The one thing that poisons the entire online discourse regarding LLMs to me is just simply not knowing who you're dealing with and what their problems are. This, like all things, is complex and nuanced.
For all my efforts to get LLMs to work for me, they've failed. I figure it is because the tech space I work in (Industrial Automation) simply doesn't have the training data that someone building webapps does. The few times I've put LLM to the test its failed horribly, and since my job has me existing in safety critical scenarios I don't humor what AI gives me at all.
So when I bitch about LLMs and their useless nature, its because of how I've experienced them in my craft. They get 95% of the information right, but that 5% it gets wrong can have very serious repercussions.
But when I'm talking with individuals online who see them as revolutionary? I don't know if their job is editing templates or formatting data or any other host of problems that AI can be revolutionary for. I don't know if they're full of themselves, having drank the AI koolaid. I don't know if they're just really deep into the LLM world and figured out things I have yet to learn (or am unwilling to pay for). But from a HN or Reddit discussion, they're all one in the same and without trying to figure out who they are, their opinions all carry the same weight.
> For all my efforts to get LLMs to work for me, they've failed. I figure it is because the tech space I work in (Industrial Automation) simply doesn't have the training data that someone building webapps does.
Putting safety critical aside (given that is a giant aside) for the moment, I'm a little surprised at this.
One of the most useful things I've found for AI Agent stuff is having an agent live on my home network and finally get the hundred or so random sensors and other IoT devices finally configured and talking together.
It's definitely not perfect though, and not anything I would trust my life to. This year however, I was able to set up enough sensors in my garden to have by far the largest hot pepper harvest I've ever had by min/maxing watering and fertilizing via way too many sensors and data fusing. This was mostly describing the sensors involved, the outcome and dashboarding desired, and pointing it to the various vendor API docs.
I could have done all that stuff manually, but never would have gotten around to it since it was just a tedious boring task. But with AI help I now can tell you precisely the soil moisture level, EC reading, ambient temp, etc. for each of my planters. And with some combining of my rain gauge data and sunlight sensing, tie that into automated irrigation runs. Then the bot just pings me when it thinks the next fertilizing cycle is due.
I don't know if that's revolutionary, but it took a project that would take me weeks to accomplish myself due to around a hundred sensors to configure/setup/etc. to a couple nights of messing around learning what all this talk was over these AI agent things.
I think there are plenty of use-cases where if AI gets things wrong 5% of the time it really doesn't matter a whole lot. I have plenty of these areas at my job.
The biggest part of that is how there's a lot more community involvement for IoT and things like Home Assistant than there are for the proprietary PLC systems.
In the PLC/SCADA space a lot of the development and resources are closed source. There's been a big push in the last few years for Open standards but that's slow to adopt and I'm sure in time we'll see the Controls space catch up (it is notoriously dated compared to the rest of the software world).
But in the meantime its like the perfect storm of terrible-ness for AI. The vast majority of my SCADA work is in AVEVA products, mainly Wonderware and Edge. Wonderware's scripting language is something called QuickScript.NET which is like 80% of VB.NET. The issue with AI is that being a statistical engine it very quickly starts on the right path, then veers into what is very obvious VB.NET training data and starts doing things that are impossible in Wonderware. Edge uses VBScript, but a limited subset of it. So querying AI for help mostly just spits out useless code in the same way; confidently declaring what it gave is possible when it only results in runtime exceptions.
In the PLC space you can get AI to do pretty mundane things with ease. Writing ladder logic or structured text is pretty okay, but like most things that was never the bottleneck in project development: you're not saving a lot of time for the cost of an AI subscription license. As mentioned, Open standards are starting to be adopted pretty quickly and a lot of PLC systems allow import/export of the proprietary formats into XML now which is going to be beneficial in the long run, but we're not quite there yet.
