5 ms·
One thing that strikes me about these discussions is just how awful the metaphors are. We're constantly being told that jobs designing and building skyscrapers
by pydry 23d ago
One thing that strikes me about these discussions is just how awful the metaphors are.
We're constantly being told that jobs designing and building skyscrapers are close to obsolete because some yokel made a factory that manufactures yurts.
Writing hand crafted code for the sole use of an individual never happened. Writing hand crafted code to be run by millions of people is routine. You can't compare it to a spinning jenny, a printing press, the motor car or indeed any other technological invention that scaled production. It is nonsensical by definition.
I think a lot of people just dont want to hear that LLMs are a step change and not actually revolutionary. Theres too much invested in them being world changing at this point. Blockchain was the same.
- boomlinde 23d ago> Writing hand crafted code for the sole use of an individual never happened. It seems bizarre in a way to see this sentiment on hacker news.
- pydry 23d agoas an economic activity. i made my own crappy todo apps for fun too but I never once got paid for it. now that I can get a machine to do that instead has the world fundamentally changed?
- brazukadev 23d agoit is still wrong. Lots of people created and still create software that just themselves use as competitive advantage in their area of work.
- marginalia_nu 23d agoAlso hard to overstate the sheer impact of a tool like Excel, which in many ways is an ad-hoc programming tool so intuitive that anyone can learn to use it. Even though it sees more jeer than celebration, and is often something techies seek to liberate users from, it's likely one of the most economically impactful inventions of the 20th century, already delivering many of the things we hype AI for. Entire businesses run off Excel spreadsheets.
- Ekaros 23d agoFactories making canned or microwave meals killed chefs. Why would anyone cook food themselves if they can get food ready made only missing heating. Cooking and being chef is dead. Factory produced slop is the new future...
- ThunderSizzle 23d agoMost code I write these days are never directly consumed by anyone or anything. Daily or monthly batch jobs that help keep the data flowing correctly.