This to me is the crux of the whole thing.

Almost like a knitter throwing away their needles because they saw a loom.

Considering the author is explicitly going into AI research, has an AI-generated profile picture, and claims front-and-centre on their website they are excited about LLMs, I don’t think that analogy works. Or rather, it is like a knitter throwing away their needles to eagerly go work in the loom manufacturing industry.

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rikafurude21 4 days ago | parent [-]

I dont think many people would be excited at the thought of going from handcrafted artisan knitting to babying machines in the knitting factory. You need a certain type of autism to be into the latter.

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dewey 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The author is a student at a university. There's many paths to take that early in the career, I don't think people have to read too much into it.

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roenxi 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Fortunately this is the software industry. We've got a lot of those autists and that automating urge is the best part about software. If someone don't like the idea of sitting around babysitting factories of machines they certainly shouldn't go into DevOps. It would be safest to just avoid programming in general, given how much of the industry centres on figuring out how to deploy huge amounts of computing power in an autonomous fashion.

	▲	andai 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, the whole industry is just speedrunning Factorio at this point.

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stoneyhrm1 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd think it would be more autistic to continue to use and have interest in something that's been superseded by something far more easier and efficient.

Who would you think is weirder, the person still obsessed with horse & buggies, or the person obsessed with cars?

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fxtentacle 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So basically, he’s leaving software development because the job market is bad. Instead, he’s joining AI research which (currently) has a more healthy job market. That seems pretty reasonable to me, given that even widely used open source projects are only barely financially viable. Many open source projects end when the author finally gets a girlfriend, this one ends for a new job. Seems like a good outcome to me. Plus truly fascinating presentation.

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KaiserPro 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean your analogy is almost there. The loom is pretty old.

What your grasping for is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-loom_riots

Where a precipitous drop in earning power, combined with longer working hours, high inflation and large companies making people unemployed cause large social unrest.

And yeah, I can see why they rioted.

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FergusArgyll 4 days ago | parent [-]

Yeah, life has just been on a steady decline since 1826. Who wants all this food and medicine anyway

	▲	KaiserPro 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I mean if you want that argument then sure, but given that those riots were one step in a long path to workers rights. The lesson here is that if we avoid exploiting workers and/or throwing them out on their arses, we can sidestep a load of social upheaval. or we can not and just end up having a blood bath.

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mproud 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As a complete outsider looking at this, without additional context, I just have a hard time believing there aren’t more reasons, they’re just not willing to share them:

* I’m not passionate about it anymore

* I’m tired

* I want to repurpose my free time

* I’m not adding enough value compared to other options now available

In the end, it’s pointless to argue about why someone feels the way they do. If they are firm on their stance, don’t waste anybody’s time, no matter how irrational their argument is. Give up trying to be right.

Probably this guy should have just stopped engaging directly with some of the dialogue, but the fact that he is exploring the idea of trying to hand it off in some manner tells me he really does care about the project.

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4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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