Frying p-ai-n
People are talking about Claude Code the way they talked about a non-stick pan in the 90s
"Holy shit, I can’t believe people don’t use this pan, they’re gonna fall behind so far, cleaning their stupid cast iron pans, gee"
"Oh my, this pan makes me 10x productive! I can now roast, sear, fry, braise, which previously I would have had to hire someone to do to get the job done, look at me, I can do all of it myself!"
"So I set up this new MCP (meat charring pan) and now I can just char some meat in one go, this saves me so much time"
"In the future, everyone will be cooking only with non-stick pan. It’s just obvious that this is the future. Believe me, if you’re skeptical about it, that’s just a skill issue"
"Imagine anyone, not just professional chefs and cooks, but I really mean anyone being able to cook food for themselves. Food delivery will just go bankrupt, because it’s gonna be so much easier for anyone to whip up some ingredients and the pan and just cook it up real quick, get the meal, and move on"
"So you’re saying the oil is subsidized, and burning it now at its current price gets us on the hook, and once the companies start charing the true price, it’s gonna hurt the average Joe who’s using the pan to do their job. So what? By that time the technology will be so advanced, oil will maybe even get cheaper than it is, while pans will become more powerful"
And I tend to believe that, because a bunch of mega-corps really, really want the non-stick pan to stick (no pun), and their very share price is hinged on the oil a-burning, maybe it really will become ubiquitous and widespread and perfectly normal to get value out of most of compute units this way. I don’t know. I just find it funny how the current discourse is pie-in-the-sky bright future and in spirit not very far from massively widespread madness, in a way
Mar 17 · 7 weeks ago · 👍 bsj38381, TooDuskForDawn, mysh
10 Comments ↓
Food service is my favorite analogy to the software business. Everyone needs it in some or other form, there are megacorporations selling stuff, but in the end you have conveyor-belt slop and chefs who prepare amazing meals.
Science and production optimisation get you bulk business, but only if crap is good enough. And in most cases it probably is. But it is not a well-prepared meal.
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · Mar 17 at 18:19:
I love this analogy, because here at the Half_Elf_Monastery we do NOT use non-stick pans. Cast-iron only. The non-stick has forever chemicals that, if the pan get scratched, start leeching into your food. Also the production sounds like they were pretty bad fo the environment? idk. But your analogy here is extra persuasive for me for those reasons.
My 7 year old likes the Dogman series of books and we read them most nights. in one of the stories, anyone can get an "AI Buddy" robot to do stuff for them. People keep saying to a reporter "and now I have time to do more stuff!"
"like what?! " she keeps asking, as people are on their phones, walking off cliffs, etc.
I've also been sticking to stainless steel pans these last few months
I think we are in 'uninformed euphoria' stage with AI.
Once the dust settles and someone goes bust we will see that yes, AI can replace the support guy in India that tells you to unplug the router. Also that it can write ok code when prompted really well, but writing and rewriting a good prompt while regression testing takes perhaps more effort than writing the code.
There are people who will say "I am not a musician but I can program this sequencer to play a song in a couple of days", and there are musicians who pick up an instrument and play.
Programming is a great time saver: you invest time and effort upfront and millions of computers can run your code at incredible speed, for many users. Plus you can often apply what you've learned next time
Prompting AI is metaprogramming. You invest time and effort and a single AI slowly creates unproven code that needs to be reviewed and tested. And when you get it right, not much can be used next time.
👻 darkghost · Mar 17 at 20:18:
The chemist in me is here to point out that forever chemicals are the precursors used in the production of said pan and not in the pan itself. The reason forever chemicals are bad for the environment because corporations going to corporation and not the properly dispose of these precursor chemicals. The net harm to society for these pans and these corporate calculations is far worse than all the seasoning of all the cast iron in the world.
I'm sure we will talk about corporations corporating with respect to AI and doing harm because it's cheaper.
Fuck AI.
I sincerely mean that. I don't care if there's some legitimate use anymore. Doesn't mean a lot when getting there means making everybody's lives worse in the meantime.
Just throw it all in the trash.
🐦 JustASillyBird · Mar 20 at 22:48:
There were people in the 90s warning about the possible dangers of PFAS in cookware. They were just dismissed as backwards progress-haters or all-natural hippies. The adverts promised the pans were safe, and surely the government wouldn't let a hazard substance be sold to the public in food preparation equipment like that?
Bird owners always knew about the risk, as birds tend to drop dead in the presence of an over-heated teflon pan. Birds have an extreme sensitivity to airborn toxins - thus their use as gas detectors in mines.
But who is going to listen to a bunch of bird enthusiasts when DuPont is spending millions to supress and discredit such threats to their lucrative product line?
👻 darkghost · Mar 20 at 23:13:
Well the overheating is a different mechanism from PFAS. PFAS resembles fatty acids to the body, but it is unable to chemically break it down, thus it just accumulates. Over a long time it does genetic, liver, and kidney damage. Acute problems can happen in high doses like black teeth.
Overheating releases PTFE fumes, partially decomposed and depolymerized. This causes acute symptoms. Most people aren't exposed long term to the fumes.
Overheating will also kill any canaries you may own.
Oops. just saw the previous post.
If your teeth turn black, try the black charcoal toothpaste for a moment of comfort.