First, anhedonia is a real psychological crisis. You might want to speak to a professional.

Second, the old saying "it's the journey not the destination" is apt here. If you didn't enjoy the process in the first place then even if AI never came around something would have knocked the wind out of your sails. If you love the process what do you care that AI can do it faster? You can still do the thing. Either learn to love the process or begin the journey of searching for some other thing to fill the void left behind.

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brailsafe 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> If you love the process what do you care that AI can do it faster? You can still do the thing

I can still hike to the top of mountains even though helicopters exist, but if helicopter tourism is as popular as it seems to be becoming, and Bluetooth speakers are as available as they are, the journey and result is going to feel very different, if it's not entirely ruined.

	▲	CoolestBeans 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The comparison breaks down because noise pollution is unavoidable. AI hype might be unavoidable unless you code in a vacuum but you can be disciplined in how much you let it in. Even if AI cheapens the actual output, it fundamentally cannot touch your intrinsic motivations for work, which was my original point.

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gagabity 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A big part of the journey is the exact thing AI took away though! The destination mostly has remained.

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CoolestBeans 9 hours ago | parent [-]

If you can't resist the temptation to pull the AI slot machine lever (which is not necessarily a personal failing!), you might want to seriously examine what your actual motivations are. If you have to use AI for your day job, then yeah it sucks the journey is being taken away from you.

	▲	gagabity 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes pretty much have to do it for work or at the very least deal with AI PRs and reviews. Also it now feels kinda silly to do it manually even for personal projects because I know there is a faster/better? way and before I wasn't doing it to be hardcore I was just doing it because that's what needed to be done now doing it by hand is like people who enjoy working with those old punch card computers which is a thing but not really the same. The broader ecosystem where you could get help like stackoverflow is also disappearing so I am not even sure how you would solve tricky undocumented issues now maybe by digging really deep into the systems but doesn't seem practical.

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japgolly 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Note: Anhedonia is the inability to feel pleasure or joy.