4 ms·

Yeah, right. That usually requires a 3 to 5 year degree, and possibly professional exam. Having the AI do the work doesn't make one an engineer. Just like on

by pjmlp 2mo ago

Yeah, right. That usually requires a 3 to 5 year degree, and possibly professional exam. Having the AI do the work doesn't make one an engineer. Just like one doesn't become a writer by owning a typewriter or a word processor.

tptacek 2mo ago
Among other reasons, one doesn't become a writer by owning a typewriter because typewriters don't write for you.
- pjmlp 2mo ago
  Depends on the model.
throwatdem12311 2mo ago
And in civilized countries you need like 10 years of professional mentorship after the degree.
sgt 2mo ago
How about owning a typewriter that types on its own?
- darthoctopus 2mo ago
  That makes the typewriter the actual writer and you the credit-taker, just like in present ghostwriting arrangements
  - KronisLV 2mo ago
    > the credit-taker Isn’t this what society already largely rewards? See the personality cults around CEOs and not even founders.
    - soco 2mo ago
      Nevertheless, those books aren't sold for the writing style, but because they're about the cult leader. So not the "writer" is prized (ghost or not) but the personality.
- cassianoleal 2mo ago
  Still doesn't make you a writer.
  - jLaForest 2mo ago
    May I ask how you became credentialed in gatekeeping? Did you study gatekeeping in school, obtain a gatekeeping degree and pass the gatekeeping professional associations exam? No? Then you are not qualified to say that other people are not qualified! Do you see the absurdity of your position now?
    - kraken_cult 2mo ago
      If someone or something does the writing for you, you are, by definition, not a writer.
      - jhbadger 2mo ago
        But this is an unrealistic view of how AI works. You don't say "make this" and get a finished product. It is very much a back and forth process, very much like a boss to their employee. And I imagine most people have experienced presentations where your boss claims credit (ideally mentioning you at some point) for the result.
        soco 2mo ago
        Then you can call yourself "editor", if you want to even "editor in chief". But you're still not the writer.
- bitwize 2mo ago
  Like the Great Automatic Grammatizator?
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
teaearlgraycold 2mo ago
Whatever you can accomplish using AI without experience is now worthless. Sure that rando can now get a customized website hosted on Vercel with some struggling through setting up GitHub etc. That work is no longer interesting. It’s slop the same as a restaurant showing AI images of food. It’s digital plastic. AI on autopilot creating code, text, images or video is nothing more than a curiosity.
- josephg 2mo ago
  > AI on autopilot creating code, text, images or video is nothing more than a curiosity. I wouldn’t say it’s lacking value. Maybe digital plastic is the perfect metaphor. Plastic is disposable and probably bad for the environment. But useful for all sorts of weird little tasks. Plastic is everywhere despite its weaknesses because sometimes you just want a thing shaped like this. I’ve got a little personal data archive going back 20 years. But unfortunately it’s suffering bit rot. Last night I discovered the main hard drive storing it is suffering read failures - the zfs checksums aren’t matching. I pulled out Claude and told it to make a program that could make, maintain and verify a sidecar database of file hashes and reed-Solomon parity data so I can fix some small percent of bit rot that the drive experiences. A 10% increase in file size is worth it for the peace of mind of knowing that footage of my late grandma will still exist when I’m her age. (I have backups, but the backups might also suffer bit rot and I might not even know). Claude’s program isn’t art. I’m not putting it on my resume. If I had infinite time I’d love to make something like this lovingly by hand. But I’m busy. And Claude can make something in an hour or two which solves my problem. Nice. Is it slop? Yes. Is it useful? Absolutely.
  - ozlikethewizard 2mo ago
    Hate to be that guy but wasnt the solution here to buy a new drive instead of trust claudes slop is long term maintaining your drive and not just looking like its doing a good job?
    - josephg 2mo ago
      It's definitely an option. Though I'd really need 2 drives - one replacement, and a mirror. And then I could set up weekly sweeps which check zfs checksums to guard against bit rot. And just hope that bitrot never affects the same file on both drives at the same time. I also don't want all my backups to be in the same physical location. If I copy some files with zfs to another drive, I'd also like to check that there wasn't an error in the copying process. Maybe I can use zfs to make mirror images - which probably copies the hashes? Yeah, I could use zfs to do some of this. But having a sidecar checksum database is easier to work with across filesystems. And Reed-Solomon error correction is able to correct bit rot much more cheaply than using physically duplicated drives. I wouldn't mind buying a mirror set a year or two ago, but storage is so expensive now. Filesystems in general aren't very good at protecting against silent bitrot, since it doesn't happen that much on spinning copper. But it happens a lot more than we'd all like to admit on modern SSDs. And zfs doesn't support Reed-Solomon error correction.
jcelerier 2mo ago
actually a writer is just someone who writes

by pjmlp 2mo ago

tptacek 2mo ago

Among other reasons, one doesn't become a writer by owning a typewriter because typewriters don't write for you.

