Ask HN: Other Tech Elders.. How do you deal with the AI world?
2 comments
I ignore AI.
There's a myth that someone, some thing, some "Deus ex Machina" or even Deus "has all the answers". In truth, every moment presents us with questions, and if all we want is answers from a machine [0] we will be slave to that machine, whereas if we think things out, we learn and grow from that process, and create meaning in that moment.
What is "meaning"? In the context of "stories" I read: “Stories create meaning as they touch our knowledge, experience, and as we process them with our minds and emotions.”
We can seek meaning from outside sources, but that's a failure mode. We create meaning with our lives, and in a deep philosophical sense, our lives create meaning for the universe of which we are a part, not separate.
I found an HN post rather interesting:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825716
Hey, ChatGPT: Where Should I Go to College?
My reply is:
> This begs the question "Why go to college at all?"
> Top engineers at Anthropic, OpenAI say AI now writes 100% of their code [1]
Since this is an evolving (or devolving) situation, let me suggest finding some work where creativity and empathy are exercised.
Also, a job making changes that you can't trust to AI [2] which might destroy your systems with a panic or hallucination.
Again, a work in progress, and who knows, even CEO's might be at risk [3] given that there aren't that many business strategies to adopt, and follow-through on them is highly people-dependent. (my comment in that thread)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_of_Time_(The_Twilight_Zon...
[1] https://fortune.com/2026/01/29/100-percent-of-code-at-anthro...
[2] https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/i-destroyed-months-of-yo...
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46762844#46775608
There's a myth that someone, some thing, some "Deus ex Machina" or even Deus "has all the answers". In truth, every moment presents us with questions, and if all we want is answers from a machine [0] we will be slave to that machine, whereas if we think things out, we learn and grow from that process, and create meaning in that moment.
What is "meaning"? In the context of "stories" I read: “Stories create meaning as they touch our knowledge, experience, and as we process them with our minds and emotions.”
We can seek meaning from outside sources, but that's a failure mode. We create meaning with our lives, and in a deep philosophical sense, our lives create meaning for the universe of which we are a part, not separate.
I found an HN post rather interesting:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825716
Hey, ChatGPT: Where Should I Go to College?
My reply is:
> This begs the question "Why go to college at all?"
> Top engineers at Anthropic, OpenAI say AI now writes 100% of their code [1]
Since this is an evolving (or devolving) situation, let me suggest finding some work where creativity and empathy are exercised.
Also, a job making changes that you can't trust to AI [2] which might destroy your systems with a panic or hallucination.
Again, a work in progress, and who knows, even CEO's might be at risk [3] given that there aren't that many business strategies to adopt, and follow-through on them is highly people-dependent. (my comment in that thread)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_of_Time_(The_Twilight_Zon...
[1] https://fortune.com/2026/01/29/100-percent-of-code-at-anthro...
[2] https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/i-destroyed-months-of-yo...
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46762844#46775608
> Is there anything I can do?
Have you tried reading Camus' essay "The Myth of Sisyphus"?
Have you tried reading Camus' essay "The Myth of Sisyphus"?
I've been around for ages - whether it's p2p, hardware, protocols, saas things, security, oss, whatever.... AI makes me hate tech. I've said it. For the last three years I've helped multiple orgs either as a full timer or a consultant, some are in the Valley, some are local.. But it's all the same.
Orgs seem to want people to churn massive amounts of AI infused code. Pull requests are both not valued, and frankly ignored. My own code is reviewed by AI elsewhere, rarely by people. Reviews from people are at best surface level - and honestly, I've done some really, really hard things the last month or so. I genuinely feel that I haven't learned anything other then how to be upset, for about a year. The last straw was a PR I read today.. someone, with the help of Claude spat out 3457 lines of bash to create a tool... a tool that is `w` (yes, from procps, type it in your shell). I... just can't do this anymore. But, I still need the money - I'm frugal, but I'm not wealthy and cannot retire..
I find myself unable to work out. I now overeat. I come home watch TV for hours, and do nothing, something that in my life I have never done. The (awesome) vacation I took last week was at best a pause, not a recharger as it turned out.
So fellow HNers.. is this something you see? Is there anything I can do? Is this present our future? I'm at my wits end.