50 pointsby surprisetalk5 hours ago19 comments
  • pavel_lishin4 hours ago
    > Maybe they care about you, and want an excuse to talk to you, and free associated from their problem to you because they think of you as generally competent.

    This is why I hate when people paste a response from Claude/ChatGPT to me when I ask them a question.

    • longwave4 hours ago
      This is when you paste https://dontbeameatproxy.com/ right back at them.
      • 3 hours ago
        undefined
      • classified3 hours ago
        Bookmarked that link.
    • kolinko4 hours ago
      Do you use Claude/Chat? Terra/Sol?

      I think the only people I know that complain of this are the ones that don’t use the tools. And the only people I’m inclined to reply are also the people that don’t use the tools.

      For people that do, the question is usually formatted differently - either it’s obvious Claude wouldn’t help, or they explain why it wasn’t helpful.

      • latexr3 hours ago
        > I think the only people I know that complain of this are the ones that don’t use the tools.

        Could we stop doing this? There is nothing in the world that every single person likes and LLMs are definitely not something that everyone who uses it turns off their brains to valid criticisms.

        It is perfectly congruent that you might use AI tools but not want AI answers pasted back at you, just like it’s perfectly congruent that you may enjoy playing music in the privacy of your home but don’t appreciate strangers (or even friends and acquaintances) blasting music in public.

    • lightbendover4 hours ago
      [dead]
  • ACCount394 hours ago
    We've seen this song and dance with Google already.

    Clearly, for some people, "type into a search bar" is some sort of cognitive obstacle, and "go bother another person" isn't.

    Now that I'm thinking about it: maybe the likes of OpenAI have the right idea when they invest into conversational models? Does it meaningfully reduce the workload of flesh proxies?

    • HolyLampshade4 hours ago
      I look forward to the LLM equivalent of lmgtfy in its original form.
      • 4 hours ago
        undefined
  • pluc5 hours ago
    If I ask you a question and you turn around and ask AI you get to replace me with AI for all future interactions.
    • spiclk4 hours ago
      If you ask me to "check what AI says", I will ask you to do it yourself and to kindly replace me with your AI for all future interactions.
  • Anonyneko4 hours ago
    Hasn't the same always applied to googling on behalf of others? That's why LMGTFY exists too...
    • inanutshellus4 hours ago
      It even updated to let you choose the search engine. Surprisingly they haven't updated it to include OpenAI/Claude/Copilot/... guess he should've named the domain "lmFtfy" (s/Google/find/g)
  • amelius4 hours ago
    Fun fact ... if we continue training LLMs on human data, in the future when you ask Claude a question it will say: "Have you asked Claude?"
    • pempem3 hours ago
      Don't worry they'll run a patch just for that.
  • stronglikedan4 hours ago
    The author's a sucker. YT premium pays for itself many times over.
    • elxr3 hours ago
      The fact that I can get (and consistently use) 120+ hours of 2160p/1440p video every month for $10, on a platform with extremely high quality, deeply researched videos/shows is a modern marvel.

      Youtube music is also serviceable enough if you're not picky about mobile UX. Comes included with a basic yt premium subscription.

      I'll always tell people, no other subscription - software or otherwise - comes close to providing the real-world value that yt premium does for that little money.

    • maidaman4 hours ago
      Yes. For everyone saying just install this or that, it’s not straightforward for the TV and every other device in your house, including your family’s. Sometimes just paying brings a lot of convenience.
      • danlitt4 hours ago
        > it’s not straightforward for the TV and every other device in your house, including your family’s

        The principled position behind "you should install something" is that in the scenario you outline, you cannot just install something, and this is a kind of power over you that you are relinquishing to both YouTube and the TV manufacturer. You will not get it back.

        • phoghed2 hours ago
          Wouldn’t the principled position be to just not use the service? You should just consume freely licensed open source no rights reserved content on peertube
          • danlittan hour ago
            Of course that depends on your principle. There are lots of ways of justifying the same behaviour, of course. the principle I had in mind was "A remote server has no right to determine how you consume the data it sends to you", not "everything should be free". This is an anti-DRM position, not an anti-copyright position.

            If it's fair enough for Youtube to send me a video full of ads, then it's fair enough for me to run a program that removes the ads. The only way Youtube's business model actually works is either a) people watch the ads voluntarily, or b) they are able to force your computer to not do what you tell it to and instead to show you ads. Because all computers are general purpose computers, option b allows the server to impose arbitrary restrictions on you, not just reasonable ones. You might think watching ads is ok, but future restrictions (like fiat banning you from otherwise public content) might not be. That's the argument.

            Of course, if everyone used an ad blocker then Youtube's business model would not work. But businesses are not entitled to a revenue stream.