pjmlp 2mo ago
Depends on the model.

throwatdem12311 2mo ago

And in civilized countries you need like 10 years of professional mentorship after the degree.

sgt 2mo ago

How about owning a typewriter that types on its own?

darthoctopus 2mo ago
That makes the typewriter the actual writer and you the credit-taker, just like in present ghostwriting arrangements
- KronisLV 2mo ago
  > the credit-taker Isn’t this what society already largely rewards? See the personality cults around CEOs and not even founders.
  - soco 2mo ago
    Nevertheless, those books aren't sold for the writing style, but because they're about the cult leader. So not the "writer" is prized (ghost or not) but the personality.
cassianoleal 2mo ago
Still doesn't make you a writer.
- jLaForest 2mo ago
  May I ask how you became credentialed in gatekeeping? Did you study gatekeeping in school, obtain a gatekeeping degree and pass the gatekeeping professional associations exam? No? Then you are not qualified to say that other people are not qualified! Do you see the absurdity of your position now?
  - kraken_cult 2mo ago
    If someone or something does the writing for you, you are, by definition, not a writer.
    - jhbadger 2mo ago
      But this is an unrealistic view of how AI works. You don't say "make this" and get a finished product. It is very much a back and forth process, very much like a boss to their employee. And I imagine most people have experienced presentations where your boss claims credit (ideally mentioning you at some point) for the result.
      - soco 2mo ago
        Then you can call yourself "editor", if you want to even "editor in chief". But you're still not the writer.
bitwize 2mo ago
Like the Great Automatic Grammatizator?
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]

teaearlgraycold 2mo ago

Whatever you can accomplish using AI without experience is now worthless. Sure that rando can now get a customized website hosted on Vercel with some struggling through setting up GitHub etc. That work is no longer interesting. It’s slop the same as a restaurant showing AI images of food. It’s digital plastic. AI on autopilot creating code, text, images or video is nothing more than a curiosity.

josephg 2mo ago
> AI on autopilot creating code, text, images or video is nothing more than a curiosity. I wouldn’t say it’s lacking value. Maybe digital plastic is the perfect metaphor. Plastic is disposable and probably bad for the environment. But useful for all sorts of weird little tasks. Plastic is everywhere despite its weaknesses because sometimes you just want a thing shaped like this. I’ve got a little personal data archive going back 20 years. But unfortunately it’s suffering bit rot. Last night I discovered the main hard drive storing it is suffering read failures - the zfs checksums aren’t matching. I pulled out Claude and told it to make a program that could make, maintain and verify a sidecar database of file hashes and reed-Solomon parity data so I can fix some small percent of bit rot that the drive experiences. A 10% increase in file size is worth it for the peace of mind of knowing that footage of my late grandma will still exist when I’m her age. (I have backups, but the backups might also suffer bit rot and I might not even know). Claude’s program isn’t art. I’m not putting it on my resume. If I had infinite time I’d love to make something like this lovingly by hand. But I’m busy. And Claude can make something in an hour or two which solves my problem. Nice. Is it slop? Yes. Is it useful? Absolutely.
- ozlikethewizard 2mo ago
  Hate to be that guy but wasnt the solution here to buy a new drive instead of trust claudes slop is long term maintaining your drive and not just looking like its doing a good job?
  - josephg 2mo ago
    It's definitely an option. Though I'd really need 2 drives - one replacement, and a mirror. And then I could set up weekly sweeps which check zfs checksums to guard against bit rot. And just hope that bitrot never affects the same file on both drives at the same time. I also don't want all my backups to be in the same physical location. If I copy some files with zfs to another drive, I'd also like to check that there wasn't an error in the copying process. Maybe I can use zfs to make mirror images - which probably copies the hashes? Yeah, I could use zfs to do some of this. But having a sidecar checksum database is easier to work with across filesystems. And Reed-Solomon error correction is able to correct bit rot much more cheaply than using physically duplicated drives. I wouldn't mind buying a mirror set a year or two ago, but storage is so expensive now. Filesystems in general aren't very good at protecting against silent bitrot, since it doesn't happen that much on spinning copper. But it happens a lot more than we'd all like to admit on modern SSDs. And zfs doesn't support Reed-Solomon error correction.

jcelerier 2mo ago

actually a writer is just someone who writes