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I am not a programmer or software engineer by any means, but I use AI as a high powered assistant who needs robust oversight. Helping me craft FOIA requests and

I am not a programmer or software engineer by any means, but I use AI as a high powered assistant who needs robust oversight. Helping me craft FOIA requests and processing datasets returned to continue digging and researching, reverse engineering, de compiling, etc. It is, in my use cases, a moat killer (ability to avoid moats of non open source software) or multi tool/"swiss army knife". To your point, corps are constantly chasing more dollars and TAM, whereas I can build what I need for me, I control it, and I can freely share the output with others for them to build off of. https://craigmod.com/essays/robot_blood/ https://craigmod.com/essays/robot_blood/ speaks more eloquently on this than me.

mf2hd 2mo ago
Yes, it is very useful for these kind of things. I hacked my Zyxel router's firmware with it, and reverse engineered the Amiga Kickstart rom, things like this, it's fun :) But where is the money? Would you start a company based on this? I wouldn't. I just solve problems with it I'm too lazy to do otherwise.
- toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  I get paid to solve problems. If it helps me get paid to solve problems, it has economic value. I will pay for a tool to help me solve problems, based on the cost and what economic gain I can realize in total. If it helps me solve my own problems that are not business or profitable problems, I'll still use it, just differently (ie "cost efficiently"). Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice - https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr... - October 28th, 2011 Threads: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kalzumeus.com%2F2011%2F10%2F28%2Fdont-call-yourself-a-programmer%2F%20-Ask&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

mf2hd 2mo ago

Yes, it is very useful for these kind of things. I hacked my Zyxel router's firmware with it, and reverse engineered the Amiga Kickstart rom, things like this, it's fun :) But where is the money? Would you start a company based on this? I wouldn't. I just solve problems with it I'm too lazy to do otherwise.

toomuchtodo 2mo ago
I get paid to solve problems. If it helps me get paid to solve problems, it has economic value. I will pay for a tool to help me solve problems, based on the cost and what economic gain I can realize in total. If it helps me solve my own problems that are not business or profitable problems, I'll still use it, just differently (ie "cost efficiently"). Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice - https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr... - October 28th, 2011 Threads: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kalzumeus.com%2F2011%2F10%2F28%2Fdont-call-yourself-a-programmer%2F%20-Ask&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...