Ghibli images are not "cows", they're /an artists style/, and a particular shop that has expressly asked that you *not copy their work*, because it cheapens what humans do.
Maybe you already don't find cows beautiful and so didn't appreciate the metaphor. Here's another take: Driving the road to Hana on Maui, I think you drive by like 50 waterfalls. We were in awe for the first dozen, but by the 50th, it was just another waterfall. Or seeing nonstop bald eagles in Alaska, by the time you leave, they're like pigeons.
The point being made exactly that something beautiful has being cheapened.
The article is defining cows as something we see too much of. Copying Ghiblis work turns the images into cows, regardless of how the artist feels about it. Obviously it would be ideal if that wasn't happening.
Do people really try to one-shot their AI tasks? I have just started using AI to code, and I found the process very similar to regular coding… you give a detailed task, then you iterate by finding specific issues and giving the AI detailed instructions on how to fix the issues.
It works great, but I can’t imagine skipping the refinement process.
> Do people really try to one-shot their AI tasks?
Yes. I almost always end with "Do not generate any code unless it can help in our discussions as this is the design stage" I would say, 95% of my code for https://github.com/gitsense/chat in the last 6 months were AI generated, and I would say 80% were one shots.
It is important to note that I can easily get into the 30+ messages of back and forth before any code is generated. For complex tasks, I will literally spend an hour or two (that can span days) chatting and thinking about a problem with the LLM and I do expect the LLM to one shot them.
Every tool I've tinkered with that hints at one-shotting (or one-shot and then refine) ends up with a messy app that might be 60-70% of what you're looking for but since the foundation is not solid, you're never going to get the extra 30-40% of your initial prompt, let the multiples of work needed to bolt of future functionality.
Compare that to the approach you're using (which is what I'm also doing), and you're able have have AI stay much closer to what you're looking for, be less prone to damaging hallucinations, and also guide it to a foundation that's stable. The downside is that it's a lot more work. You might multiply your productivity by some single digit.
To me, that 2nd approach is much more reasonable than trying to 100x your productivity but actually end up getting less done because you end up stuck in a rabbit hole you don't know you're in and you'll never refine your way out of it.
Allan Schnaiberg's concept of the treadmill of production where actors are perpetually driven to accumulate capital and expand the market in an effort to maintain relative economic and social position.
Interesting that radical abundance may create radical competition to utilize more abundant materials in an effort to maintain relative economic and social position.
If we give runners motorcycles, they reach finish lines faster. But the motor sport is still competitive and takes effort; everyone else has a bike, too. And since the bike parameters are tightly controlled (basically everyone is on the same bike), the competition is intense.
Analogy holds because its way more expensive, stressful, and the stakes are higher. Also it's harder to get in to without already having an advantage (like rich parents).
"Then, within twenty minutes, we started ignoring the cows. … Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring"
Skill issue. I've been looking at cows for 40 years and am still enchanted by them. Maybe it helps that I think of cows as animals instead of story book illustrations; you'd get lynched if you claimed you got bored of your pet cat after 20 minutes.
My prediction is that the next differentiator will be response time.
First we got transparent UIs, now everyone has them. Then we got custom icons, then Font Awesome commoditized them. Then flat UI until everyone copied it. Then those weird hand-painted Lottie illustrations, and now thanks to Gen-AI everyone has them. (Then Apple launched their 2nd gen transparent UI.)
But the one thing that neither caffeinated undergrads nor LLMs can pull off is making software efficient. That's why software that responds quickly to user input will feel magical and stand out in a sea of slow and bloated AI slop.
> New technologies give us greater leverage to do more tasks better. But because this leverage is usually introduced into competitive environments, the result is that we end up having to work just as hard as before (if not harder) to remain competitive and keep up with the joneses.
To win big financially you have to be able to use AI better than others. Even if you use it merely as well as the next person, your productivity has increased, reducing costs, which is a good thing. The bad news for some is that they are not enjoying the parts of the work left over from automation.
> Generative AI gives us incredible first drafts to work with, but few people want to put in the additional effort it requires to make work that people love
and
> So make your stuff stand out. It doesn't have to be "better." It just has to be different.
I wouldn't say everything that gets hugely popular has a ton of craft behind it, to me craft is about skill, but a badly drawn webcomic (random example) can still be very popular if it has something other point of difference.
But that isn't what the author is talking about. The issues is, your good code can be equal to slop that works. What the author says needs to happen is, you need to find a better way to stand out. I suspect for many businesses where software superiority is not a core requirement, slop that works will be treated the same as non-slop code.
With my current project (a game project), I full-vibed as hard as I could to test out the concept, as well as get some of the data files in place and write a tool for managing the data. This went great, and I have made technology choices for AI-coding and have gained enough skill with AI-coding that I can get prettttty far this way. But it does produce a ball-of-mud pattern and a lot of cruft that will cause it to hit a brick wall.
Then I copied the tool and data to a new directory and fully started over, with a more concrete description of the product I wanted in place and a better view of what components I would want, and began with a plan to implement one small component at a time, each with its own test screen, reviewing every change and not allowing any slop through (including any features that look fine from a code standpoint but are not needed for the product).
Where does the product description sit in your project so the ai can reference it? Is it like a summary form that describes what the project basically should do or be used for, asking for a friend
I've been thinking something similar about any company that has AI do all it's software dev.
Where's your moat? If you can create the software with prompts so can your competitors.
Attackers knowing which model(s) you use could also do similar prompts and check the output code, to speculate what kind of exploits your software might have.
A lawyer knowing what model his opposition uses could speculate on their likely strategies.
