3 ms·

I find my self using LLMs for very simple things, to jog my memory instead of actually exercising it. Yesterday I asked Claude how to format a numeric string in

I find my self using LLMs for very simple things, to jog my memory instead of actually exercising it. Yesterday I asked Claude how to format a numeric string in Ruby. I could have figured it out in the REPL in a minute but instead got the answer from AI in 15 seconds. This is the same kind of laziness as using it to multiply 60 * 3. If I take the slightly slower road of figuring out the string formatting next time I might go from a minute to 3 seconds. It's like telling someone to always take the stairs for their health. It's pretty good advice, but it's sweaty and takes time so we mostly don't. Maybe we should lock kids out of elevators and escalators as well as LLMs. But what's good for the duckling is good for the duck.

theamk 2y ago
When you go to gym class, you are expected to perform without aids - you cannot ride a e-bike around the track when teacher tells you to run. Same goes with the math/english/science class - if teacher tells you to do the homework yourself, you should do it yourself, not to ask friend/parent/ChatGPT to do it for you. Outside of class context, people are free to do whatever - ride bikes, cars, ask ChatGPT for questions, ask your friend to write birthday cards for you, copy most of the presentation you gave at work from vendor's whitepaper, etc.. No one will complain. The distinction seems pretty clear to me, I am not sure why people are having problems with it.
- indrora 2y ago
  > When you go to gym class, you are expected to perform without aids - you cannot ride a e-bike around the track when teacher tells you to run. If you are expected to perform without assistance, then the instructor is failing to meet the needs of the students and doing them a disservice. If the goal is to get the students to exercise, an e-bike may well be the best tool to allow a student to get from a lower point to a higher point. A student who cannot do an hour of sustained running but can do an hour of sustained assisted cycling can have those assistances removed over time, enabling longer endurance while still maintaining the hour of time will have made significant strides in health. I doubt you could run a marathon today, unprompted. You would start by going shorter distances, working your way up. This is not the same as ChatGPT doing the work. > Same goes with the math/english/science class - if teacher tells you to do the homework yourself, you should do it yourself, not to ask friend/parent/ChatGPT to do it for you. An instructor who forbids assistance is an instructor who deludes themself about their performance when they were a student. Not all learn to fish the same way, and being shown how in a different way can mean all the difference. This is not the same as ChatGPT doing the work. > Outside of class context, people are free to do whatever - ride bikes, cars, ask ChatGPT for questions, ask your friend to write birthday cards for you, copy most of the presentation you gave at work from vendor's whitepaper, etc.. No one will complain. I don't know what work you do but that would be seen as lazy at my workplace and frowned upon. There is a difference between seeking assistance ("Explain this in shorter terms") vs. absolve oneself of the burden of work ("take these points and turn them into paragraphs"). If OP's sister was asking questions ("Explain this poem") and then working from that to something that was her own work, that would be one thing. The fact that she is simply copying verbatim from the machine, thoughtless and without considering the meaning -- that's what is upsetting here.
  - theamk 2y ago
    I am not sure I've got your point, nor if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me? anyway, I don't think your "run a marathon" or "hour of sustained running" analogies are appropriate... OP mentions "how many hours are there in 1 day and 7 hours", that's closer to "run a 100 meters at any pace", something that any student should do. And even if teacher is giving unreasonable assignments, the right answer is not to cheat (by asking parent, or ChatGPT or something) - but rather do what you can, so hopefully teacher will see low performance and adjust assignments/expectations.
chrsw 2y ago
I do the same thing. Maybe I shouldn't take the GenAI shortcuts but there's only so much I can remember. And everyone wants things done faster, all the time. So, by not using generative AI and figuring everything out for yourself because it's good for your metal exercise, is that fair to your employer who wants more, faster? And what will your output look like compared to your peers who hop straight to a chat prompt for everything?
- abathur 2y ago
  > is that fair to your employer who wants more, faster? I think it's ~dangerous to center this question because "more, faster" (and cheaper...) is something employers will always covet to some degree (even at the expense of life and limb). Any arrangement between employers and employees that doesn't center win-win outcomes is an unsustainable race to somewhere we've already been and decided we didn't like.
mihaaly 2y ago
Learning numbers in primary school and math is not looking up syntax of some very special programming language, not comparable, not at all. Not to mention that it is more laborous using an AI for this than spit out 180 in a fraction of a second....

