anytime i encountered any error message or resistance from the system, i didn’t start getting a headache, feeling like i was in quicksand with no way out. i just pasted the errors in and it told me in patient simple english what to do. i feel like i’ve been blessed by an angel. i learned a coding technique without being driven to extreme suicidal ideation [i’m doing way better now after finishing at a nicer school] by arrogant, reticent TAs with no desire to help, gatekeeping administration that practically brag about how many students they can weed out of the program, ridiculous exams designed to stratify the class rather than give students a platform to prove themselves, tedious pointless busywork for the sake of busywork…
all that to say — learning doesn’t have to be hard or a rIgOrOUs chAlLenge for it to be effective. beyond pissed and forever indignant at the genuine not-kidding whiplash-2018-style hell i was put through over coding.
This is what I try to convey to people when they say we should fear AI. When they say it’s going to steal their content, or take their job, or put them into the gutter. People watch too many movies and don’t pay enough attention to reality.
This post is but one thing that AI will do for us all. But if we fear it like a bunch of superstitious cavemen, then it will only benefit the few. And it will only benefit those few in secret places for secret ends, just like we feared. And boy oh boy do they really want that.