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I had one of the best resolution for this year, so far I exceeded it with a banger.

My resolution was to go into the year without having any expectation. It is one of the most counter intuitive thing, but yes. I achieved nothing this year. I went from (-) to (0).

Resetting life and thinking through it takes a lot of effort. I am continuing the same resolution with sub-goal of hitting 1 if possible.

Expectations and desires are the root of all evils in your life. Control them, and you control you.

Thank you for your detailed answer. I will take some time to sink it in.

One key takeway is to create value. As someone who is barely starting out, what is value?

Is it revenue? Is it efficiency? Is it growth?

What is a proper way to clarify value? How can one show that they are indeed valuable?

Absolutely Agree!

If I may, I would like to ask you something a bit hyperbole.

You outlined a few key points which include learning people skills, communication, and requirements engineering.

Do you think it wouldn't be possible for AI/AGI of the future to supercharge this process?

What I feel people like OP and I are experiencing is the impending doom that is about to fall on us as a result of automation.

We are inexperienced, and our only feedback from the real world is job applications, which are getting rejected at an enormous rate. Adding AI on top of that doesn't paint a good picture, especially when we (our generation) have easily adopted it into our workflow and started producing results. In rejection emails we get responses like, "we found a better candidate". This means our effort is futile and what we compare against is AI because it is the only thing we can see. We can't see the profile of someone who was better and got into the job.

What we fear is people with AI + communication skills will outperform us, who just honed our skills in computing. Simply because they are better communicators and have improved efficiency. This would mean senior engineers will be demanded more and no one would care for juniors.

Now without any job, building a career is a nightmare. On top of that, even after a job, having a secured career is a problem, like OP said.

Final questions,

1. Regarding communication:

What is a benchmark that indicates if someone is a adept communicator? Is communication a skill that can be learnt? And can those who have hard time communicating be better at it than AI that spits out almost correct sounding hallucinations?

2. Beyond programming:

How to prove that we have better fundamentals than other people? What screams "I want to work with them"? How to show that we can design systems that last long?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Where to go now :(

Is there a way to increase the chance for this? How should I go on about it?

Me too. Seems to be a trend among us, the new generation. Everything looks bleak.

Answer for 3.

It is a waste. I graduated 5 years ago. Joined Master hoping something good would happen. Learnt a few things here and there. Now I am in objectively bad position where I ruined my family relationship, ruined health and ruined most of the things.

Life just sucks and everything is gray.

I'm in similar boat. But I love CS and it seems easy for me.

But I butchered myself (meaning no substantial skills on paper) so I am unhireable. People don't even look at my resume. Deactivated LinkedIn because it was causing harm than good.

That's it!

How can I get started with this kind of research? Is it even possible without a PhD? Thanks.

Yes, I have the debilitating fear that I am going to be automated out. I already believe I have failed in life and stopped trying. Now I am en route to being automated out even before my career begins.

If you wonder what the reason is, despite starting CS in 2014, I haven't had a full-time job once. My skills are so diverse that I don't qualify for anything but happen to know a few of most things. So what value do I contribute? Nothing.

Hence, what OP writes is something I relate to. If I make it, it would be a shittier version of what is already out there because I do not have the energy/skills to make something novel. And all those rejection emails have proven that I am worthless. So there is nothing in this world that gives me hope.

OP, if you are feeling like me, the only hope I have is something stupid like faith. No idea why but I have started to trust religion because of the peace of mind it brings. This faith thing, at least helps me bring back on track and allows me to do even when I know, to the point, this all matters to nothing.

It's hard to move to US because of the visa issue. And US is already full of competent software engineers.

Hey genuine question,

Why would anyone bother with learning anymore? When is learning enough to get started?

How will someone get started with work? What qualifies someone to start a new position?

Pretty sure only smart people will be hired for the roles.

No matter what I do, I am forever unqualified, even from junior roles.

1. Have post grad degree

2. Have internships

3. Have only part time or short tenure roles.

But can't get into any industrial role. Why?

Means, I die? What qualifies for a job?

