, in the best case scenario, minting a lost generation in real time. This will become increasingly clear over the next 2 years. Meanwhile, simonw and his retiree friends are having the "time of their lives", so that's good I guess :)

Is that an actual quote from simonw? He seems an unbiased observer and reporter of progress, I'd be sad to see him cheering this stuff on so callously.

Not just that but "you're holding it wrong" on many occasions.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=tru...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44483567 is pretty much (paraphrasing) sucks to be you if you can't make it work.

Well, people who are not above a threshold of experience yet are not in a position to self-assess and course-correct if their long term learning is being affected. And even less so if there is pressure to be hyper-productive with the help of AI.

Speculating here but I think even seniors who rely on AI all the time and enjoy the enhanced output are going to end up with impostor syndrome over the things they suspect they can no longer do without AI, and FOMO about all the projects they haven't yet attempted with AI despite working as hard as they can.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pressures of high taxes This is something I never see mentioned so I'm curious what brought it up. Are you personally paying a lot of taxes or so much that you can't afford other things or is this a thing peers talk about? Is this a state or federal thing?

I totally am paying a massive amount of capital gains taxes! I’m also saving up for a house which means every dollar I don’t contribute to a down payment becomes principal and interest on a mortgage which equals even more money out of my pocket. For instance if I pay $37k in capital gains one year (which I did) and if my principal on a $500k house is $200k at 6% and $1500 monthly payments I’ll have to pay $33k in int…

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Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#93
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could your "business" ever make money if any idiot with a $20 CC subscription can recreate it in a weekend? And no, "I can prompt better than them" is not a differentiator.

Gyms still make money even though you can stay quite fit with just a good set of adjustable dumbbells, a bench, and a jump rope.

I think a closer analogy is paying for a personal trainer vs working out yourself. Some people find value in that, but not many.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#94

We are, in the best case scenario, minting a lost generation in real time. This will become increasingly clear over the next 2 years. Meanwhile, simonw and his retiree friends are having the "time of their lives", so that's good I guess :)

It's classic ladder-kicking behavior, reveling in the mild conveniences of "genai" while comfortably impervious to the externalities. Shameful that the moderators of so many online communities turn a blind eye to- or even offer explicit support for- their endless shilling for hideously unethical web-destroying for-profit companies simply because they express their native advertising in a superficially polite register.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#95
post #67

Reminds me of the quote: No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded. These types of surveys are pretty much useless. Just go by people's revealed preferences. They're using the technology. They don't have to. I'm sure most teachers and schools would prefer them not to. Why do they have to use it? Have standards gotten higher in schools such that they will be left behind if they don't? Is there peer pressure to use i…

> These types of surveys are pretty much useless. Just go by people's revealed preferences. They're using the technology. They don't have to. I'm sure most teachers and schools would prefer them not to.

> Why do they have to use it? Have standards gotten higher in schools such that they will be left behind if they don't? Is there peer pressure to use it? Is there some social aspect I'm unaware of?

Did you not read the article or not read it carefully? Try again, your comment shows a massive lack of understanding and little else.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pressures of high taxes This is something I never see mentioned so I'm curious what brought it up. Are you personally paying a lot of taxes or so much that you can't afford other things or is this a thing peers talk about? Is this a state or federal thing?

I totally am paying a massive amount of capital gains taxes! I’m also saving up for a house which means every dollar I don’t contribute to a down payment becomes principal and interest on a mortgage which equals even more money out of my pocket. For instance if I pay $37k in capital gains one year (which I did) and if my principal on a $500k house is $200k at 6% and $1500 monthly payments I’ll have to pay $33k in int…

Don't the vast majority of young people entering the workforce have no capital gains to deal with at all? That tends to be more of a problem for people who are already well off. Are you talking about a narrower demographic or something?

The amounts you paid in capital gains are about 50% higher than I've ever paid. That was the second year I worked at a big tech company and suddenly had stock, which was about a decade into an my extremely lucrative career as a software developer. Most of my friends don't have to deal with capital gains at all because they're not part of the investor class. On average the rates of trading must be much lower for people in their 20s, no?

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#97
post #79
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The loom, the steam engine, or the airplane did not cause "captains of industry" to publicly salivate over anticipating being able to fire their knowledge workers who invested time, money, and effort into becoming qualified for the jobs they're now constantly in fear of losing. The social contract is being broken. Being broken just on paper, just on the hopes that it can be broken for good.

Those captains of industry almost certainly salivated over the idea of not needing weavers etc. any more. Is the difference you're seeing just that they're doing that publicly now?

No, the difference is that people used to kick down their doors and boot stomp their heads when they got this greedy about it

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#98

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> I see young people frustrated when their cars get broken into or when they get robbed and criminals are not held accountable

Yes people of all ages tend to be unhappy when crime happens to them. Not sure where you live but lowering taxes and government oversight is actually a bad way to improve taxpayer funded and government run law enforcement agencies. None of this has anything to do with AI though and young people can be angry about multiple things.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why do things make you hopeful?

I’m hopeful for driver assist so I don’t have to pay attention while driving, also this helps disabled people get around (particularly in rural areas with less/no public transit). I’m also hopeful for humanoid robots so they can do all my chores like sweeping, laundry and cooking. In general the idea that me, my family/friends and my country is progressing makes me hopeful.

It's fair to hope for what was promised, but you cannot discount what is being delivered.

Self driving cars were a huge deal 10 years ago and we were all going to be using them immenitly. Now the future is here and they are no greater than a curiosity for the average person. 99.99% are driving manually and will be 30 years from now.

Similarly, AI promises to solve every problem, but the average persons' experience is that of increasing irrelevant spam and junk mail rather than being freed from laundry duty.

Re: Study found that young adults have grown less hopeful and more angry about AI

#100
post #88
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those captains of industry almost certainly salivated over the idea of not needing weavers etc. any more. Is the difference you're seeing just that they're doing that publicly now?

The weavers had a rough go of it for sure, but at least they did not have to spend 4 years of their early adulthood being intellectually challenged in a higher education institution, often going into debt, in order to become qualified weavers.

Actually it was 7 years of physical training that deformed their bodies:

"But the work left the body callused, bent, and molded. You could tell a cropper by his enormous forearms and by the “hoof” of callused skin that built up on his wrist. In the spring of 1811, George was in his early twenties, and he’d spent his post-adolescent life learning the trade. Seven years of hard, exacting labor; seven years of paying his dues. That led to pride and attachment to the work, to a brotherhood, to an identity."

Merchant, Brian. Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech. Little Brown & Co. (ADS), 2024.

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