bazera

I've been using AI tools from day 1. The fearmongering that it would replace developers was already there. Since then couple years have passed, and it affected the market in couple ways: First, decline of junior developer jobs, it's more or less attributed to the advent of AI coding assistents. Recent models from Claude can do recent job at doing fairly complex tasks, but it always needs a human reviewer in my experience. It's just an extension, not replacement for an actual developer. Second, it doesn't make much sense to write 90% of the code by hand anymore, but that does't mean that AI generated code is ready for production in serious projects, far from it. Again, it accelerates building process. Also, if you just do junior level tasks at job and nothing else, for example basic frontend work, yeah, Claude + senior combination could actually replace you. The workflow has changed for sure. Most software industry now uses AI generated code in some ways or another, but that's a double edged sword. The reql value of writing code by yourself was that you were intimate familiar with it, you could catch and fix bugs sometimes almost intuitively when you had familiarity with written code like that. But now if you just review Claude generated code to make sure it works or fine-tune it by hand, it does't feel that familiar, which can bite in the ass as months go by and customers register bugs. Also, it takes a huge experience, knowledge, honed intuition, architectural and systemic skills to notice if what Claude generated is actually good. The importance of competency hasn't just gone anywhere, it only became more important. I've used AI to learn new technical subjects, diving deep into technologies much faster that I'd do without it, build projects in weeks instead of months, boosted my performace at job. Also, I've used AI in other creative ways, created some videos that got thousands of views, used it for self-therapy and personal advice when I was in need which was super helpful, its also very useful for health advice. AI has so many good uses, we just should't overestimate it's possibilities. Even Sam Altman was pushing the idea of AI girlfriend when he posted one word on twitter when voice assistent was released: "her". It's just ridiculous. It's like, when there is some truth in falsehood, the entire falsehood is sold as truth. When there is legitimate usefulness in AI tools, it makes it easy for these tech-bro CEO's to sell this technology as the cure for all humanity's problems.

What does AI girlfriend even mean? You mean something similar to a movie "her"?

@BlessedLion This was great, thanks for sharing. Make sure to keep us posted on that! Could you tell me a bit about your experience on his retreat? How was it structured, how long it was, and what would be your brief feedback on it? Did you find it effective?

This was also a great example of deconstructing AI hype bullshit. Newport always stayed a reasonable voice amidst all the techno-chaos in the last years. It's crazy how these people skew literal facts to push their AI agenda.

What do you mean AI pictures of clients? What specific ways do you use AI for dating photography? You do editing with AI instead of traditional Adobe way?

@Miguel1 I know, right? It's been more then 10 years for me, I freaked out a bit the other day when I realized that. We're getting old Time flies.

Here you go The Slop Song.mp3

Just woke up, it's 06:55, here's the update: -0.3kg (-0.7kg in 3 days) sleep 7 hours regular schedule [finally fixed] no addiction relapses [3/90] 1900 calories, 170g protein 10k steps 40m pull workout 22m run 45m read 45m study 20m meditation I missed yoga didn't work much Some insights: I'm wasting many minutes / hours in between tasks, it's an issue of procrastionation, I have to fix this somehow. An idea: I'll log the starting time of a task, and write it here with the updates so I feel more accountable to myself and it will be more apparent ho much time I waste. Bringing that to an awareness. I have to follow up meditation with pranayamas in the morning, if I postpone it for later that day, I'll probably won't do it. Morning hours are extra precious to make most of them. If I do everything on time with minimal distractions, I'll have much more free time in the evening to just relax and enjoy myself. One of the snickiest distractions for me is my curiosity. I've so many diverse interests (history, AI, technologies, spirituality, philosophy, creativity, relationships, etc etc) I have like 20 youtube video tabs open at any given time on different things podcasts, interviews, courses, etc, I'm so curious, I read books on diverse topics, but the problem is that I get so excited on all these that I might skip work (which I'm already fed up with), or some task that requires mental resistance. So I have to somehow balance my curiosity and training.

Don't investors realize that? How is it that they still get billions of dollars for implementing this AGI pipedream. This will get more apparent as some years go by, I think it's still relatively recent that AI penetrated into the culture, even grandmas use ChatGPT now. But I think people will develop higher expectations sooner or later, that these companies won't be able to live up to.

It really helps with nasal breathing techniques. That book has some very wierd techniques as well, one was about cleaning your internal organs with some cloth you stick through your mouth, I don't remember the exact technique but he was teaching you how to manage the gag reflex and stuff like that. I wonder what other crazy shit hardcore yogis to.

@Natasha Tori Maru He'd probably tell you to be like a rabbit No language, no thoughts, no (unnecessary) suffering. He loves his rabbit example so much. And the babbling brook 😂

@BlessedLion Halfway through it, great interview! It's amazing how we integrated a concept of a "subconscious mind" as culture, and think that there really is such a thing. History of psychology is worthy of research just to identify all the concepts that was invented in the last 100 years that we just take for granted. But the idea that we could just become conscious of stuff right now, in the middle of generating our state, and just stop it, sounds so simple but so complicated at the same time. But takes lots and lots of practice. It sounds like a superpower honestly.

@Lila9 Oh I have that one, it's super comprehensive and full of lots of really good techniques. It also gives a nice gradual approach to adding practices over some time. I purchased a neti pot because of that book, and I find it very useful.

@Lila9 Could you share book title and author?