    • phoghed4 hours ago
      Avoiding ads via time and effort is a young person’s game. Old head like me just pays. YouTube Premium master race.
      • ipsod4 hours ago
        It's easier to install ublock origin and sponsorblock than to subscribe, and it's free.
        • delecti4 hours ago
          Youtube premium also works on my phone, Chromecast, and importantly, all of my wife's devices, all without needing to fuss with anything. It also supports the creators who put work into my entertainment, and more than watching ads even would have (something I care about, and think other people should as well).
        • phoghed3 hours ago
          It's not easier for everyone. It's a tradeoff, like anything.

          If you are one person with one or two devices that you use YouTube on, and you're willing to make certain sacrifices, then yes I agree.

          If you have a family of a few people, all with multiple devices that they might want to use YouTube on, that also use YouTube Music, then I don't personally think it's easier. I'd rather part with $30/mo and have back the time I'd spend dealing with the nonsense resulting from trying to do the ad block or alternative app route

        • voidUpdate4 hours ago
          How do I install ublock origin and sponsorblock on the youtube app?
          • an hour ago
            undefined
          • Aozora73 hours ago
            On android, you can patch a youtube apk to remove ads, enable backround playback, and also add sponsorblock.
          • malfist4 hours ago
            That's easy. Remove the youtube app, open firefox and type in www.youtube.com
            • phoghed3 hours ago
              5 people in my family each with multiple devices. To get them all to use FireFox which isn't even actual FireFox on iPhone/iPad, ditch the native apps, install specific extensions, figure out how to get it onto their TVs, how to get YouTube music to work in CarPlay with an ad blocker, probably other things I'm not thinking of... would be much more effort than paying.

              I don't have the time and energy for that.

          • shinryuu4 hours ago
            You use firefox and search for "firefox extension ublock"
            • phoghed3 hours ago
              How do I get that on my Apple TV? How do I get that on YouTube music on CarPlay?
      • malfist4 hours ago
        Youtube premium doesn't skip sponsor segments. SponsorBlock and uBlock are free and highly effective, and do a better job than paying.
        • phoghed2 hours ago
          Not automatically but it offers a button for you to push to skip. And that feature isn’t just sponsor segments, but parts that many people skip, so sometimes you can jump over boring or irrelevant stuff, preambles, whatever.

          Also, some sponsored segments are good. For example, imagine I had skipped the legendary Thursday Boots ad read on Cumtown.

      • torben-friis4 hours ago
        Installing an ad blocker takes fewer clicks than subscribing to YouTube.

        And less mental effort as well, since the subscription forces to stay in guard for enshittification (are there now ads in my tier? Did the price go up?).

      • VoodooJuJu4 hours ago
        [dead]
    • icedchai4 hours ago
      I've been subscribing to YT Premium for years. I've probably saved days of time in ads...
      • sfn424 hours ago
        I've used AdBlock and sponsorblock for years, and certainly saved both days/weeks/months in ads and hundreds of dollars in subscription fees
        • icedchai4 hours ago
          I realize I could use these tools, but I feel I should give Google "something" for using their services. I get value from YouTube, both for entertainment and professional purposes, not to mention gmail, docs, etc. Maybe I am a fool!
          • godshatter3 hours ago
            You do give them something. All the data they can collect on you that might make them even a few pennies somewhere.
        • bluGill4 hours ago
          Google needs some money to pay for youtube. I don't begrudge them their income to pay for the hosting costs and some small profit above that and you shouldn't either.

          OTOH, I do begrudge them all the scams they have accepted ads for in the past.

          • sfn422 hours ago
            Google is a multi trillion dollar company. I could not care less about their finances, they're fine. Certainly doing better than me.
    • tpolm4 hours ago
      > YT premium pays for itself many times over.

      NewPipe/PipePipe are free

      You are welcome

    • titzer4 hours ago
      Adblocker. Don't pay extortion fees.
    • exe344 hours ago
      I just ytdlp anything useful and don't have to worry it'll be gone next time I need it.
    • VCFundedGenYer4 hours ago
      Ironic comment as YT Premium is for suckers.

      Firefox with uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock is the correct move.

      If on mobile, Duckduckgo app has Duck Player.

  • airza4 hours ago
    This many levels of irony and insincerity and condescension just seem... not very useful? Why did you want me to read this?
  • inanutshellus4 hours ago
    The "taking credit" thing rings true for sure.

    I have trouble saying "I" when an LLM has done the leg work.

    "I found a report with this info..." turns into "There's a report with this info". heh.

  • __alias4 hours ago
    I was thinking the other day as a kid I would always pester my parents with questions like "how does lightning work?" etc etc. My world view was formed with answers based on what they understood. And sometimes I'm sure they'd just make something up when they didn't know the answers.

