Technical community debates whether brain-off LLM use is sustainable
2 Sep 18 1:15 PM · 8d ago · 1 post · 6 comments · 2 sources · development 2 of 5
Comments emerge on HN and Lobsters with mixed responses: some agree that high-value work requires constant cognitive engagement and that LLMs cannot replace professional judgment; others counter that LLMs simply expand the number of attempts at a problem, and some note that management pressure to use AI often overrides individual professional judgment about tool suitability.
“Any time I argue that AI isn't the right tool for something management gets angry…when my boss is literally telling me to stop questioning whether AI automation is the right answer I'm just going to shut up and give them what they want.”
Arainach, Hacker News commenter · hn ↗Dan Luu Developer and essayistNiklas Gruhn Analyst/commenter on LLM use patterns
The whole story articlespostscomments the bright band is this development · numbered dots are the others · click one to jump
What people said 6 voices · verbatim
-
You are a photographer from the olden age. Taking a photo back then took forever. You are standing on a hill trying to get the perfect picture of a sunset. You measure and sort and calculate angles and light. A tourist stands next to you with an high-speed iphone auto-settings camera. They spin around and get thousands of photos from different…
-
I think a lot of people are not able to reason to this point and then adjust behaviour accordingly. They probably reason to the point when pressed for it, but cannot resist the low effort and low resistance route of asking AI, and then probably make up reasons why in their case it's fine (typical behaviour to address cognitive dissonance).Then…
-
Even pre-LLM: I've found a lot of colleagues (mystifyingly to me, both seniors and juniors) who really want to be able to turn their brain off when doing investigations into complicated cross-system behavior (feedback loops abound), and they don't like hearing that it can't be collapsed into a runbook. If a drinking bird…
-
It doesn't help that this is being forced from above. I agree you can't turn off your brain, but any time I argue that AI isn't the right tool for something management gets angry. There is a constant push to fully automate things, regardless of what those things are.Even if I agree that you have to use your brain, when my boss is literally telling…
-
Airline pilots and train conductors are basically meat proxies 95% of the time and they are still employed. Still necessary for when things really go wrong.
-
"What reason is there for the company to employ the meat proxy?" Maybe some form of liability, accountability...New concept: the AI patsy
All 5 developments of Dan Luu warns that "brain-off" LLM-assisted work is… →
LobstersHacker NewsNewswires