@Leo Gura Did you resolve some of those in your initial trips? I remember Christopher M. Bache was describing in his book that initial big part of his trips was spent in resolving his personal issues, and only after that he accessed higher things and transcended his history. Was your experience similar?

@Natasha Tori Maru What's the longest you've run?

@Leo Gura AI video was very insightful, thanks for sharing. I liked the part when AI outputted "aha" token to indicate having an an actual aha moment, but in reality nothing new was added to the context except for that literal one token. It's so deceptive. It's crazy. These people who make AI tools on top of LLM's make it harder to notice that illusion of reason. One example, when you prompt something, some models show "Thinking..." label, instead of something like a generic "Loading". It tries to sell you the idea that LLM's do reason, but as they guy was saying, they rationalize instead of reason. LLM's are really helpful in many ways, we just have to not bullshit ourselves on what they really are and do. But since the topic is too technical to dive into deeply the maths of it, it stays unnoticed. ChatGPT is epistemically irresponsible I wonder if we'll see some entirely new AI based on a different technology. It's apparent that probabilistic search system won't do it. And this tech-bros make it seem like AGI is around the corner, when in reality the current technology just isn't in the same ballpark as it seems. He mentioned Emily Bender, and I found some of her videos YT interesting. Also there is this book that I'll check later: https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Capitalism-Artificial-Intelligence-Information/dp/0063418568 If anyone is interested.

Yes I think over time as this AI slop pollutes the web more and more, more people will value actual artist's craftmenship. Hopefully artists won't lose motivation to produce good work because if I was an animator and saw the above video and that dude says he made it in 48 hours under $100, I'd be bogged down because it would take weeks to manually do that. But at the moment, the art that's actually valuable isn't made with AI. Probably artists use AI in initial phases to test some ideas, and for all sorts of different valuable reasons in the process of making a product. Same as coding, LLM doesn't replace an engineer, just enhanses abilities. At least as of today. Hard to speak of the future.

Lately, after Seedance 2.0 came out, I've been seeing pretty cool AI short-movies on YT, wanted to share some of them here: Most of internet is filled with AI slop videos, but some of them are pretty cool. And just a reminder, this is the worst it will ever be, so 😂 Personally, I don't see much value in AI video, I think it will cause more harm then good. But the genie is out of the bottle, so we might as well embrace it.

@Ramasta9 Same, but the issue is that as months go by, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish what was made with AI vs not. Take this as an example. Would you recognize that this was done with AI? It looks like a nice regular animation with an interesting style.

It's 06:30 in the morning, just woke up, I think I finally fixed a sleep schedule after months of trying. This time I put a real effort though. Before I was just bullshitting. Yesterday was an okay day. Weight loss progress: -0.1kg (in total -0.4kg in 2 days) What I did: No addiction relapses 1900 calories, 170g protein 20m run 10k steps 20m TMI (The Mind Illuminated) meditation, 12 pranayamas 1.5h read, finished Yeonmi Park's book Cooked for the next day What I didn't do: Work. It was a holiday Study. I procrastinated till the evening, and then I was too tired / lazy to do it. What worked and I need to change: Morning spiritual practices worked, definitely gonna continue those first thing in the morning (after this post) Followed up with exercise Followed up with study session So I need to move study session before reading, because reading is a relatively low-effort activity and it's fun as well, I can do it in the evening, for the study there is some resistance and friction so I have to get it over with in the morning hours before work to be consistent. Some random insights: Patience is super important in developing skills over time, and really, in accomplishing anything meaningful. I lost 0.1kg today, that's like 0.3% of a total weight that I need to lose. So, yeah, this will take some real patience. Also, this relates to spiritual practices because I suck at them, and I know I'll suck at them for many months and I just have to keep showing up every day, because in the past I didn't, and because of that I sucked for years, instead of months. That's it, good luck for me today

To be honest if I had constant access to psychedelics, I'd do it slowly and methodically instead of Holotropic Breathwork. Maybe it works in different ways idk but still. Stan Groff invented that hopotropic thing after LSD was outlawd and he coudn't practice his therapy with it, so... Hey man, just remembered, I found this book last week: https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Therapy-Revolutionary-Restoring-Reclaiming/dp/1645476049/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0 It will come out at the end of March, you should check it out it could be helpful.

@Judy2 I think it's more of an individual thing. For example for me, I have no problem working out fasted except for the lowerbody exercises. For some reason I get very dizzy and nauseous on leg day on an empty stomach to the point that workout becomes impossible. So I eat a banana and 1-2 egg before it. It also depends on the intensity of the workout. As guys said above, loading up with carbs prior evening or in the morning is a good idea if the intensity is high enough. It all depends. It's irritating, yeah. For me it depends on current priorities. Is that situation going to last for month / years? If so, then I'd go for a version that's more sustainable. Which is more sustainable, eating at home or at work? Do you bring home-prepped food to your workspace? If eating at work means eating out daily, I'd go with the home version. What would be the ideal schedule for you if work wasn't interrupting?

Sure, but I was referring to people who struggle to find food and safe shelter, like a lower class North Korean people for example. Not sure how resourceful would be to lecture them on epistemology.

What I like about this is that it not only makes truth-seeking more accessible, it also frames survival nicely. It creates a context for it, so instead of blind survival, now you have an overarching vision of developing proper epistemology, and properly handling a survival serves that overarching vision. So now working on survival aspect of life becomes more exciting because it has that extra meaning and proper context.