Well one option is to go back to shithole country I came from and just stay there earning pennies. With the money I make there affording a new mac will take 2 years salary. So that is the kind of shithole I am talking about.

Seriously, why?

if someone misses any of these, does it mean the person is worthless?

What makes something extraordinary?

What if the person is graduating from Masters and had a decent internship but couldn't convert that?

Hey. Thanks. Sorry about wasting your time. Shouldn't have started in the first place. It was my fault for trying to make a silly point.

Too mid to understand your point.

Redacted.

Redacted.

Yes, that is true. I 100% agree. It is needed without a doubt.

For one moment, let's think it this way. You are a 20-year experienced engineer who is making whatever money you are making. Suddenly, your skills are invalidated because of a new disruption. And you have another friend in, the same situation.

Fortunately for you, luck played out and you could transition! You found a way into life, meaning and value. Your joy and your everyday life continued as it is.

But the other friend enjoyed the process, and liked doing what they were doing and there was no suitable transition for them. Humans are adaptable, but to them, nothing mattered because the whole existence didn't offer any value. The sole act of doing was robbed WITHOUT ANY ALTERNATIVE. The experience and value of a person rendered worthless.

Can you relate to that feeling? If yes, thank you.

If no, your words are empty and hold no value.

Artist went through the similar phase during the invention of photography. Now, it is rather soul-crushing because anything an artist make can easily be replicated, making the whole artistic journey a moot.

I have no idea about your background when I am commenting here. But these are my two cents.

NO. Details are mostly like icing on top of the cake. Sure, good details make good art but it is not always the case. True and beautiful art requires form + shape. What you are saying is something visually appealing. So, the reason why diffusion models feel so bland is because they are good with details but do not have precise forms and shape. Nowadays they are getting better, however, it still remains an issue.

Form + shape > details is something they teach in Art 101.

I am just curious. Please explain it to me.

1. Who are beginners? All of these concepts are so apparent to most of the grad students/those following this scene extremely closely, yet they can't find a job related to it. So does it make them beginners?

2. These are such a generic use cases that don't define anything. It is literally software engineering wrapped around an API. What benefit does the "beginner" get?

3. So are these biased to some exceptionally talented people who want to reboot their career as "GenAI" X (X = engineer/researcher/scientist)

4. If there are only open positions in "generative AI" that requires PhD, why are there materials such as this? Who is it targeted to and why do they exist?

5. Most of the wrapper applications have short life-span. Does it even make sense to go through this?

6. What does it mean for someone who is entrenched into the field? How are they going to differentiate from these "beginners"?

7. What is the point to all of this when it is becoming irrelevant in next 2 years?

This is hands down the reality and the best advice out there. No one cares if you are able to do vulkan for 8 years EXCEPT for research labs.

And getting there requires that - you either have a PhD or the exact experience (threeJS, unity etc) as above because that will help you set foot on industry effectively allowing you to work on higher abstraction and slowly/rapidly decent into low level code.

Hiring AI-skilled talent is a priority for 73% of employers—but among these, three out of four say they are unable to meet their AI talent needs.

Employers expect their workers to earn up to 47% more in salaries if they upskill in AI.

AI will become more integral to the way business is done, with 93% of businesses expecting they will be using AI solutions across their organizations in the next five years.

And here I am desperately trying to find this "AI" company because of all the time I invested learning "AI". No one wants to hire me despite having papers in "AI".

Well said! There is no wrong being in lizard then, isn't there?

i was really naive believing there was any another option. if it is about capital and if it is the game, then i am ready to play now. can't wait to steal so many open source project out there and market it. obviously it will be hard but hey, it is legal and doable. just stating this fact because i never had the confident to pull it off. but after recent events, it started making sense. so whatever people do is now mine. i am gonna live with this motto and forget the goodwill of any person. as long as i can craft a narrative and sell whatever other create, i think that should be okay. what do you think of it? i am talking about the things like MIT license and open-source.

how far will it take me? as long as i have ability to steal the content and develop on top of stolen content, pretty sure i can make living out of it. please note, it doesn't imply openai stole anything. what i am trying to imply is that, i am free to steal and sell stuff others made for free. i never had that realization until today.

