Post #4086614

2026-07-25 08:18 UTC

@duke_of_germany@mastodon.gamedev.place @lykso@tiny.tilde.website @onepict@chaos.social finding meaning at work doesn't seem to be a goal in these cases. I'm on record as being an optimistic nihilist - someone who celebrates meaning being personally constructed rather than universally declared, because it's an opportunity for personal liberty that nobody can take away from you, even if they lock you in prison. What I see from AI bros of all subgenres is a more conventional nihilism, at least applied to software as a creative art. A pervasive confidence that it's "not that deep, bro." Software is made of ends and means, and every person I've seen hold AI in non-contempt has either not cared about the means (Torvalds), not cared about the ends (Yegge, as far as I can read him), or in Lykso's example both. It's an easy response to the Bullshit Jobs problem. Is it a healthy one? My instinct is "probably not."

Replies (2)

@MaddieM4@raphus.social 2026-07-25 08:28

@duke_of_germany@mastodon.gamedev.place @lykso@tiny.tilde.website @onepict@chaos.social This is also one of the dividing seams between people who are being forced to use this technology to keep a paycheck coming in, vs people who are enthusiastically embracing LLMs as neutral-to-MY-politics tools. People who care about the ends, means, or both will often be intensely uncomfortable with the new normal, where token consumption becomes a credit card with a deep limit, that can buy impossible features for unbearable prices with magical ease, only for the bill to come later. It's just that the only or best option they have for dealing with that discomfort is to swallow it down. Where I come from in all this, is that one of the meanings I've constructed for my self and life is that, even prior to LLMs, I've worked for companies that deserved slop of some kind for one reason or another, and I'm proudly not the kind of person to serve it, because I'm a professional who cares about her standards for her own sake. There's no room for Cursor in that.

Open ##4086613
@lykso@tiny.tilde.website 2026-07-25 14:24

@MaddieM4@raphus.social @duke_of_germany@mastodon.gamedev.place @onepict@chaos.social > someone who celebrates meaning being personally constructed rather than universally declared If I understand correctly, this is the gist of existentialism. I haven't read any of the well-known existentialist philosophers myself yet, though. (I attempted "Being and Nothingness" as a teenager, but wasn't quite ready for that yet! 😅)

Open ##4298918