Comment by tbalsam | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tbalsam | Hacker News Reader

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I've felt very frustrated by it too because it adds this very parsimoniously-constructed veneer of skill, and then makes it hard to filter out the signal after that.

I am a machine learning engineer. I'd like to consider myself a very good machine learning engineer for my age and experience, which is starting to get on in years as far as this version of the field is considered.

I am not an "AI Guru" or someone helping "Deliver Insights" when in reality they're just delivering slick marketing and a polished presentation of some sort. I do my research, I work on what I like, and what I'm good at, and what I need as well. If I'm able to do all three at once then that is good. Then I publish it, and if people like it, they can use it.

If it's good, the right people will find it after enough consistent word-of-mouth passing in the right places. I just find myself frustrated that people are just selling themselves and their identity instead of just selling their work or what they do from a very practical perspective, or putting it out there with appropriate advertising -- better yet. It feels like a kind of lying to me, and being on the autism spectrum, I'm more sensitive to that particular clash of values.

I also feel sad because not only does it devalue my career and the field that I like to quietly work in (though I do like celebrating my success when it happens), it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like.

In a close vein to this, I saw an influencer this week whose primary line of work was optimizing gaming PCs for high-visibility figures in a viral way. That's it. That's all the influencer here was working on, practically. I'm sure there's a viable job path which includes setting up someone's gaming PC to perform optimally, but there is no way that this is a career. This is very silly to me, though I wish no major disrespect in my frustration.

Thank you for reading my comment.

I sympathize with you (the feeling of being threatened by charlatans). I don't think these feelings reflect reality, though. It can feel like your career will be threatened by the existence of this type of person, but unlike them, you have real technical skill to deploy on real problems.

> it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like

While it can be grating that charlatans can have this kind of influence on the public's perception, realize that this is really the limit of their influence. They will never displace a person with real knowledge in settings where actually getting things done is the goal. Among your friends and family, it may even present an opportunity to practice your ability to translate your knowledge into something digestible to the layperson. You'll be doing them a service in the process.

Perhaps. Indeed it is true that my career is not threatened (as I would not want to work an organization that would fall for such a thing as this), but the thin plexiglass wall that it puts up is certainly real. People have their expectations, perhaps more than you might imagine here.

I put up the results for toy comedy prompt generation in a server that I quite like and got downvoted to oblivion (and it started a debate... unfortunately I think?) because it was using AI, because of course of some of the cultural associations with AI in some circles.

For me as well, it's given people an automatic "super smarty-pants person, I could never understand that" impression of me from the get-go by default or some other kind of impression that oftentimes drives a barrier in between people. In fact, my life has improved significantly by _not_ telling people what I do for work or by using a ton of indirection about what it is. A very significant social improvement -- people can more or less just take me as I am without that background perception running, thank goodness. It's pretty darn tangible in some circumstances too. It's much like the reverse racism that happens sometimes when one travels from a more "revered" country to another. Sure, one could "technically" get over that gap, but it's always there, and the emotions underneath still lie under the surface.

Another thing for example could be used to demonstrate that point is that I'm transgender (non-binary, to be specific). Before I knew I was trans (and even today, to a smaller degree), I'd feel extremely uncomfortable talking to a transgender person, even if on the outside I was very polite and kind. Of course, every person is a person regardless of their eyesight, hair, or gender, etc. And many people realize this in time. I've had a couple friends realize this a bit with me in my belief, and others vice versa to a degree as well I believe.

I hope that helps elucidate the problem. Where true technical skills are needed and the company is a good estimator of skill and usefulness -- sure, someone faking it in a sense is a good food-dye/food-colorant-like test of what my future would/will be like at the company with a string of incoming other coworkers. But there will almost always be places that sense and filter that technical skill well.

But where connection is concerned, they do and will have far-reaching consequences. Just look at StabilityAI, for example. A rapid growing startup with the mantle of appearing as an open-source, almost charitable non-profit initiative. But of course they're making the Faustian bargains for personal profit and growth at the expense of an industry -- and is interestingly enough why I got downvoted heavily in that one server earlier. It's also why I did not begin working with them in their infancy, though there a few other reasons of things not smelling alright within the organization that led me to that belief.

I hope that clarifies the issue somewhat further, I very very very much appreciate your comment and thank you for commenting very much.

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