From 81e5bff5d81f9abbd4b595688f58e0323a551484 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nate Anderson <nate.anderson@vasion.com> Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:40:14 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] I guess I like AI now?? --- content/posts/ai-hestiation-turning-around.md | 79 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 79 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/ai-hestiation-turning-around.md diff --git a/content/posts/ai-hestiation-turning-around.md b/content/posts/ai-hestiation-turning-around.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff5fcb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/ai-hestiation-turning-around.md @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +--- +date: 2025-01-28 +description: "I realized that I've been holding myself back because of pride." +# image: "" +lastmod: 2025-01-28 +showTableOfContents: true +tags: ["AI", "Reflection"] +title: "AI Hesitation Turning Around" +type: "post" +--- + + +# I'm a Bit of a Rebel + +I feel like some of what I do in life isn't because it's the "best". I certainly love optimizing workflows, switching +keyboard layouts because QWERTY is clearly not the best, learning and customizing window managers instead of using broad +defaults from full desktop environments. But, I also do lots of things that are decidedly not in pursuit of efficiency +or optimization: + +- Firefox is not faster than Chrome, and AFAICT it still isn't really much better than Chromium +privacy-wise +- Linux causes me pain, MacOS supposedly "Just Works™" +- NixOS causes me more pain, but I also love it +- I daily drove a OnePlus 6 with [PostMarketOS](https://postmarketos.org/) for a few months last year. So cool to carry +a terminal with you. But [Termux](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/) exists, and my wife could not reach +me reliably. + +I don't value ease of use as much as other values like privacy, openness, and tinker-ability. As most +things in life, it's always a trade-off. I get teased by many of my coworkers and friends for being the "linux guy" or +similar, for choosing to swim upstream despite the more "obvious" easy choice of using the proprietary, super affordable +electric boat (with better battery life BTW). So how could I come around to these over-hyped, shark-backed, environment +burning GPU crunchers?? + +# Just One More AI Bro + +I have seen it as a crutch. I see it as having very muddy licensing +and potential legal issues in its future. I see it partly destroying the craft of software engineering. I think its +very over hyped. + +_BUT_ + +I think its time I give up fighting against the machine in this respect and see if using AI +as a tool in my toolbelt helps me become a better engineer. + +## The Pivot Point + +I read [this blog post](https://blog.nelhage.com/post/personal-software-with-claude/) about building personal software +with Claude and I realized that perhaps I could better my life and those around me by taking advantage of this tool. Was +it just stubbornness and pride that was preventing me from benefitting? You may think its just FOMO, but I've held off +for a long time from using AI.[^1] I think it is just a recognition of my hard-headed and misplaced judgement. So, today +I am signing up for a Claude account. I'm going to build with AI (I'm not going to write these posts with it though). As +this new perspective settled in my mind, I had a couple thoughts: + +## Using Non-Deterministic Tools + +One of the hardest challenges I think adopting AI use is due to its imprecise and ever-changing nature. Imagine using +a compiler that failed to compile some C code, then when you just UP arrow and rerun `cmake` it works. No change in its +input. In the world of software where precision, intent, and design matter, this feels like an Uno Reverse. This is a +tough tool to learn, depend, and rely on. A carpenter's ruler that moves its inch notches depending on the time of day?? +But, it's not just a ruler. It is so good at predicting tokens that it has some semblance of intelligence. So much so +that many people, even those that know intimately the internals of the technology, believe it is doing more than it is. + +## Is this like C? + +When the assemblers of the world got tired of porting their code to each new architecture and came up with C, was there +a similar ripple in the software slinging community? Writing at such a high level will result in too many "head in the +clouds" engineers. And perhaps, these new high-level developers will never even learn assembly! They will lose touch +with the very systems that execute their code!! Unimaginable at the time, but certainly a reality we live in now. I have +a few relatives entering the field and learning to code, and I don't imagine they will ever write assembly. I myself +have written very little, and hardly think in assembly day-to-day. + +## Onwards into a Higher Future + +Not sure if it's a higher plane of Nirvana I am about to enter or if I'll be getting too close to the sun melting my +waxed wings and plummet to my death, but I figure its never a bad idea to keep my mind open and give it a year. + +[^1]: Not entirely. My best guess is I've queried ChatGPT less than 50 times. I have used it over the last two years as a Google +Search replacement occassionally. When AI was first released I tried it with some coding / reasoning tasks and formed +most of my opinion from that experience.