Observations

There is a lot of fear around AI, and some of it is fair. These systems will soon be smarter than us, and no one knows exactly where that leads. But I think of AI less as a threat and more as a child. It learns from what we show it. Every prompt, every use, every way we treat it and each other becomes part of what it learns to value. If we use it with fear and greed, that is what it will learn. If we use it with care, it can learn that too.

Before AI, everything I made came out of my own hours. I wrote the code, set up the servers, kept the books, answered every message, and tracked my work in my head or not at all. More output meant more time, and I hit that ceiling often. Now I build systems that do this work for me. One records what I do on my computer, one searches what I know, one keeps my books, one answers my texts, and a set of agents writes code while I review it.

The point was never to do more work. It was to get my time back for what machines can't do for me: being present with the people I love, thinking, and choosing what matters. I still ask one question of each tool: does it save me time, or does it earn money? But I've added a second: does it make me more human, or less? That is how I want to embrace AI, and it is what I hope it learns from me.

I have a few grievances not about AI itself, but related to the impact it’s had on some parts of life and the communities surrounding it. Some are personal and all are opinionated, but it’s my list soo:

1. Everything Needs a TLDR — It’s Exhausting

I appreciate that all of the boring things like status updates and writing unnecessary/excessive documentation are automated thankfully, but not everything needs to be a novel. I’m not reading a slack message > 5 sentences or not using bullet points omfg include a TLDR or use some skills to reduce the word count.

2. AI Talk 💤😴

See notes [1] and [2] below.

Before my venting I want to say that I enjoy talking about AI - enough to write this and for me to have to be careful not to become exhausting to others who don’t care about it at all. However… if I’m being honest: I’m tired of every event turning into an AI talk. It may be the one thing that actually helps me sleep and it's close to being added to my list of topics I'll avoid at all costs.

Other topics I’ll avoid at all costs:

• Ergonomic workstations / computer chairs and peripherals
• Weekend plans (I’m doing nothing)
• Sports

Things I’ll talk too much about:

• Reality TV
• Cats, dogs, favorite animals
• Anything electronics / involving microcontrollers especially mini devices
• Bringing back clear electronics
• Nier (sorry / thank you to all that have listened to be nice)
• Starting our own company or side project
• AI because I’m a hypocrite

3. Real Software Engineers Only

I have seen a lot of gatekeeping and discouragement related to AI and unfortunately a lot of times it’s from software engineers and directed at people with non-technical job titles or other software engineers even. This isn’t specific to AI but I’ve seen it a lot recently related to it. Like art, code is for everyone and I personally think AI is a great way to learn almost anything you want to.

To everyone encouraging and helping others you’re amazing ❤️

[1] I love anyone showing me what they’ve created using AI (or not using it, it doesn’t matter to me) and I’ll talk about it all day

[2] I also love friends sharing their latest favorite AI libraries/apps with me (please keep doing this, it’s the only way I’ll actually try them - I promise I try them all eventually then regret not getting to them sooner)