The problem is always that time it messes up, and it can be very subtle. Off by one errors which would be perfect fine in one environment can be catastrophic totally depending on how your I/O Comms were configured. I was trying to interface with some hardware that I asked AI to see if I could solve the pain points of remote enable/disable via network comms. It very eagerly told me I could use OPC-UA Methods to achieve what I'm after, but I was working a platform that didn't support Methods. It even fabricated a path to fake call a method which obviously did not work when applied to a real world scenario. So I asked it how to use Modbus which requires use of FC16 to act on the hardware. Again AI very eager to tell me how to do that, but hallucinated what could be done. Lastly I went for the TCP route which again had AI giving incorrect information - it was far closer this time, having instructed me to send a command in a format which doesn't work out of box, but could be manually configured in the hardware to work. Fortunately I was testing to see if it could save me time, not trying to see if it could do something I was unable to do, but I try to imagine what would happen if I allowed it to do that type of work on a VFD, or PID loop. That tiny little bit of misunderstanding by the agent could be catastrophic.
Each time I share this type of experience (and I have others) with the AI community I'm told I'm doing it wrong. That if I was using better models or different configurations that wouldn't be an issue. Telling me that I need to pay for models - as though I want to fork over cash when their demos are wildly underwhelming. It gives me a lot of overall distrust in the AI community because of this. It feels a lot like interacting with Linux fanatics who are unable to accept that it has faults that aren't tolerable by the layperson. That these people cannot see the faults because it works great in their narrow needs.
But at the same time, using AI to give little tips. How can I speed up this SQL Stored Proc? Why is my DataBinding failing to update? What is causing this OS upgrade to fail? Its done pretty good work. I see it as a tool that works along with me and an IDE, not as a human replacement like so many feel it is ready to be.
I'm surprised to hear that. LLMs make it practical to prove safety-critical C code correct without the cost that has traditionally made formal verification prohibitive. If you haven't explored that area, it's worth a look.
My experience with C and C++ has also been excellent. I work on very large, high-performance C++ systems used to run airlines and airports, and LLMs have dramatically improved both the quality and the performance of our code.
That said, LLMs are tools, and like any tool they take skill to use well. It took me months of experimenting and learning from others to get where I am now.
As a Canadian I've had pretty shit experiences with the land crossings coming back to Canada from the US. They seem to be total grumpy shitheads all around.
But at the same time I've had the absolute worst experiences crossing borders from Canada to US too. Seems like agents at the land crossings both ways just hate life or something.
And lastly, as a Prairie resident, I've felt that general unease in Ontario/Quebec as well. I think people there are just generally more bitter.
So I'd say don't take it personally, but that's only worth what you make of it I suppose.
It doesn't matter what the truth of the matter is. What Dear Leader says is used as a scare tactic and marching orders for the underlings to believe and repeat. If you live/interact with conservative people long enough you see the pattern. There's absolute trust in what their leadership says, but skepticism for any criticism of those same talking points.
So all this tweet is doing is seeding doubt, and distrust among the electorate. It doesn't have to be true, but if the goal is to maintain control it looks like this. The Canadian Conservatives are still extremely pro-USA but have learned to keep their opinions close to the chest because they're currently politically unpoular.
As a Canadian who has been listening to the "51st state" wordvomit coming out of US administration your comment is very apt.
For some reason I can't fully grasp, a LOT of US citizens are ignorant to how the rest of the world is perceiving them at the current moment. There's countless US articles talking about US/Canada relations as if it is a trade dispute and that they think Canadians are eager to re-unite and go back to the way things were without ever addressing the threats to our sovereignty. Then you have comments like the parent to your post who is....wildly off the mark thinking that in a point of contention we'd prefer to keep our data on US controlled systems because their government would need to follow their own legal processes to acquire data of a foreign/hostile state??????
This becomes even more striking if you look at who they surveyed:
> They asked citizens across the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.)
They're not even asking those from the half of the world that has been bombed or coup d'etated by the US in the last half century. They're asking those who should on paper dislike the US the least.
People from those countries ranking the US below India, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey is quite something. Israel coming in at 55th out of 60, below Saudi Arabia, is also fantastic proof of how incredibly unrepresentative these "representative democracies" are of their populace. The US and Germany are even 2 of the 7 surveyed countries! Without them I wouldn't be surprised if they came in last, under Iran and China.
