Comment by scyzoryk_xyz
5 hours ago
If the computer was the bicycle for the mind, then perhaps AI is the electric scooter for the mind? Gets you there, but doesn't necessarily help build the best healthy habits.
Trade offs around "room to do more of other things" are an interesting and recurring theme of these conversations. Like two opposites of a spectrum. On one end the ideal process oriented artisan taking the long way to mastery, on the other end the trailblazer moving fast and discovering entirely new things.
Comparing to the encyclopedia example: I'm already seeing my own skillset in researching online has atrophied and become less relevant. Both because the searching isn't as helpful and because my muscle memory for reaching for the chat window is shifting.
> then perhaps AI is the electric scooter for the mind
I have a whole half-written blog post about how LLMs are the cars of the mind. Massive externalities, has to be forced on people, leads to cognitive/health issues instead of improving cognition and health.
It's a servant, in the Claude Code mode of operation.
If you outsource a skill consistently, you will be engaging less with that skill. Depending on the skill, this may be acceptable, or a desirable tradeoff.
For example, using a very fast LLM to interactively make small edits to a program (a few lines at a time), outsources the work of typing, remembering stdlib names and parameter order, etc.
This way of working is more akin to power armor, where you are still continuously directing it, just with each of your intentions manifesting more rapidly (and perhaps with less precision, though it seems perfectly manageable if you keep the edit size small enough).
Whereas "just go build me this thing" and then you make a coffee is qualitatively very different, at that point you're more like a manager than a programmer.
> perhaps AI is the electric scooter for the mind
More like mobility scooter for disabled. Literally Wall-E in the making.
This is the typical arrogance of developers not seeing the value in anything but the coding. I've been hands on for 45 years, but also spend 25 of those dealing with architecture and larger systems design. The actual programming is by far the simplest part of designing a large system. Outsourcing it is only dumbing you down if you don't spend the time it frees up to move up the value chain.
Talk about arrogance, Mr 45 years of experience. Ever thought that there might be people under skyscraper that is your ego? I’m pretty sure majority of tech workers aren’t even 45 years old. Where are they supposed to learn good design when slop takes over? You’ve spent at least 20 years JUST programming, assuming you’ve never touched large scale design before last 25 years. Simplest part my ass.
Maybe it was always about where you are going and how fast you can get there? And AI might be a few mph faster than a bicycle, and still accelerating.