New blog post: "AI makes you boring"

https://www.marginalia.nu/log/a_132_ai_bores/

AI makes you boring

This post is an elaboration on a comment I made on Hacker News recently, on a blog post that showed an increase in volume and decline in quality among the “Show HN” submissons. I don't actually mind AI-aided development, a tool is a tool and should be used if you find it useful, but I think the vibe coded Show HN projects are overall pretty boring. They generally don't have a lot of work put into them, and as a result, the author (pilot?) hasn't generally thought too much about the problem space, and so there isn't really much of a discussion to be had. The cool part about pre-AI show HN is you got to talk to someone who had thought about a problem for way longer than you had. It was a real opportunity to learn something new, to get an entirely different perspective.

marginalia.nu
Wanted to get "the e-scooter of the mind" in there, but couldn't quite make it fit.
@marginalia what does that mean

@semitones Steve Jobs famously described computers as "bicycles of the mind".

E-scooters are a bit like bicycles in that they let you arrive someplace faster than walking, but unlike bicycles in that you get no exercise in the process.

@marginalia I get your point but perhaps we can agree that they are still better than cars for exercise, traffic, etc.

To say this struck a nerve with the AI bros on HN is an understatement.

Jesus, some of the comments are a tad defensive 🤣

@marginalia They may have taken it the hard way, but I 110% agree with what you've put here. As a person who is both artistic and likes to program, I'm interested in the weird, wonderful, and imperfect. The beauty of the human brain is that we can make connections between points that DON'T seem rational or related, and somehow make them interesting and meaningful. AI is, as you say, a tool, but never expect it to create anything new or profound.

@marginalia I think you hit the nerve on something I recognize myself from working with AI.

AI makes one lazy and now we need to go to programming gym to exercise our brains.