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> How do you define average person here? > Design docs and code that are increasingly weirder to read, sometimes make sense and other time look like they make

> How do you define average person here? > Design docs and code that are increasingly weirder to read, sometimes make sense and other time look like they make sense but not really, the docslop, commit messages slop, I can go on. The "average person" I'm referring to is not an engineer/developer. It's an office worker, grandmother, HVAC technician, etc. Non-techies who use the internet for entertainment and information. From where I sit, most of them can't tell an AI-generated image from a real one (when the latest models are used), don't read something and think "it looks like Claude wrote this", etc.

truncate 2mo ago
I think its just matter of time. We can tell, not because we are into tech or not-"average person", but because we have seen outputs of these systems enough times as well as actively use it. AI is in growth phase, and as more people use it more they will be able to tell particularly as they interact first hand with it. Going back to your original point, people don't hate "slop" because they think it will cost their job (maybe some people). People hate slop, because they are forced to read it most of the day and if you want to do your job well closely babysit, verify and rearrange. The overall expectation of quality has declined over quantity. I'm not saying its not productivity booster. But the way its used to increase quantity and then map it to productivity. This results in to two things (1) more work for people so worse WLB (2) increased dissatisfaction with work because the quantity is high and maybe you can call it X% productivity boost, but maybe with X/2% productivity boost you may get Y% quality boost, wlb and satisfaction with your work.
- ElProlactin 2mo ago
  > AI is in growth phase, and as more people use it more they will be able to tell particularly as they interact first hand with it. Have you ever looked at the content and interactions on social platforms like Facebook? I hate to be that guy, but it's not only that the average person is just not that smart, it's that the average person doesn't care. If the AI content tells them what they want to hear or seems informative or entertaining, they'll eat it up. It's the same reason some of the most obvious scams continue to fool millions upon millions of people.

truncate 2mo ago

I think its just matter of time. We can tell, not because we are into tech or not-"average person", but because we have seen outputs of these systems enough times as well as actively use it. AI is in growth phase, and as more people use it more they will be able to tell particularly as they interact first hand with it. Going back to your original point, people don't hate "slop" because they think it will cost their job (maybe some people). People hate slop, because they are forced to read it most of the day and if you want to do your job well closely babysit, verify and rearrange. The overall expectation of quality has declined over quantity. I'm not saying its not productivity booster. But the way its used to increase quantity and then map it to productivity. This results in to two things (1) more work for people so worse WLB (2) increased dissatisfaction with work because the quantity is high and maybe you can call it X% productivity boost, but maybe with X/2% productivity boost you may get Y% quality boost, wlb and satisfaction with your work.

ElProlactin 2mo ago
> AI is in growth phase, and as more people use it more they will be able to tell particularly as they interact first hand with it. Have you ever looked at the content and interactions on social platforms like Facebook? I hate to be that guy, but it's not only that the average person is just not that smart, it's that the average person doesn't care. If the AI content tells them what they want to hear or seems informative or entertaining, they'll eat it up. It's the same reason some of the most obvious scams continue to fool millions upon millions of people.