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Comment by guitarlimeo | Hacker News Reader

This is a guess (correct me if I'm wrong) but probably you valued the mastery of a skill to create, and now the mastery is worthless as anyone can create anything, be it music, art or software if they just have access to latest AI?

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It could be that, or it could not be—but rather than that, maybe it’s because work has decreased. Normally around this time of year is a season when freelancers have a lot of work, but there isn’t any, so maybe that’s why. People say I should just do creative work for myself, but maybe I’m feeling rushed because I don’t have any ideas.

He enjoyed the intellectual superiority over others more than the mastery of the skill.

I think everyone enjoys that kind of feeling of intellectual superiority to some degree. But doesn’t using an LLM make it easier to feel that way even more? As you know, current LLMs produce different answer quality depending on the input, so using an LLM actually makes it easier to feel a sense of omnipotence. Papers that would normally be hard for me to understand—if I just put them into an LLM, it explains them clearly enough that I can understand them. I can’t say that the feeling you’re talking about doesn’t exist… but, well, I’m not sure.

Rather, I tend to feel that sensation even more now, while LLMs are still in their early stages.

And what’s wrong with that? Spending years to understand the intricacies of technology or to master a science or an art field, and as a result, among other things, gaining a competitive advantage in life over those who haven’t done that - is that a bad thing?

Your competitive advantage should be used in the service of others and the benefit of society, not self enrichment and status games.

This is the exact issue I've been having though. I feel like I'm unable to benefit society now. My whole life I've spent learning math and computer science so that I could help other people do things. Now they don't need me, and I feel lost.

If you still want to use maths and science in the service of society then you've been handed a massive multiplier. Learn to use it and be better in using it than others.

They never wanted you.

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