Hacker News Reader

Comment by bwfan123 | Hacker News Reader

> friction = focus, focus = product

AI tools have put friction where it should be - by eliminating incidental friction. By incidental friction I mean, things that were really not ambiguous, but were made so due to lack of access to resources.

As an example, if i needed to navigate, I used a paper map. There was friction in pulling out a map, planning a route etc. This took time. With digital mapping apps this sort of incidental friction is not there.

Real friction is inherent ambiguity. For example, what product does the market need ? By eliminating incidental friction, AI allows us to focus on the smallest hard-problem where there is real-friction.

View on HN

This distinction between ambiguous and incidental friction is brilliant. Was just talking about it with my wife because your specific example of a map has been a running debate between us. I just pick the least cost path via the algorithm to the point where I have poor spatial awareness. My father in law insists on using paper maps because he wants to know where everything is to be helpful. For me, the ease of the algorithm solves incidental friction. For him, it eliminates helpful ambiguous friction by denying him the opportunity to learn.

The wrinkle that needs to be added is that there are no truly universal rules as to what counts for incidental vs ambiguous friction - the definitions are relative to individual/project goals. I am working with some scientific instruments to map out chemical data, and 3d modeling is needed. I don’t particularly care about 3d modeling - it is incidental to me. The chemistry is the focal point. So the STL files are vibe coded so I can keep my focus on chemistry. But if I were working for the latest marvel movie, the reverse would be true. The actual chemistry would need to fit the script and the visual effect intended. To a scientist the visualization just needs to be good enough. To the film director, the world building physics and chemistry instead become the supporting actor. The challenge introduced by AI is that in ruthlessly eliminating incidental friction, you are being deliberate about what you choose not to learn. This is fine at a task level - but how many of us “found” our current expertise through incidental friction in the first place? I never wanted to do chemistry, I went to school for something else. But incidental friction led to discovery. That is my biggest worry, particularly for students and early career folks.

I was hunting for a way in to side with your father in law. But you landed the point: friction is relative.

Digital maps clearly solve the end-goal needs for most people. But like your father in law, there’s definitely a loss in that exchange.

Bearings are incredibly useful. I remember navigating myself and my partner out of a small town on vacation by the position of the sun. It was international so we didnt have internet at the time. Im never going to live that one down!

> That is my biggest worry, particularly for students and early career folks

Agree, and I have the same worry, and so did the OP to the point that he considers canceling his AI subscription. Most of have to first get through the incidental friction to be able to arrive at expertise to address ambiguity.

In the past I found that I had poor spacial awareness - a few months ago I started using navigation apps solely in the “north up” orientation. this is much less intuitive when navigating, but forces me to think spatially about where i am and I’ve found has helped me retain much more spatial context about my environment.

I’m much more able to navigate without the map than I was before I started this experiment - and it’s had the added benefit of giving me the ability to know what part of the 101 I’m on solely by the angle and shape of the nearest exit.

I hope eventually AI gets to a point where I can split the difference between ambiguous and incidental friction like this, although tbh I’m not really sure what that would look like.

Wait until you hear about languages where the spatial context is inherent in the language.

People who speak those languages have an almost supernatural way of knowing where is north intuitively, because they HAD to do it to communicate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com