Ask HN: How do you stay on top of AI tech?
20 comments
I don't.
Let's say that AI is useful, and is improving rather rapidly. And let's say that I only look around every six months. So my AI tools are somewhere between current and six months old at any time. If AI is actually useful, I miss out on some productivity.
But I also miss out on six months of trying to keep up, which is a huge productivity gain. So on net, am I ahead or behind?
Let's say that AI is useful, and is improving rather rapidly. And let's say that I only look around every six months. So my AI tools are somewhere between current and six months old at any time. If AI is actually useful, I miss out on some productivity.
But I also miss out on six months of trying to keep up, which is a huge productivity gain. So on net, am I ahead or behind?
I have Simon Willison's blog in my RSS feed.
https://simonwillison.net
+1 Pretty much the best source for tech laypeople.
How do I stay on top of AI tech? I let other people (like simonw) do most of the leg work for me.
How do I stay on top of AI tech? I let other people (like simonw) do most of the leg work for me.
Yes, that, and AI Explained [1] on YouTube - no BS hype, strong yet approachable analysis, and an in-depth private community if you want a deeper dive.
https://www.youtube.com/@aiexplained-official
https://www.youtube.com/@aiexplained-official
thanks for sharing - subscribed!
It's hardly gone anywhere in about two years. Everything being hyped now by excited n00bs trying it for the first time was doable in 2023. There has been more integration of it into this and that, mainly, which is a parlor trick.
For AI news in general I just browse HN.
For useful tools I basically wait until something starts appearing in multiple places like HN comments, YouTube tech videos/comments, or on Reddit. This is what led to me hearing about Claude Code and trying it out before convincing other engineers at my company to try it. Now we're considering it over Cursor not so much because of Cursor pricing change but just because Claude Code is doing so much better.
That then leads me to an even more specific topic which is how I stay on top of info about the tools I'm using and for that I tend to stick to subreddits i.e. /r/ClaudeAI
Some YouTube sources would be any of the "tech-influencers" like ThePrimeagen[0], Internet of Bugs[1], or dare I say Fireship[2]
0 - https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen 1 - https://www.youtube.com/@InternetOfBugs 2 - https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship
For useful tools I basically wait until something starts appearing in multiple places like HN comments, YouTube tech videos/comments, or on Reddit. This is what led to me hearing about Claude Code and trying it out before convincing other engineers at my company to try it. Now we're considering it over Cursor not so much because of Cursor pricing change but just because Claude Code is doing so much better.
That then leads me to an even more specific topic which is how I stay on top of info about the tools I'm using and for that I tend to stick to subreddits i.e. /r/ClaudeAI
Some YouTube sources would be any of the "tech-influencers" like ThePrimeagen[0], Internet of Bugs[1], or dare I say Fireship[2]
0 - https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen 1 - https://www.youtube.com/@InternetOfBugs 2 - https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship
HN is one of the worse places to keep up with it. It gets buried fast due to the comment vs upvote ratio. Just about every other social media is better - reddit, LinkedIn, FB groups, X, YouTube, TikTok, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram.
In terms of the technology adoption curve, HN is in Early Majority. Show HN is a notch ahead, and that might be the place to watch.
In terms of the technology adoption curve, HN is in Early Majority. Show HN is a notch ahead, and that might be the place to watch.
> For AI news in general I just browse HN.
Like asking whalers for their opinion on electricity.
Like asking whalers for their opinion on electricity.
What do you mean by stay on top of it?
I’m more on the applied/practical side, not really qualified nor interested in the theoretical side (I’m not a AI PhD). Beyond a high level understanding of how these tools work, there’s not much for me in this arena.
As such I just read articles here or in my everyday workflow I’ll see some new thing AWS added and try it out, and so on.
Or if I’m facing a problem that requires some tools to solve, I see what’s out there to fill my toolbox.
Otherwise it is just a ton of noise and most of it is not relevant to me.
I’m more on the applied/practical side, not really qualified nor interested in the theoretical side (I’m not a AI PhD). Beyond a high level understanding of how these tools work, there’s not much for me in this arena.
As such I just read articles here or in my everyday workflow I’ll see some new thing AWS added and try it out, and so on.
Or if I’m facing a problem that requires some tools to solve, I see what’s out there to fill my toolbox.
Otherwise it is just a ton of noise and most of it is not relevant to me.
There is really no AI tech. Any of the agent stuff is just prompt engineering which you can do yourself. VS Code + Continue does as well as any LLM focused IDE.
The only thing I really pay attention to is stuff like Gemma QAT, where companies train smaller models with quantized aware training that gives them really good performance.
The only thing I really pay attention to is stuff like Gemma QAT, where companies train smaller models with quantized aware training that gives them really good performance.
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I also don't have a good idea. but I'm building a tool for myself to track papers/reading lists https://youtu.be/uU_WeER2PSs
From the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44559627
subscribing to AI News https://news.smol.ai/
YouTube.
What are some of your strategies to stay in the loop?