For some reason I cannot grasp Canadians think the US citizens think about them at all. We may as well not have a northern neighbor, all that most of us think exist between Michigan and Alaska is snowy wilderness.
The parent to their post was saying your risk assessment of which country should host is incorrect, given who you believe to be your biggest threat, i.e. your preferences are not aligned with reducing your risk.
> Is the rest of the world going to stop trying to immigrate here, though
Yes. If you look for example at people from the world leader in science and technology, China, then there is a very noticeable drop in the number of young Chinese people wanting to study in,or after graduation stay in, the US.
>the more US citizens have to worry that that foreigners attempting to immigrate here for the long-term have a plan involving exercising influence on US politics from their position inside the country, in order to punish existing US citizens.
I am not aware of any, but I would love to hear any and all plans to punish US citizens.
> worry that that foreigners attempting to immigrate here for the long-term have a plan involving exercising influence on US politics from their position inside the country, in order to punish existing US citizens.
This is indeed a valid concern for immigrants like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Rupert Murdoch. They’ve all had a significant deleterious effect on the US.
For the average immigrant just trying to live their life, it’sa much less valid concern. You could equally point the finger at the millions of natural-born US citizens who believe that the US is a “Christian nation”, who are well organized, and are trying to change the laws in that direction.
The entire reason that people in Europe care about moving their digital infrastructure from American cloud companies to European cloud companies is because they're upset about current American politics, particularly Trump being president. Immigration is one of the biggest issues in American politics right now, and is also a pretty big issue in the politics of basically every European country.
The comment I was responding to was claiming "For some reason I can't fully grasp, a LOT of US citizens are ignorant to how the rest of the world is perceiving them at the current moment." in the context of making an argument that American citizens should be concerned about people in foreign countries feeling threatened by potential actions of the US government and reacting to this by reducing their dependence on American cloud companies.
And my genuine response to this comment is that US citizens are less ignorant of how the rest of the world perceives them than the commenter thinks - because the rest of the world is still trying to physically come here (and often still trying to come here illegally, or remain here illegally - ICE is still arresting tons of people).
Immigrants who dislike the US generally don't stop talking about their problems with the US when they move here - but now they use their status as an immigrant to make a moral claim, that they are more authentically American than those who didn't move here, and so their understanding of what America is and should be is better and more moral than that of existing American citizens. You can go to any college campus and see what the foreign students are saying about the US, including what they're saying about the very policy of giving visas to foreign students to begin with. Or you can go to congress and see what the immigrant members of the house of representatives are saying about the US. There's no conspiracy.
And yeah, there's crossover but they're not 1 to 1. At the same time, if a company is taking two people of equal position and firing one, or keeping the other, the honesty in how they came to that conclusion through transparency has value. Was the decision one of seniority? Performance? Geographical relevance? Was it favoritism masked in another reason? The person receiving the pink slip deserves to know the truth, especially in cases where legal matters could be of question where a company may say one thing, but be acting on another.
Not the OP you're replying to, but a parent nonetheless.
From basically the very moment you realize you're having a kid you essentially become the #2 person in your own life. Its more so for the mother, but even the father likely needs to do some maturing in preparation to being a good dad.
If you're hoping to be a good parent you need to start weighing every decision on a basis of where it leads to. There's simple things like affordability: deciding to make smarter financial decisions because you're going to be supporting another human for the next couple decades at least. There's more complex things like suddenly seeing your own health as a liability and needing to straighten yourself out if you want to set a good example. Things get way easier if your life has structure honestly. Having good habits about food prep, cleaning, chores makes things way easier and bad habits really make life more difficult than it needs to be.
You also need to adapt quickly. You realize that you don't define your schedule any longer. Whether you sleep at night is up to the kid. As they grow from baby to toddler you start to see how the fundamental things like routine have impacted your child and you can begin to make connections to how you did things 6 months ago impacts how things are going now. Self reflection is huge, knowing how your emotions, your reactions, your behavior is a template this person learns from humbles you.
