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It also seems like the value of quality tutoring that doesn't primarily function as social/class signaling goes down as tools capable of automating high quality intellectual work are more widely available.
100%. I think there are some clear distinctions between AI training and human learning in practice that compound this. Humans learning requires individual investment and doesn't scale that efficiently. If someone…
If it doesn't work, it's an annoyance and you have to argue with it. If it does work, it's one more case where maybe with the right MCP plumbing and/or a slightly better model you might not be needed as part of this…
Certainly not my intention. Some of my post is projection: I don't like the implications of the AI enthusiast stance, and I know I want "actually, AI can't fully take over the task of programming" to be true even though…
I suspect that lots of developers who are sour on relying on AI significantly _would_ agree with most of this, but see the result of that logic leading to (as the article notes) "the skill of writing and reading code is…
"force" seems a bit strong, as I remember it.
I don't doubt that many love it. I'm just going based on SF non-tech people I know, who largely see it as the thing vaguely mentioned on every billboard and bus stop, the chatbot every tech company seems to be trying to…
Anecdotally, lots of people in SF tech hate AI too. _Most_ people out of tech do. But, enough of the people in tech have their future tied to AI that there are lot of vocal boosters.
Yeah, it makes sense that going from a decade or so where SWE was one of the best possible career paths if you have any aptitude to a period where tech cos were staffing up aggressively (I recall reading ~60% growth),…
Even 15 years ago or so when Guido was still there I recall being told "we aren't supposed to write any new services in Python. It starts easy, then things get messy and end up needing to be rewritten." I recall it…
Oh, that explains a thing. A decade or so ago, I was a well regarded engineer at a FAANG who got an offer from a startup. I told my manager I was probably going to take it, as it sounded fun. He and his lead tried to…
Thanks for Picol! I saw it as a young engineer, and found the simplicity inspiring. It inspired me to write Tcl interpreters as starter projects in the next languages I was picking up, and I learned a lot by trying to…
Some of the problem in the conversation around this is that many people take "1x engineer" to mean "not particularly competent engineer" and some take it to mean "baseline, solid contributor who isn't exceptional", and…
I marvel at this every single time i see their billboards. It does mean I read all of their billboards, I guess.
If you're very rich, not left leaning, and have a big platform, I imagine it's very easy for censorship/woke mobs to seem like the biggest problem. Most of your needs/wants (in terms of food, shelter, safety) are met,…
Quite true! Having been fairly instrumental in a few areas that I'd eventually moved on from, it was always interesting to see some of my trademark accomplishments become The Old Thing We're Trying To Replace (or even…
This seems generally true in my experience. Another aspect of this, from personal experience: while it may be easy to move around in a large organization, you risk losing reputational capital. I had a habit of building…
who is saying this on the behalf of western society?
Grover Norquist, prominent conservative voice and head of Americans For Tax Reform has talked about the danger of government provided filing services, namely that he believes it leads ultimately to increased taxes. The…
Daycare was an anti-perk for Google, practically speaking. It was a huge waiting list to have a chance, and a small fraction got to use it, so most parents just got to be somewhat frustrated by it. Lots of perks aren't…
what does the expression "let them have cake" mean?
If they brought in some trustworthy skeptical folks with some tools and enough background to know what compelling nothing looks like, and they came out saying, "Oh man. oh wow. I'm trying to come up with another…
I'm healthy and enjoy a good walk, but I wouldn't really want to bring luggage a mile from an airport, especially not if the weather isn't nice; it seems rare for foot traffic out of airports to be particularly easy.
Yes, the output always feels to me like a reasonably clever and informed person just bullshitting; as someone prone, it's familiar. But, good-sounding shallow thinking is still pretty dang useful.
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It also seems like the value of quality tutoring that doesn't primarily function as social/class signaling goes down as tools capable of automating high quality intellectual work are more widely available.
100%. I think there are some clear distinctions between AI training and human learning in practice that compound this. Humans learning requires individual investment and doesn't scale that efficiently. If someone…
If it doesn't work, it's an annoyance and you have to argue with it. If it does work, it's one more case where maybe with the right MCP plumbing and/or a slightly better model you might not be needed as part of this…
Certainly not my intention. Some of my post is projection: I don't like the implications of the AI enthusiast stance, and I know I want "actually, AI can't fully take over the task of programming" to be true even though…
I suspect that lots of developers who are sour on relying on AI significantly _would_ agree with most of this, but see the result of that logic leading to (as the article notes) "the skill of writing and reading code is…
"force" seems a bit strong, as I remember it.
I don't doubt that many love it. I'm just going based on SF non-tech people I know, who largely see it as the thing vaguely mentioned on every billboard and bus stop, the chatbot every tech company seems to be trying to…
Anecdotally, lots of people in SF tech hate AI too. _Most_ people out of tech do. But, enough of the people in tech have their future tied to AI that there are lot of vocal boosters.
Yeah, it makes sense that going from a decade or so where SWE was one of the best possible career paths if you have any aptitude to a period where tech cos were staffing up aggressively (I recall reading ~60% growth),…
Even 15 years ago or so when Guido was still there I recall being told "we aren't supposed to write any new services in Python. It starts easy, then things get messy and end up needing to be rewritten." I recall it…
Oh, that explains a thing. A decade or so ago, I was a well regarded engineer at a FAANG who got an offer from a startup. I told my manager I was probably going to take it, as it sounded fun. He and his lead tried to…
Thanks for Picol! I saw it as a young engineer, and found the simplicity inspiring. It inspired me to write Tcl interpreters as starter projects in the next languages I was picking up, and I learned a lot by trying to…
Some of the problem in the conversation around this is that many people take "1x engineer" to mean "not particularly competent engineer" and some take it to mean "baseline, solid contributor who isn't exceptional", and…
I marvel at this every single time i see their billboards. It does mean I read all of their billboards, I guess.
If you're very rich, not left leaning, and have a big platform, I imagine it's very easy for censorship/woke mobs to seem like the biggest problem. Most of your needs/wants (in terms of food, shelter, safety) are met,…
Quite true! Having been fairly instrumental in a few areas that I'd eventually moved on from, it was always interesting to see some of my trademark accomplishments become The Old Thing We're Trying To Replace (or even…
This seems generally true in my experience. Another aspect of this, from personal experience: while it may be easy to move around in a large organization, you risk losing reputational capital. I had a habit of building…
who is saying this on the behalf of western society?
Grover Norquist, prominent conservative voice and head of Americans For Tax Reform has talked about the danger of government provided filing services, namely that he believes it leads ultimately to increased taxes. The…
Daycare was an anti-perk for Google, practically speaking. It was a huge waiting list to have a chance, and a small fraction got to use it, so most parents just got to be somewhat frustrated by it. Lots of perks aren't…
what does the expression "let them have cake" mean?
If they brought in some trustworthy skeptical folks with some tools and enough background to know what compelling nothing looks like, and they came out saying, "Oh man. oh wow. I'm trying to come up with another…
I'm healthy and enjoy a good walk, but I wouldn't really want to bring luggage a mile from an airport, especially not if the weather isn't nice; it seems rare for foot traffic out of airports to be particularly easy.
Yes, the output always feels to me like a reasonably clever and informed person just bullshitting; as someone prone, it's familiar. But, good-sounding shallow thinking is still pretty dang useful.