in a class on using AI for data analysis and i genuinely don't want to work in information technology anymore. none of this shit works and everyone is required to use it anyway. it sounds like hell. i would literally rather flip burgers or whatever.
feels like the worst time to be alive if you are the kind of person who is passionate about learning to do things the right way.
just fucking dark. everything is so dark right now.

@peter

Yeah, it's bad and getting worse fast.

I can't even use normal search engines to look up news that I clearly remember from a few weeks ago. Everything useful is being buried under an avalanche of shit.

"AI" is a weapon, we are under attack, and more people need to recognize the threat for what it is.

@violetmadder @peter

There are news stories I remember - ones that back leftwing points of view - that are just gone now, it seems.

And articles about regular stuff are all written by AI and full of just wrong information.

@CosmickTrigger
It's time for (some of) us to become archivists. Keep copies and/or notes of anything we care about.
@violetmadder @peter
@dpflug @CosmickTrigger @violetmadder @peter and hope the sun has an episode soon so it matters.

@dpflug @daedalean @CosmickTrigger @violetmadder @peter Carrington Event. Aurora borealis visible in Italy. Another one would take out the entire Internet and every AI data center.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

Carrington Event - Wikipedia

@mathew @dpflug @daedalean @CosmickTrigger @peter

It will definitely make things Interesting.

Although I'm sure they've got some centers shielded and/or buried deep enough to get through it, the infrastructure in general will be pretty screwed up.

@mathew
Ah. I considered that, but thought I had to have it wrong because it matters regardless.
@daedalean @CosmickTrigger @violetmadder @peter

@dpflug @CosmickTrigger @peter

I know somebody who's been doing this as a major autistic fixation for years, with an eye to sharing his collection. I sure hope it CAN be shared widely, before all avenues of communication are too restricted.

@violetmadder
Does he need a webhost or something?
@CosmickTrigger @peter
@dpflug @CosmickTrigger @violetmadder @peter I am trying to keep receipts about all this fuckery https://aidirtylist.info anyone who hates AI and wants to help, I could use it 😅
The AI Dirty List

Ensuring those who choose to bathe in AI slop will never be washed clean.

The AI Dirty List
open-slopware

Free/Open Source Software tainted by LLM developers/developed by genAI boosters, along with alternatives. Fork of the repo by @gen-ai-transparency after its deletion.

Codeberg.org

@peter Every argument against AI gets brushed away and every response started with „you’re right” without ever addressing any point.

I’m so fucking done…

@peter you’re not alone in the darkness, at least
@glyph @peter I've got some chocolate in my backpack.
@peter it’s pretty bleak.

@peter

i couldn't take it any more. i quit tech six months ago and now i drive a city bus. best decision ever. i've never been happier or healthier.

@saltywizard @peter I'm seriously thinking about doing exactly this too.

How difficult was the bus driver training?

@WorkWithKirk @peter

i found it to be very easy. the testing process for the cdl was very similar to the process for many of the qualifications i achieved in the navy, so it was 'familiar' to me. the others in my class struggled a touch more, not having had that experience, but in the end, everyone passed. i imagine it really comes down to the quality of your instructors.

despite having 'driven' large ships at sea, driving the bus for the first time was a bit intimidating. you take up the entire lane, there is very little wiggle room. but, after a month of practice, i feel quite confident behind the wheel.

it's a great job. i expect i'll enjoy doing it for a good while. someday, i'd like to try driving the lightrail.

@saltywizard @peter Thanks. That's good to hear.

@peter i know it’s not worth much, but if you put up an interesting data analysis, I want to see it. And I want to hear how you thought about it and went about it.

There is so much data can tell us about our world and I still want to hear about it.