The set of commercially successful software that could not be reimplemented by a determined team of caffeinated undergrads was already very small before LLM assistance.
Turns out being able to write the software is not the only, or even the most important factor in success.
It's crazy to me that people will reference Keynes' prediction of leisure without acknowledging that we chose not to do that. The dystopian way in which work has become more competitive, intensive, and ill-compensated even as economies have supposedly continued to become more productive is the result of policy choices, not some inevitable fact of the universe
> Old buildings feel special because they’re rare.
No. When you have a city full of old houses all from the same era, maybe even by the same architect, the new building still looks ugly. The old house looks beautiful, even when you have hundreds copies next to it.
> This is the leverage paradox. New technologies give us greater leverage to do more tasks better. But because this leverage is usually introduced into competitive environments, the result is that we end up having to work just as hard as before (if not harder) to remain competitive and keep up with the joneses.
Off-topic, but in biology circles I've heard this type of situation (where "it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place" because your competitors are constantly improving as well) called a "Red Queen's race" and really like the picture that analogy paints.
pluto_modadic|6 months ago
furyofantares|6 months ago
The point being made exactly that something beautiful has being cheapened.
interstice|6 months ago
chii|6 months ago
cortesoft|6 months ago
It works great, but I can’t imagine skipping the refinement process.
sdesol|6 months ago
Yes. I almost always end with "Do not generate any code unless it can help in our discussions as this is the design stage" I would say, 95% of my code for https://github.com/gitsense/chat in the last 6 months were AI generated, and I would say 80% were one shots.
It is important to note that I can easily get into the 30+ messages of back and forth before any code is generated. For complex tasks, I will literally spend an hour or two (that can span days) chatting and thinking about a problem with the LLM and I do expect the LLM to one shot them.
ssharp|6 months ago
Compare that to the approach you're using (which is what I'm also doing), and you're able have have AI stay much closer to what you're looking for, be less prone to damaging hallucinations, and also guide it to a foundation that's stable. The downside is that it's a lot more work. You might multiply your productivity by some single digit.
To me, that 2nd approach is much more reasonable than trying to 100x your productivity but actually end up getting less done because you end up stuck in a rabbit hole you don't know you're in and you'll never refine your way out of it.
patrickhogan1|6 months ago
Interesting that radical abundance may create radical competition to utilize more abundant materials in an effort to maintain relative economic and social position.
kazinator|6 months ago
ares623|6 months ago
interstice|6 months ago
Avshalom|6 months ago
fxtentacle|6 months ago
First we got transparent UIs, now everyone has them. Then we got custom icons, then Font Awesome commoditized them. Then flat UI until everyone copied it. Then those weird hand-painted Lottie illustrations, and now thanks to Gen-AI everyone has them. (Then Apple launched their 2nd gen transparent UI.)
But the one thing that neither caffeinated undergrads nor LLMs can pull off is making software efficient. That's why software that responds quickly to user input will feel magical and stand out in a sea of slow and bloated AI slop.
BrenBarn|6 months ago
More flour more water. More water more flour.
esafak|6 months ago
conartist6|6 months ago
Investing in your understanding and skill, on the other hand, has nearly limitless returns.
becomevocal|6 months ago
and
> So make your stuff stand out. It doesn't have to be "better." It just has to be different.
equals... craft?
Isn't that what has always mattered a great deal
interstice|6 months ago
satisfice|6 months ago
Therefore, it doesn’t affect my work at all. The only thing that affects my prospects is the hype about AI.
Be a purple cow, the guy says. Seems to me that not using AI makes me a purple cow.
sdesol|6 months ago
But that isn't what the author is talking about. The issues is, your good code can be equal to slop that works. What the author says needs to happen is, you need to find a better way to stand out. I suspect for many businesses where software superiority is not a core requirement, slop that works will be treated the same as non-slop code.
flashgordon|6 months ago
furyofantares|6 months ago
Then I copied the tool and data to a new directory and fully started over, with a more concrete description of the product I wanted in place and a better view of what components I would want, and began with a plan to implement one small component at a time, each with its own test screen, reviewing every change and not allowing any slop through (including any features that look fine from a code standpoint but are not needed for the product).
So far I'm quite happy with this.
braaileb|6 months ago
personjerry|6 months ago
AI makes slop
Therefore, spend more time to make the slop "better" or "different"
[No, they do not define what counts as "better" or "different"]
lawlessone|6 months ago
Where's your moat? If you can create the software with prompts so can your competitors.
Attackers knowing which model(s) you use could also do similar prompts and check the output code, to speculate what kind of exploits your software might have.
A lawyer knowing what model his opposition uses could speculate on their likely strategies.
hamdingers|6 months ago
Turns out being able to write the software is not the only, or even the most important factor in success.
davidhunter|6 months ago
advael|6 months ago
patrickhogan1|6 months ago
But what’s unique today becomes slop tomorrow, AI or not.
Art has meaning. Old buildings feel special because they’re rare. If there were a thousand Golden Gate Bridges, the first wouldn’t stand out, as much.
Online, reproduction is trivial. With AI, reproducing items in the physical world will get cheaper.
1718627440|6 months ago
No. When you have a city full of old houses all from the same era, maybe even by the same architect, the new building still looks ugly. The old house looks beautiful, even when you have hundreds copies next to it.
pcfwik|6 months ago
Off-topic, but in biology circles I've heard this type of situation (where "it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place" because your competitors are constantly improving as well) called a "Red Queen's race" and really like the picture that analogy paints.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race
EGreg|6 months ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand
Dracophoenix|6 months ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
unknown|6 months ago
[deleted]
bonoboTP|6 months ago