I am distancing myself from peers I once respected who are lost to chatbot psychosis. It is not my task to help them. I have no interest in anyone wilfully funding billionaires’ fantasies. There are new people to meet who respect humanity.
Psychosis "is the inability to distinguish what is or is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or incoherent thoughts or speech." I don't think the author substantiates his argument that devs, who use chatbots, are generally experiencing psychosis, but if he genuinely believes that his attitude towards these devs is one of rejection and not compassion or humanity.
Framing it as "the LLM users will be left behind" is marginally more healthy for my mental state, but as long as the people in power (political and economic) are the ones pushing AI, I don't think that'll end up being correct.
Aside: I dislike how divided the software community has become in any case.
I also don't think that stating "I don't use AI" outright is likely to get me a job (currently unemployed and hunting for one), but maybe I just need to change careers instead of putting so much of my energy into one that depresses me so much.
Yeah, the current state of the tech industry is pretty awful. It's not like it was great pre-GenAI, but GenAI has made it so much worse. I feel like all we can do is band together against it. Unionize, support movements against GenAI, do outreach, write slopfree code, meet people in other affected professions, etc.
I do feel rather optimistic that we can collectively push against this fundamentally anti-social and dehumanizing technology, we just gotta find and support one-another. :)
Absolutely this. I know plenty of nerds who are enjoying themselves immensely - many with decades of experience, some who are even coming out of retirement because they're having so much fun.
... and there are also a sizable number of people who are hating everything about this.
People have also decided to leave the industry for good. Some have been squeezed out by the current job market, others have chosen to do so out of discontent.
No, not really. I understand some people have quite negative emotions attached to it, and I understand it. But I am also seeing a ton of people who are enjoying this like little kids. I don't really see why one side enjoying this has to be bad.
And well, excitement tends to be more productive than resentment, and it's certainly more fun to be around. So if you would ask me which side I enjoy hanging out with, then that is pretty clear to me right now.
don't respond to "things are quite bad right now" with "yeah but I'm having fun"
Where did I say I'm having fun? I'm pretty well outspoken of having a rather complex relationship with this technology. I made an observation about how polarizing the situation is.
I have never been able to contribute so much back to open source as I have been since Claude came out... bug reports, benchmarks, etc. and not just code.
Many projects are being overwhelmed by slop. I obviously don’t know you or the quality of your contributions, just in general want to add the perspective that this might not be all positive, and that everyone who contributes should reflect their own work.
pyfisch | 11 hours ago
Psychosis "is the inability to distinguish what is or is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or incoherent thoughts or speech." I don't think the author substantiates his argument that devs, who use chatbots, are generally experiencing psychosis, but if he genuinely believes that his attitude towards these devs is one of rejection and not compassion or humanity.
dbushell | 9 hours ago
yes thanks for calling this out - poor turn of phrase, sorry. It wasn't meant literally, and I should not be using it derogatorily.
pyfisch | 9 hours ago
No problem, thank you for taking my comment seriously.
kitkat | 5 hours ago
Framing it as "the LLM users will be left behind" is marginally more healthy for my mental state, but as long as the people in power (political and economic) are the ones pushing AI, I don't think that'll end up being correct.
Aside: I dislike how divided the software community has become in any case.
I also don't think that stating "I don't use AI" outright is likely to get me a job (currently unemployed and hunting for one), but maybe I just need to change careers instead of putting so much of my energy into one that depresses me so much.
lumi | 3 hours ago
Yeah, the current state of the tech industry is pretty awful. It's not like it was great pre-GenAI, but GenAI has made it so much worse. I feel like all we can do is band together against it. Unionize, support movements against GenAI, do outreach, write slopfree code, meet people in other affected professions, etc.
I do feel rather optimistic that we can collectively push against this fundamentally anti-social and dehumanizing technology, we just gotta find and support one-another. :)
mitsuhiko | 3 hours ago
It's fascinating how polarizing it is. I know so many people who are ecstatic about what's going on right now.
bmo | 2 hours ago
You're replying in a thread with someone who's currently unemployed. The parts that people aren't ecstatic about are not that surprising.
simonw | 2 hours ago
Absolutely this. I know plenty of nerds who are enjoying themselves immensely - many with decades of experience, some who are even coming out of retirement because they're having so much fun.
... and there are also a sizable number of people who are hating everything about this.
ggpsv | an hour ago
People have also decided to leave the industry for good. Some have been squeezed out by the current job market, others have chosen to do so out of discontent.
wrs | an hour ago
And if we get a big enough bubble of missing juniors in the pipeline, several years from now a lot more developers may come out of retirement…
tentacloids | 2 hours ago
wat
I guess, what, computer... productivity? is the only thing that matters to some people
mitsuhiko | an hour ago
I think this has less to do with productivity but fun and enjoyment.
tentacloids | an hour ago
You get how that's worse, right?
mitsuhiko | an hour ago
No, not really. I understand some people have quite negative emotions attached to it, and I understand it. But I am also seeing a ton of people who are enjoying this like little kids. I don't really see why one side enjoying this has to be bad.
And well, excitement tends to be more productive than resentment, and it's certainly more fun to be around. So if you would ask me which side I enjoy hanging out with, then that is pretty clear to me right now.
tentacloids | an hour ago
Then have some empathy and don't respond to "things are quite bad right now" with "yeah but I'm having fun"
mitsuhiko | 21 minutes ago
Where did I say I'm having fun? I'm pretty well outspoken of having a rather complex relationship with this technology. I made an observation about how polarizing the situation is.
pgray | 6 hours ago
I have never been able to contribute so much back to open source as I have been since Claude came out... bug reports, benchmarks, etc. and not just code.
To each their own I guess
[OP] diktomat | 5 hours ago
Many projects are being overwhelmed by slop. I obviously don’t know you or the quality of your contributions, just in general want to add the perspective that this might not be all positive, and that everyone who contributes should reflect their own work.
pgray | 5 hours ago
Yeah, agreed. I definitely end up with slop all the time but put extra time in to filter and prune it.
For some projects that's fine. For others it's not.
I'm totally fine anyone policing their own project/etc. as they see fit.
pyj | 4 hours ago