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I'm OK being left behind, thanks

708 pointsby coinfusedtoday at 1:38 PM585 commentsview on HN

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LaGrangetoday at 2:20 PM

> Have fun being poor

Not going to lie, I’d rather be poor. Not destitute - I’ve been poor but not destitute and I’d rather not go desperate - but poor? As in (because “poor” is very imprecise and can imply anything between utter poverty to “not owning three homes”) like having a low paying job but still enough to pay rent?

I’d rather be that than do AI assisted software development. Genuinely the only thing stopping me now is that there’s actually way more skill and qualifications in most low-paying jobs than a typical software developer imagines, and acquiring those takes time and money itself. But by now I know multiple people who made the jump even before the latest madness, and they’re all happier. Some still code, but don’t even publish. Some are like “I haven’t used a proper computer in _months_ this is great.” All work hard jobs at odd hours. None regret.

dakollitoday at 2:11 PM

I love the Cryptocurrency analogy. The LLM hype monkeys are the same people that were screaming that NFTs/Digital Art was going to replace all the traditional art in gallaries in 10 years. They are literally the same people, and they are all addicted to money and hype. Ignore them..

Did handmade Swiss watch movements lose all demand when Asia started mass manufacturing watches? No. There is always going to be more demand for quality over slop. Its the same reason that handmade clothes are worth 100x more than clothes at a department store.

This is all by design too, these billionaires selling thinking machines are trying to make us all dependent on their fountain of tokens. Don't fall for it. Just like how maps apps made everyone reliant on Google/Apple for your ability to navigate around your own city, these billionaires want to do the same think with your ability to think, build, plan and even learn/read.

Don't fall for this scam, unlike other hype cycles like NFTs and Crypto this will actually damage more than just your bank account, it will fry your brain if you become over reliant on it.

Take a second and consider why these LLM tool companies design their products like slot machines. They put multipliers in there UIs (run this x3,x4,x5) times so that you inevitably treat the thing like a slot machine. And it is like a slot machine, you have no way to control the results its quite random, in the case of llms they just have a better payout percentage, at the cost of making your brain become dopamine and structurally dependent on their output. They convince people there is some occulted art in the formation of a prompt, like a gambler who thinks if they press buttons in a certain order they'll get better results or many other gambling superstitions.

If you're writing software please take a moment to breath, and ask yourself if its really that useful to have piles of code where you have little idea how things work, even if they do. Billionaires will sell you on the idea that this doesn't matter because the llm, that you conveniently have to pay them to use, will always be able to fix that bug.

Don't fall for the ruling classes trick, they want you reliant on this thing so they can tell you that your input isn't as valuable, and therefor your salary and skills are not as valuable. We have to stop this now.

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dakollitoday at 2:00 PM

The kid who showed his work in detail in math class is doing better in life 9/10 times than the kids that only knew how to use a calculator. Now consider how well the people who think you just need to know how to yell at the calculator are going to do?

When Maps apps came around, people totally lost the brain muscle for being able to navigate. Using LLMs is no different, people over reliant on these tools are simply ngmi. They are going to be totally reliant on their favorite billionaire being willing to sell them competency via their thinking machines.

I would caution everyone to consider if the Billionaires who are screaming that you're going to be left behind, laid off and redundant if you don't (pay them to) use their brain nerfing machine, whether or not they have your best interest at heart.

You're not going to be left behind.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

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homeonthemtntoday at 2:19 PM

I think this is a carry over from the early 2000s boom and bust mindset. That if you jump in early enough on nearly any technology, you'll become a billionaire. So hop on board our burning platform!

In general, we as a society have not adjusted to technology. We've gone through to much change to have any stable base lines. So we're going to float in insanity for a while until things finally settle down. Probably 2 wars, a famine, and several periods of resource scarcity away still, but we'll get there one day...

maxothextoday at 4:05 PM

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hideyoshi_thtoday at 2:19 PM

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bigbawlstoday at 5:55 PM

Had another 2-hour throwaway session today with an LLM.

These only really happen in mature codebases tied up in complex business requirements.

The last few times I’ve tried LLMs with this codebase it has not been fruitful.

Weird because it’s impressive in other areas, especially tech with no real users lmao

jruztoday at 3:16 PM

Have fun writing code yourself /s

j3th9ntoday at 3:11 PM

Tldr; dude makes wrong choices one after the other and copes with it by being ok with being left behind. "I wrote my Msc on The Metaverse", ....

stefantalpalarutoday at 4:14 PM

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null-phnixtoday at 2:53 PM

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adampunktoday at 2:02 PM

[flagged]

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butILoveLifetoday at 1:52 PM

This would hit harder if Bitcoin didn't win and AI coding didn't completely change our jobs.

Why not simply evaluate things instead of ignoring them until its too late?

Sure, we don't have infinity time, but the fact that OP mentions these two things, means the pattern showed up enough.

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danielblntoday at 2:23 PM

A great blog article for 2023. In 2026 I think the wait is over..

marnetttoday at 1:51 PM

> I didn't use Git when it first came out. Once it was stable and jobs began demanding it, I picked it up.

What jobs aren’t requiring usage of these tools by now?

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adriancooneytoday at 1:56 PM

There are real productivity gains by using these tools right now. Instead of doing 1x your normal work, you can do 5x while still maintaining quality. This is like an accountant sticking to pen and paper because calculators are big and clunky.

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