    Anyway, I guess that's so different now when kids have internet devices in their hands and now even moreso with an AI assistant that has the worlds knowledge

  • jmathai4 hours ago
    I've found that many "skills" with regard to using AI become obsolete very quickly. It's really hard to stay ahead of the curve, IMO. I was using agents over 2 years ago and felt way ahead of the curve [1]. Today, Claude will spin up agents without even having been asked.

    Feels a bit like a fools errand.

    [1] https://www.loom.com/share/aa6e55acb18c445e9186637ac763c08d

  • TrackerFF4 hours ago
    You'd be surprised how many people, and I'm not talking about 80 year olds, have a hard time using search engines, or general knowledge of finding information.

    If you're not careful, it is also super easy to extrapolate your own skills - and your peers skills - to the rest of the population.

    Try being technical support to some non-tech people over the phone, it'll really open your eyes to the general computer knowledge of people.

  • adamddev14 hours ago
    Except when the question is actually interesting and has less about it written, whatever frontier model you are using may confidently give some partially correct or completely wrong answer. Unless you're an expert who wouldn't need to ask AI in the first place, you cannot tell if it's false. "Oh but it's good enough, it's correct most of the time."

    This gradual accruing of more and more falsehood will hurt us in the coming years, big time.

    EDIT: I just asked Claude a very basic question on an area I'm an expert in and it gave me a partially true and misleading answer. I drilled in on the false part and it wiggled and gave more confusing, incorrect, poor justifications for why it gave me the clearly wrong information. If someone was not an expert, there is absolutely no way they could fact-check this. Instead, the falsehood would be written, published somewhere, and would serve as a base for more falsehood in the future.

    • antonvs4 hours ago
      Do you think AIs are really much worse than humans in this respect?

      Go check out the collective social knowledge of some political groups, and it's clear that we don't need to wait for "coming years" to be hurt by misinformation and disinformation. AI had very little to do with this.

      Also, a good Claude-asker should be capable of a decent level of fact-checking, and shouldn't in fact be a pure meat proxy.

      • adamddev13 hours ago
        This is whataboutism. "Well others aren't any better" is a common thought pattern in places where corruption is rampant.

        Corrupt actors have always existed, of course, but AI automates, normalizes, and scales this to a fundamentally different level.

  • pavel_lishin4 hours ago
    Another comment: you can just tell the person asking you that you don't know the answer. You don't have to look it up for them in any way; it's nice if you do, but you're allowed to just say "Sorry, I don't know! I'd look online, or maybe ask an LLM or something."

    You don't have to start doing their research for them, or copying and pasting or transcribing Claude's answer.

    • ChrisSD4 hours ago
      A certain type of person (quite common in tech) really dislikes saying "I don't know". They seem to have a strong need for always having an answer, even if that answer is from google or a chatbot or simply pulled out of their arse.
      • syntheticnature3 hours ago
        I think this is why consider the willingness to say "I don't know" a trust signal
    • bryanlarsen2 hours ago
      The problem is that for most questions "I don't know" isn't correct. You ofetn know part of the answer but it will take work to get a full answer or one you're confident of.
    • syntheticnature4 hours ago
      Exactly. I'd rather have a quick "I don't know" than wait for them to generate a reply that is likely to be wrong because I already asked the same models myself before consulting a human. If they generate a reply, I get to tell them exactly how the response is wrong, since the core content is usually the same. Only then do I get the "I don't know."

      There are a few people I can tell are better at prompting than I am. Them, I'll tolerate this from, though most of them do more than function as an AI proxy anyhow and usually will say "I don't know, I'll check X" first.

    • inanutshellus4 hours ago
      [dead]
  • legacynl4 hours ago
    That comment on the substack is incredibly depressing. And the author liked it! That commenter should call his mom more.
  • maidaman4 hours ago
    It’s like when someone asks you for directions. They can easily use Google Maps, but they like your input.
  • SoftTalker3 hours ago
    There's another problem with people who know enough to ask an LLM to do something, don't know how to actually turn that into something useful, but want to act like they already did the heavy lifting.

    "I had an idea for a new app. Here's a set of screen mockups and a requirements doc I did with Claude. Can you go ahead and finish that off now that I've done the design?"

  • simianwords4 hours ago
    I think we have the moral imperative to document all "out of distribution" information somewhere. By this I mean anything that is tribal knowledge or principles that just exist within our heads.
    • ac294 hours ago
      > I think we have the moral imperative to document all "out of distribution" information somewhere

      This is more or less why writing was invented thousands of years ago, the amount of knowledge exceeds human memory

      • simianwords4 hours ago
        That’s not the point I made actually. Most writing is redundant. Our moral imperative should only be to document the out of distribution information - stuff that you can’t elicit from model.

        If your writing is compressible, you are doing it wrong.

        EDIT: I see your point. Same mechanism, different substrate.

  • 4 hours ago
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  • ngdias4 hours ago
    [flagged]