3 ms·

> There is another pressure building underneath all this. AI usage will become more visibly metered. The current enterprise feeling of “everyone has access, don

> There is another pressure building underneath all this. AI usage will become more visibly metered. The current enterprise feeling of “everyone has access, don’t worry too much about the bill” will not hold forever, at least not in the form people are getting used to. ... > I do not want to make this a cost panic story, that would be the least interesting way to think about “rented intelligence”. The question is not how to minimize token spend in the abstract, any more than the question of software delivery was ever how to minimize keystrokes. If tokens were as cheap as keystrokes -that is, effectively free- then "How do we minimize token spend?" wouldn't be a question that anyone asks. It's because keystrokes are effectively free that you only ask "How do we minimize the number of keys pressed during the software development process?" if you're looking for an entertaining weekend project. If keystrokes cost as much per unit of work done as the -currently heavily subsidized- cost of tokens from OpenAI and Anthropic, you'd see a lot of focus on golfing everything under the sun all the damn time.

fallpeak 5mo ago
Tokens _are_ as cheap as keystrokes. A single keypress by a full-time SWE averages out to $0.005-$0.02 (depending on typing speed and TC). The relationship is obscured because the keystrokes are usually part of a fixed-price subscription plan but they absolutely have a cost. Prior to AI this was in fact a large reason everyone pontificated about concise programming languages and elegantly factoring problems and DRY and...
- simoncion 5mo ago
  > Tokens _are_ as cheap as keystrokes. extremely loud incorrect buzzer I can set up a drinking-bird-style device to press keys on a keyboard. My per-year operational cost is the same whether or not the bird presses keys. Programmer time costs money. Nearly all of a programmer's time is spent understanding the system being maintained, the reasons for its existence, and the reasons for the proposed changes to it. If you're honestly such a fool as to think that DRY, "elegant" [0] design, and related things are about reducing the number of keys pressed rather than the time spent understanding the system and how to change it, then... well, I think you make an awfully good "AI Booster". [0] Read as "easy to reason about, once you understand the core concepts"

fallpeak 5mo ago

Tokens _are_ as cheap as keystrokes. A single keypress by a full-time SWE averages out to $0.005-$0.02 (depending on typing speed and TC). The relationship is obscured because the keystrokes are usually part of a fixed-price subscription plan but they absolutely have a cost. Prior to AI this was in fact a large reason everyone pontificated about concise programming languages and elegantly factoring problems and DRY and...

simoncion 5mo ago
> Tokens _are_ as cheap as keystrokes. extremely loud incorrect buzzer I can set up a drinking-bird-style device to press keys on a keyboard. My per-year operational cost is the same whether or not the bird presses keys. Programmer time costs money. Nearly all of a programmer's time is spent understanding the system being maintained, the reasons for its existence, and the reasons for the proposed changes to it. If you're honestly such a fool as to think that DRY, "elegant" [0] design, and related things are about reducing the number of keys pressed rather than the time spent understanding the system and how to change it, then... well, I think you make an awfully good "AI Booster". [0] Read as "easy to reason about, once you understand the core concepts"