Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
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The slot machine metaphor is more apt than ever.
If generative “AI”-assisted programming in general is like playing an old-school slot machine from 50 years ago - you know, mechanical reels, three or four symbols each, one coin per pull - then programming with “agentic” generative “AI” is like playing one of those horrifying multi-line slots where you can put 10 (or more) bets up simultaneously, and you get multiple dopamine hits from “winning” 4 or 6 bets when you’ve paid for 10.
The biggest gen-“AI” coding boosters right now can scarcely describe *what* they’re building, or planning to build, with their supposedly enhanced tools or skills, beyond what seems to be an ever-increasing number of “agents”. It really does feel like too many of them — the ones who are dominating the pro-gen-“AI” side of the discourse — are caught in the same sort of doom loop as people who are getting sucked into playing ever more elaborate slots for ever increasing amounts of money.
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@jwz Works for the code side of things, fails with music, though. You can't just lock people in with a bunch of GPUs and get Rumours.
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
@jwz There just aren't enough AI-related overdose fatalities for this analogy to really work for me.
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@unlambda The first rule of cocaine club is always talk about cocaine club.
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@jwz There just aren't enough AI-related overdose fatalities for this analogy to really work for me.
@hairyvisionary Give it a minute
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@jwz There just aren't enough AI-related overdose fatalities for this analogy to really work for me.
@hairyvisionary @jwz ... okay, maybe, but there aren't zero AI overdose fatalities.
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
@jwz cocaine - it’s got “AI” right in the middle of it
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@troy_frizzell @jwz Like on the one hand this is extremely apt and funny and on the other my workplace was dominated by three-energy-drink/day salesmen and when management figured that out they started having us compete to earn energy drinks on every Xth sale.
@cwicseolfor @troy_frizzell @jwz
at least they weren't incentivizing with anti-cheese pills
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@cwicseolfor @troy_frizzell @jwz
at least they weren't incentivizing with anti-cheese pills
@unspeaker @troy_frizzell @jwz Cheese was the only thing keeping me going a lot of that era. Coworkers literally bribed me with cheese on more than one occasion.
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
@jwz@mastodon.social A selection of headlines from finance.yahoo.com today:
- "Dark side of cocaine": Wall Street weighs stock sell-off over disruption fears
- Rampant cocaine demand for memory is fueling a chip crisis
- The Big Tech losers as cocaine fears wipe billions off valuations -
@jwz@mastodon.social A selection of headlines from finance.yahoo.com today:
- "Dark side of cocaine": Wall Street weighs stock sell-off over disruption fears
- Rampant cocaine demand for memory is fueling a chip crisis
- The Big Tech losers as cocaine fears wipe billions off valuations@driusan You can even combine the two!
"Investors see hope in rich people's yacht money despite cocaine fears igniting a turbulent week for markets"
"Cocaine wasn't the biggest engine of rich people's yacht money growth in 2025, despite assumptions"
"The cost of cocaine slop could cause a rethink that reshapes rich people's yacht money"
"Cocaine is transforming rich people's yacht money -- not destroying it"
"Cocaine spending frenzy could reshape rich people's yacht money, CIOs say"
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@jbz "I denied a cocaine pull request and then a cocaine posted a hit piece about me. And then someone wrote an article about it but actually cocaine made up a bunch of quotes by me."
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
Ticket to ride, AI highway
Tell all your friends, they can go my wayRang dang diggedy dang di-dang
Rang dang diggedy dang di-dang -
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Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".
I shall demonstrate!
(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)
"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.
You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]
In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."
@jwz If you wanna hang out you've got to take her out, AI
If you wanna get down, down on the ground, AI
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie, AI. -
@jwz CocAIne, innit.
