I push back on this idea hard. There's some things I consider not worth my time since an LLM will always be available to do it for me. But a whole lot of things you can learn far better with a LLM than almost anywhere else.
Been learning Linux, how to build a homelab, and quite a few other related topics since about chatgpt 3.5. If the LLM went away tomorrow I'd still know how to do most things in Linux, set up my opnsense router, reinstall xcp-ng, do everything in docker, and a boatload of other things that would've been so much more tedious to learn before an LLM. Simplicity of access to knowledge doesn't mean you don't learn it. A google search didn't make us learn slower than when we had to scour for books at the library, it increased the pace dramatically. Same goes for LLMs.
You can use LLMs and learn nothing. People who like to learn won't ever use it that way.
If you're building a home lab, you might just give up because you are tired of searching for Cisco router syntax.
LLM can be the little bit of lube you need to understand things at a higher level, because the tedious things are not as bad as they used to be.
You then end up actually getting a few things in your lab to work correctly, get a confidence boost, and follow up with some searches about how routing actually works and why the syntax is the way it is.
I think that's very simplistic (I also think learning is generally mediated by failure not effort. Effort is just the path through the repeated failure).
If I do a project with an LLM, I want to understand exactly how and why it did something that I didn't know how to do. So I ask it. And it's generally very forthcoming.
Generally I don't have "project = simple|hard" as a thing in my life, I generally know a whole bunch about something I want to do, and maybe not the college-level education of the nitty-gritty details.
Do you know what a really good way to learn is ? Once the LLM has taught you what LICM is and why you want it in a compiler, ask it to give you a quiz on the topic. This is a surprisingly excellent way to learn things.
Do you work in education?
Learning does not need to be hard at all, this is just a certain education style.
Learning by playing around with the topic with fun would be another one.
Having emotions while learning is a strong enforcer.
And more concretely, finding out why my linux GPU driver is not working is much more fun now, that I don't have to deal with man pages, can ask any stupid question anytime and get a answer likely to be correct immediately - and not have to dig up old outdated forum posts or ask a question somewhere and wait 2 weeks to get a unhelpful answer.
> If the LLM went away tomorrow I'd still know how to do most things in Linux, set up my opnsense router, reinstall xcp-ng, do everything in docker, and a boatload of other things that would've been so much more tedious to learn before an LLM.
This makes sense, but i'm assuming you have some sort of technical background to begin with? I imagine people that have been around pre-LLMs would be better equipped for not only prompting the LLMs for accurate information, but also internalizing that information. I wonder if the post-LLM generation would be the same.
: Though I imagine that there's going to be a cutoff date for people born before a certain point pre-LLMs too. Old people rn seem to be much more blindly accepting of whatever the LLMs spit out than younger adults.
This I agree with. But it goes for people's attention spans due to social media, hopelessness because of the insane top-heavy economy and climate change, and a whole load of other stuff piled on top of it all. I feel really bad for the kids these days. There are of course ways to prevent kids from using AI but I bet it'd work as well as preventing kids using social media (they'll just find a way around the rules).
I think there are truths in there but depends on your view.
If you have a finite time and have a goal, is learning something that takes a longer time better towards that goal than being able to move fast and accumulate more capabilities that are on hand when you ‘forget’ them?
The answer engines and the context around my goals allow me to move at an unprecedented pace and move into places that were just not possible before.
But, the nuances learned concepts are indeed skipped over or Pareto’d
Hey Jarvis, move my 2pm to 10am. Proceed to wait 10s for extremely compute hungry system to do something that you could have done almost instantly by understanding how to use your device and or having any desire to move your fingers. Next.
Siri has helped me with my clinical ADHD’s executive function failure by allowing me to create todo lists and appointments before the dopamine drops or I am distracted.
I do, and I’m pretty militant about distracted driving. Long drives are captive time to think. Not rarely is there a “oh snap, that needs to get done on Tuesday not Friday” moment. Adjusting that hands free in natural language is useful.
Live a little. Try to imagine the lives beyond yours. It is really fascinating once you internalise how unique your circumstances are, and how the same is true for others.
I've been having a lot of fun using Dots to capture things while shopping or in the middle of work. I also like having an agent keep an eye on my plans and notice things I might miss, without me having to remember to check everything myself. Though I agree that quick changes can be done faster manually
Immunity after contraction… what? Vaccines are designed to reduce symptoms and have never been a guarantee of immunity. They can reduce transmission in the populace too and make it survivable for at-risk people. You’ve been huffing some bad media friend.
Yeah well I got Covid before I was able to get the vaccine and I was just fine. And yet the admin still tried to force me to get the vaccine despite my body building antibodies (aka immunity) against the virus, protecting me.
I actually use Reaper a lot for something else and tried to use it for gigs too but Reaper seems to be able only to receive osc commands, couldnt find a way to send any. I think its possible to write custom cpp extension for that but cpp is not my comfort zone.
Sounds dreamy. Let's plug in and "write" code without interacting with anyone ever. That way you can further abstract yourself from all meaningful connections to become more efficient. Seriously cannot get inside the head of people like you.
Agree. It's like people who dream of becoming middle managers in order not to have to do things themselves anymore.
I mean, you do you, I don't mean to shame people for whom management is the dream – I just find it weird and sad that they're trying to pretend that this is somehow how people with a hacker/geek spirit think or should think. To me it's antithetical to the hacker spirit.
These are clearly written as fear porn rather than serious academic analyses.
The reason they need to be written like that, it because honest takes have a pretty hard time making data centers look close to being as bad as everyday things like golf courses, average car emissions, AC's set at 70, eating meat, normal industrial power demand, or the overnight shipping economy.
Did you even read the open letter? Mathematicians are annoyed because the proof is only meaningful if people understand it and came to it. I mean I’m basically just summarising it now but it’s annoying you didn’t read it or can’t comprehend its nuance.
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