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Your recollection is wrong. At any point in time, it has seemed like VCs and startups were chasing the same idea of the day. The joke in early 2010s was that

Your recollection is wrong. At any point in time, it has seemed like VCs and startups were chasing the same idea of the day. The joke in early 2010s was that every startup was "Uber for dogs." Also, to your comment "tech isn't so interesting these days"... we get a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years, and obviously AI/ML is the current one since Nov 2022.

afavour 2y ago
> we get a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years, and obviously AI/ML is the current one since Nov 2022. Seems like a backwards way of looking at it. There is _always_ a cambrian explosion every 5-10 years therefore AI is that explosion? Seems like you're asking for false positives. What if we _don't_ have one every 5-10 years?
- samatman 2y ago
  You're conflating an observation about the past with a prediction about the future. There's no reason to do that.
  - afavour 2y ago
    > You're conflating an observation about the past with a prediction about the future No I'm not? OP said: > we get a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years I'm not the one conflating anything here.
    - randomdata 2y ago
      > OP said Exactly. Just as we also see the sun rise each morning. That, however, does not imply one predicts that the sun will forever rise each morning. In fact, we know that at some point the sun will no longer rise in the morning. But we see the sun rise each morning, and we see a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years. > I'm not the one conflating anything here. That's fair. Conflation implies intent. Whereas you are just confused.
      - afavour 2y ago
        > You're just confused. And you are being patronising. My point is that there’s no guarantee this tech explosion will continue. Your logic appears to be “it has, so it will, until it doesn’t”, which… okay? All of your comments so far feel like you’re disagreeing with me just because you feel like being argumentative rather than because you have something useful to say.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - samatman 2y ago
        It doesn't actually: > Conflation is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, or opinions into one, often in error. It can be done as a rhetorical ploy, but that's not part of the definition, it can also simply be a mistake.
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  EXACTLY! It's like "AI" is here only because VC needed a next "thing." ChatBots are super cool and useful but they are not the AI being sold.
  - edanm 2y ago
    AI is here because an AI product came out that millions of users found actually useful. The massive success of ChatGPT is what brought the current era of hype around AI - it's not anything VCs did.
  - Gud 2y ago
    Chatbots sucks, I want a human.
- randomdata 2y ago
  > What if we _don't_ have one every 5-10 years? Then the observed trend will come to an end. Seems rather obvious, no?
shortrounddev2 2y ago
I'm not afraid to say that AI/ML is not interesting. The last new tech that I found interesting was HTML5
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  I'm with you but to say text/image generation isn't interesting is just wrong. It is VERY interesting but selling it as "AI" is just wrong.
  - shortrounddev2 2y ago
    "interesting" is in the eye of the beholder. I simply don't find text generation that interesting, especially as a software engineer, and I REALLY don't find image generation interesting at all.
    - rm_-rf_slash 2y ago
      As a software engineer, you don’t have to. But Hollywood does. Lots of producer/PA/VFX work is being rapidly automated and the genie is not going back inside the bottle.
      - shortrounddev2 2y ago
        that was never in question
- randomdata 2y ago
  Do you still find HTML5 to be as interesting as ever, or do you find that interest wanes with time? AI is many decades older than HTML5, so if your interest does wane then it stands to reason that there would be very little vestigial interest remaining.
  - shortrounddev2 2y ago
    I find WebGPU interesting as an extension of HTML5; I think HTML5 offers features that are not being taken advantage of by mainstream websites. I think HTML5 is interesting because, as a software engineer, it's a set of tools I can build something with. LLMs are not interesting to me because they're simply a product to use or consume. They're not terribly interesting to interface with because the commercial ones simply sit behind an HTTP API, so the only thing to do with them is send them different prompts, which is, again, uninteresting.

afavour 2y ago

> we get a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years, and obviously AI/ML is the current one since Nov 2022. Seems like a backwards way of looking at it. There is _always_ a cambrian explosion every 5-10 years therefore AI is that explosion? Seems like you're asking for false positives. What if we _don't_ have one every 5-10 years?

samatman 2y ago
You're conflating an observation about the past with a prediction about the future. There's no reason to do that.
- afavour 2y ago
  > You're conflating an observation about the past with a prediction about the future No I'm not? OP said: > we get a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years I'm not the one conflating anything here.
  - randomdata 2y ago
    > OP said Exactly. Just as we also see the sun rise each morning. That, however, does not imply one predicts that the sun will forever rise each morning. In fact, we know that at some point the sun will no longer rise in the morning. But we see the sun rise each morning, and we see a new cambrian idea or core technology every 5-10 years. > I'm not the one conflating anything here. That's fair. Conflation implies intent. Whereas you are just confused.
    - afavour 2y ago
      > You're just confused. And you are being patronising. My point is that there’s no guarantee this tech explosion will continue. Your logic appears to be “it has, so it will, until it doesn’t”, which… okay? All of your comments so far feel like you’re disagreeing with me just because you feel like being argumentative rather than because you have something useful to say.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
    - samatman 2y ago
      It doesn't actually: > Conflation is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, or opinions into one, often in error. It can be done as a rhetorical ploy, but that's not part of the definition, it can also simply be a mistake.
kylebenzle 2y ago
EXACTLY! It's like "AI" is here only because VC needed a next "thing." ChatBots are super cool and useful but they are not the AI being sold.
- edanm 2y ago
  AI is here because an AI product came out that millions of users found actually useful. The massive success of ChatGPT is what brought the current era of hype around AI - it's not anything VCs did.
- Gud 2y ago
  Chatbots sucks, I want a human.
randomdata 2y ago
> What if we _don't_ have one every 5-10 years? Then the observed trend will come to an end. Seems rather obvious, no?

shortrounddev2 2y ago

I'm not afraid to say that AI/ML is not interesting. The last new tech that I found interesting was HTML5

kylebenzle 2y ago
I'm with you but to say text/image generation isn't interesting is just wrong. It is VERY interesting but selling it as "AI" is just wrong.
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  "interesting" is in the eye of the beholder. I simply don't find text generation that interesting, especially as a software engineer, and I REALLY don't find image generation interesting at all.
  - rm_-rf_slash 2y ago
    As a software engineer, you don’t have to. But Hollywood does. Lots of producer/PA/VFX work is being rapidly automated and the genie is not going back inside the bottle.
    - shortrounddev2 2y ago
      that was never in question
randomdata 2y ago
Do you still find HTML5 to be as interesting as ever, or do you find that interest wanes with time? AI is many decades older than HTML5, so if your interest does wane then it stands to reason that there would be very little vestigial interest remaining.
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  I find WebGPU interesting as an extension of HTML5; I think HTML5 offers features that are not being taken advantage of by mainstream websites. I think HTML5 is interesting because, as a software engineer, it's a set of tools I can build something with. LLMs are not interesting to me because they're simply a product to use or consume. They're not terribly interesting to interface with because the commercial ones simply sit behind an HTTP API, so the only thing to do with them is send them different prompts, which is, again, uninteresting.