going by this definition, value can be leeched off other people who are doing things for free!

okay, i finally understand how the world works.

if it is important stuff, then it is necessary to write everything in a lowercase letters.

what i understood from recent events in tech is that whatever people say or do, capital beats ideology and the only value that comes forth is through capital. where does this take us then?

to a comment like this. why?

because no matter what people think inside, the outside world is full of wolves. the one who is capable of eating everyone is the king. there is an easy way to do that. be nice. even if you are not. act nice. even if you are not. will people notice it? yes. but would they care? for 10 min, 20 min or even 1 day. sooner or later they will forget the facade as long as you deliver things.

OpenAI staff in product and applied research. Didn't see any from the hardcore agi/safety research. So there is some internal division already.

Well I genuinely value them but celebrating them as a king? I haven't seen any big/famed entrepreneur (not the small/medium businesses entrepreneur, they are true heroes who society should actually value) who came from severely disadvantaged background (no connection, money, status) and make it through upto billions. Just because someone is born privileged doesn't mean they should be heralded like a king. That is all.

Most of them have traces that goes back to social connection, high status, good education. Of course there will be some exceptions. But if we look at the general status of the population, most come from the "well-off" background.

You should reconsider being on this site then if you think so little of entrepreneurs.

I put that example because psychologist have found that social media is even more addicting than drug like weed. And pure weed doesn't make your body addicted to it, it is just the psychological effect. Also, we have seen what social media did to the fabric of society.

One thing became apparent from this drama. The goal of any person should not be collective good but a cult. It should rather be about establishing a religious gathering of the people and directing them to a place where you can print infinite money. Oh while you are making the cult or religion or whatever make sure you feed the bunch. This way everything and everyone will support you as you are the guiding force of that religion.

As Godel said, you can't completely understand the system while you are part of the system. So this is my take from someone detached from the VC culture in general.

Money is King. Who brings money is the true king. From this perspective, there is no significant difference between drug cartels (for ex. weed) and entrepreneurs. They both care about the people around them and can bring money. The only difference is how the story was framed. Now that cannabis is legal in some parts, what difference does it make? You can be a weed farmer/entrepreneur.

Why are people so unaware of what is happening? The leap in quality from DALL-E 2 to DALL-E 3 was due to improvements in the prompts used for training. With countless people using ChatGPT, it will reach a point where OpenAI will have enough data to train on. There are ideas not yet explored that will be connected to the system. At this point, the pace of development is exponential. Unless it flattens out, we will witness AI being able to engineer, code, craft, design, and build a product on its own.

So, what is the basis for my statement? We are just mediators at this point. We don't need to be there. Currently GPT-4 translates our requirements to DALL-E 3 during image generation process. What I want to say is, there is no reason to give any form of signal as an "initial seed." Has anyone tried creating an automatic agent that, when turned on, receives a signal from the external world, whatever it may be, and triggers a chain of thoughts in these LLMs?

We, as humans, rely on signals. Currently, we are providing signals to LLMs in the form of text. There will and there must come a point where agents will feed signals to each other. They will perceive signals from the environment on their own and move on from there. This is not far away. It is near because all the components are laid out there.

And people argue over things like, "Oh, but I need to prompt it." No, you don't. It will take one engineer to define a way to process signals, then write an objective for the AI and train it. Once trained, it will continue on its own. The projection might sound off to you all, but there is no one stopping you from not doing it. Do you know what the limiting factor is? Capital. Yes, capital. So, as long as the power law holds, we will keep seeing strides in improvement. If you have capital and skills, you can do it right now.

I am not saying the signal is "real world physical environment". Say you have a crawler that scrapes the website. You hook it to a summarizer. The summarizer fires the signals and then it calls AIs to create product. This whole thing once created doesn't need a human in the loop. Once something is built, it is done. Also, add to the fact that these AI system only trust other AI system's code. Why? Because human are untrustable. Now you will have an ecosystem designed by AI for AI and to be integrated with AI. Why do we need humans at this point? Like why would a company want humans at this point?