Comment by chongli

5 hours ago

Is it laziness? Or is it frustration from answering the same basic beginner questions over and over again?

It should be considered common courtesy that when you ask a question you have at least attempted a bit of research to find the answer on your own. Then you can explain why your attempt to Google for the answer failed.

Of course that may be breaking down, as search engine results quality has declined dramatically in recent years.

It may not be laziness, but it is definitely entirely lacking in empathy.

Using AI reflexively assumes that you have a tool that they do not, or that they are not motivated or smart enough to use before coming to you. LMGTFY is directly a laziness-rebuff for this reason - everyone has and already uses google. Why would you assume that your coworkers are lazy or not smart as a first step in any interaction?

There are millions of reasons a genuine conversation should happen when a coworker reaches out, and many of these, if exercised in good faith, would be a trust-building interaction. LMGTFY and AI copypasta both are snide, cost-free rebuffs of a coworker who approached you with a question - and that's just shit culture if it becomes common.

  • I’m using ai to answer questions, but I instruct it in draft what answers to include, what info to include from my llm wiki (second brain). Saves time to write a correct response, can easily refer to past conversations, but definitely not 100% outsources to AI.

    • If you need to find information to answer a colleague, use AI if that's helpful.

      I have no idea why anyone would let an AI dictate the response - you lose your entire voice and depersonalize your response. Do you keep a markdown of your communication style and past inside jokes? Or did you start so early with AI that you dont even have those to keep?

> It should be considered common courtesy that when you ask a question you have at least attempted a bit of research to find the answer on your own.

In my professional experience. About 1 in 10 people does that. Maybe, 2 in 10.

  • In my line of work, its certain peoples' jobs to know certain things. If I need a piece of information that somebody else is responsible for understanding, I'm just going to ask directly for what I need instead of trying to research it myself. To research it myself would mean attempting to do somebody else's job, which is just unhelpful for everyone.

    • There is a line between "somebodies job to know" and you just being too lazy to look at the documentation/do basic research.

The examples in the article are questions the AI did not know the answer to though. So hardly "basic beginner"