@peter yep. Even worse if you have children who are growing up into this world.
@peter BUTLARIAN JIHAD NOW
@peter All I can say as a 30-year tech participant, is I agree with you about the current state of things, and I believe there is still a foundation of principled work out there. Some people really want it and care about it; there's just a huge amount of noise overshadowing those people right now. I truly believe it's temporary, but I also sympathize with anyone moving to work outside the industry. I've had similar thoughts myself.
@coreysnipes I'm trying to get into the industry and now about to give up. my kid is 16 and wants to study computer engineering, I hope his timing is right.
@peter @coreysnipes
I think you're screwed. I've spoken to hiring managers whose first question is "how much do you spend on tokens per month?" There are people hiring for non-AI jobs, but they want experience from before these dark times.
An actual computer engineering degree may be valuable in the future, I certainly hope it will, we will need to engineer our way out of this pit, but it's not a great bet.

@peter If I may. AI isn't the first time we get some "magic tooling that is doing a lot of work and users that don't understand the basics" (see Angular students that aren't capable to center a div without a npm package). It didn't broke our field. It's just another "layer of abstraction".

Don't give up and keep learning, good developers are (and will be) still needed, and rare. And it seems you have the good mindset.

@peter Maybe they could pivot to hardware/electrical eng? More pragmatic skills seem like a much better bet these days. Even if society goes down in flames we'll need people who can salvage a circuit board.

@peter @coreysnipes i’ve been telling this to my neighbours kid in univ, think of the computer and computer skills as a tool like a hammer or a box of tools, something you need to use to make something good and physical. so minor in comp sci, but add something that uses that too to it, medicine(science!), engineering (electrical, chemical) , law (patent laws, lawyers who know how computer works can really do some good in the world), heck even mathematics these days get inspiration and solutions from “solved” comp sci/networking path issues. So comp sci by itself these days is tough unless you’re exceptional , but having that tool to apply to some other work, that’s where it pays off, in my option as someone who has regrets with past life choices like just doing comp sci :)

Update 2:
Oh yeah and AI is never going to make the next great computer architecture, so become someone who can make the next ARM or RiSc or something new, a quantum chip , or clone brain matter as compute (no don’t do that, don’t make a slave race.. )

Update: Oh yeah i kinda wanna be a farmer now too and i know how tough and thankless that job is, but nevertheless..

@coreysnipes @peter Unless we take action this isn’t temporary. It will be the permanent state of affairs.

We must destroy AI and the criminal organizations that are creating it. And by AI I meanmean this LLM based stochastic parrot bullshit.

@peter My feelings exactly as a translator who was trying to reorient her career toward IT. I feel like I arrive late to every field.
@dragomana heyyyyy exactly the same. 🤝
@peter It certainly feels like it.
@peter @maxleibman Plumbing. People always need it and you can tell if it’s done right because there are no leaks.
@peter To try to remain optimistic, I think this will have a backlash in the not-so-distant-future.

@peter
I recognize the feeling. I do think that we make progress by building on the work of others and we can't/don't need to have their knowledge.

But your post made me think some more and I (finally?) realise how this is different. How the AI produces the initial code that somehow you are supposed to maintain.
And everyone that has been tasked to maintain code of someone else knows how hard that can be. The previous person being ignorant or genius can be equally frustrating.

@peter feels exactly like that but lets push back all, together
@peter It’s not only the machine learning stuff but generally… nobody seems to care anymore. About anything.
@peter Agree. Some of it will pass though. https://htmx.org/essays/yes-and/
</> htmx ~ Yes, and...

In this essay, Carson Gross discusses his advice to young people interested in computer science worried about the future given the advancements in AI.

@peter I thought I was doing things the right way for a while:

Went to school, graduated high school, went to college, graduated college, found a job.

Then COVID happened and I had to start working contract/temp jobs.

Then I finally landed a permanent job.

Unfortunately my remaining parent died, and I couldn't keep up with the demands of the job, so I was terminated with little to no explanation.

Been a year since then, and I still can't find a job.

I had also been going to church, been participating like a "good little Christian".

Then we got new pastors who were sent from hell: they were trapped in a loveless marriage, they took their anger out on everyone around them, alienated many people from our church, including me for a time, and now my belief in a "God" has been shattered completely.