theamk 2y ago

When you go to gym class, you are expected to perform without aids - you cannot ride a e-bike around the track when teacher tells you to run. Same goes with the math/english/science class - if teacher tells you to do the homework yourself, you should do it yourself, not to ask friend/parent/ChatGPT to do it for you. Outside of class context, people are free to do whatever - ride bikes, cars, ask ChatGPT for questions, ask your friend to write birthday cards for you, copy most of the presentation you gave at work from vendor's whitepaper, etc.. No one will complain. The distinction seems pretty clear to me, I am not sure why people are having problems with it.

indrora 2y ago
> When you go to gym class, you are expected to perform without aids - you cannot ride a e-bike around the track when teacher tells you to run. If you are expected to perform without assistance, then the instructor is failing to meet the needs of the students and doing them a disservice. If the goal is to get the students to exercise, an e-bike may well be the best tool to allow a student to get from a lower point to a higher point. A student who cannot do an hour of sustained running but can do an hour of sustained assisted cycling can have those assistances removed over time, enabling longer endurance while still maintaining the hour of time will have made significant strides in health. I doubt you could run a marathon today, unprompted. You would start by going shorter distances, working your way up. This is not the same as ChatGPT doing the work. > Same goes with the math/english/science class - if teacher tells you to do the homework yourself, you should do it yourself, not to ask friend/parent/ChatGPT to do it for you. An instructor who forbids assistance is an instructor who deludes themself about their performance when they were a student. Not all learn to fish the same way, and being shown how in a different way can mean all the difference. This is not the same as ChatGPT doing the work. > Outside of class context, people are free to do whatever - ride bikes, cars, ask ChatGPT for questions, ask your friend to write birthday cards for you, copy most of the presentation you gave at work from vendor's whitepaper, etc.. No one will complain. I don't know what work you do but that would be seen as lazy at my workplace and frowned upon. There is a difference between seeking assistance ("Explain this in shorter terms") vs. absolve oneself of the burden of work ("take these points and turn them into paragraphs"). If OP's sister was asking questions ("Explain this poem") and then working from that to something that was her own work, that would be one thing. The fact that she is simply copying verbatim from the machine, thoughtless and without considering the meaning -- that's what is upsetting here.
- theamk 2y ago
  I am not sure I've got your point, nor if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me? anyway, I don't think your "run a marathon" or "hour of sustained running" analogies are appropriate... OP mentions "how many hours are there in 1 day and 7 hours", that's closer to "run a 100 meters at any pace", something that any student should do. And even if teacher is giving unreasonable assignments, the right answer is not to cheat (by asking parent, or ChatGPT or something) - but rather do what you can, so hopefully teacher will see low performance and adjust assignments/expectations.

chrsw 2y ago

I do the same thing. Maybe I shouldn't take the GenAI shortcuts but there's only so much I can remember. And everyone wants things done faster, all the time. So, by not using generative AI and figuring everything out for yourself because it's good for your metal exercise, is that fair to your employer who wants more, faster? And what will your output look like compared to your peers who hop straight to a chat prompt for everything?

abathur 2y ago
> is that fair to your employer who wants more, faster? I think it's ~dangerous to center this question because "more, faster" (and cheaper...) is something employers will always covet to some degree (even at the expense of life and limb). Any arrangement between employers and employees that doesn't center win-win outcomes is an unsustainable race to somewhere we've already been and decided we didn't like.

mihaaly 2y ago

Learning numbers in primary school and math is not looking up syntax of some very special programming language, not comparable, not at all. Not to mention that it is more laborous using an AI for this than spit out 180 in a fraction of a second....