I think that's the new value system that leads to having children being such a burden. There are sooo many expectations of parents that they spend all their time fulfilling those without questioning any of them.
I always knew my dad was a good dad but only once I had a kid did I really understand how much he had quietly and willing given up because he loved me. More and more each day I understand him better and continue gaining an appreciation for all that he has done for me. All of this thanks to my daughter making me / giving me the chance to see life from the other side.
So that sounds like: in the past there were well defined templates for how to live your life, and people followed them; but now you have to make up your own, continuously figuring things out for yourself, and that is harder to do and needs more maturity.
I really enjoyed the write up. As father to a 2y/o as well I relate so hard to much of it.
This line sticks out to me:
you see life as a collection of experiences to be sampled
...because I feel like that was my hardest adjustment to becoming a parent while the vast majority of my friend circles are either single or DINKs. You very quickly become a sideline to many people. You get invitations to join the pint after work, to go hit up the trails each weekend, to travel, to do frivolous things on a whim but you just...can't anymore. I think I struggled with that transition for a long time. Partially worried I would lose my friends and become isolated, partially the FOMO of no longer being able to partake on all the things that were most enjoyable to me.
But thinking about it at this point? I've lost a few friends (not in a breakup sort of way, they just slowly faded out) but the ones who stick around were always those I was closest to. I do miss out on a lot more of the hobbies I once loved but at the same time I've traded those for experiences that are new, different, and fulfilling in their own ways. I've truly been a believer that the best reward always comes after a period of suffering or struggle. In the same way that cold glass of water feels like heaven after a strenuous workout that immense feeling of reward when your kid takes first steps, first words, first sentence just crush all other emotions and swell you with joy and love. Is 2 years of hard work worth that immense wash of emotion? Arguably yes. And I hope to keep getting hit with those experiences.
I've never been shy to say it isn't something for everyone. You sacrifice a lot to have kids. Financially, physically, emotionally, mentally, it all takes a toll, but the rewards are also so much deeper than anything else.
tbf it works both ways. My wife and I are child-free by choice. We haven't lost friends, but they definitely became generally unavailable after the kids arrived. They also made new friends, as kids are an incredibly common thing to relate to. They'll "come back" in 15 years or so, but still.
I could never get used to ergonomic keyboards. I actually spend a considerable amount of my day typing single handed across the entire QWERTY so I don't have to remove my hand from the mouse. I developed the habit working on far too many apps with bad/missing keyboard shortcuts or broken tab ordering.
For me I wanted a smaller keyboard, but one that still included the numpad and ended up with this custom build:
I get that, I've practiced with my ergo board for like a year and still don't use it exclusively bc of one-handing stuff (though learning a new layout at the same time cert. didn't help).
There's a layout based on multi-key chords called Taipo that has this really interesting "reversable" property, in that each half is a mirrored copy of the other, so you can type any letter (or eg. tab or return) with either hand. I think that's super cool, but don't think chording is for me, so I'm trying to imagine what a compromise might look like.
For all my efforts to get LLMs to work for me, they've failed. I figure it is because the tech space I work in (Industrial Automation) simply doesn't have the training data that someone building webapps does. The few times I've put LLM to the test its failed horribly, and since my job has me existing in safety critical scenarios I don't humor what AI gives me at all.
So when I bitch about LLMs and their useless nature, its because of how I've experienced them in my craft. They get 95% of the information right, but that 5% it gets wrong can have very serious repercussions.
But when I'm talking with individuals online who see them as revolutionary? I don't know if their job is editing templates or formatting data or any other host of problems that AI can be revolutionary for. I don't know if they're full of themselves, having drank the AI koolaid. I don't know if they're just really deep into the LLM world and figured out things I have yet to learn (or am unwilling to pay for). But from a HN or Reddit discussion, they're all one in the same and without trying to figure out who they are, their opinions all carry the same weight.
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