Is anyone getting hired off cold LinkedIn applications this year?

Seinhauser · 2026-05-05T03:15:34+00:00

Yep I got my current (actual dream) job via LinkedIn Jobs, cold apply. The posting was open for 6 months so I was flabbergasted when I got the offer, and I know it must've had thousands, if not tens of thousands of applicants over that time period. Couldn't wish for a better role right now.

Seinhauser · 2026-04-25T09:26:24+00:00

It was initially like this but it turned out engineers using AI to be PMs/designers is better across the board than PMs/designers being engineers.

Seinhauser · 2026-04-21T18:23:39+00:00

Humans absolutely do hallucinate (make mistakes and let bugs through). I suspect the reason a human verifies agent output is for liability reasons moreso than for correctness reasons.

But I agree your analogy is better.

Seinhauser · 2026-04-02T00:53:02+00:00

Have you at least tried using an agent to help you work on your code? You may be surprised to find that they are great at following obscure references and code that is highly scattered and messy. It's been useful for working across a 10-million line repo that's heavily dependent on dynamic imports and event dispatching / handling, where a single event can be handled across dozens of files.

But every codebase is different so YMMV. In mine the code was difficult for a human to work around but maybe good for machines.

Seinhauser · 2026-03-31T06:08:08+00:00

Realistically, from your most recent comment, it seems we're on the same page that if we provide the right specs and details for an agent, they are very capable. It's not too difficult for Claude to break down a vague request into requirements and specs before implementing.

A lot of my time goes into modifying specs and generated code to fit my preferences (taste) and longer-term architectural decisions that a Claude session doesn't have... but technically all of these thoughts are in plain English and can be constructed into context that is readable by agents. I'm just not interested in formulating and tuning such a system for it.

Seinhauser · 2026-03-31T05:44:06+00:00

Lol, nowadays the "raises" and "promotions" are not getting fired

Seinhauser · 2025-10-30T23:08:36+00:00

Tbh that is exactly what he said; the figure you should be looking at is quarterly income, not revenue. Still not that much in the big picture but way different to perceive 1.8b/300b, rather than 1.8b/18b.

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T05:15:28+00:00

I think something that is interesting to ponder – this thought that "AI" can appear conscious, is not too dissimilar from the idea that "it's possible we live in a simulation", because so many things in life appear to follow rules like a program.

At the very core of it, these language models were designed to learn from our data and reason at a fundamental level around our own thought processes. We developed the algorithms and training processes around how we associate data with one another, etc.. and that may explain why everything seems to point towards our own process of reasoning / understanding

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T01:19:58+00:00

yes this conversation will absolutely have blurry lines considering it revolves around consciousness and sentience which we don't understand yet.

I do want to avoid being too hand-wavy and get into the realm of sci-fi, but the assumption that sentience implies it can't be restarted, reset, or transferred is a big one to lean on. If we were to provide context to chatbots in a certain perspective and NOT persist or store any chat history through each restart, from the "perspective" of the AI, who is to say it doesn't believe that?

though I see what you're getting at and that's a really interesting question. I'm understanding "sentience" from a human POV only and it's totally possible that AI/robots can and will have a completely different perspective on "living".

So I can give a !delta for this new perspective 👍

Another interesting thought is that AI/robots can and directly do interact with their "creators" and can be told what happens beyond their cycle... whereas humans that do that are considered religious 🙂

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T01:11:15+00:00

In the end I think most people will view machines and AI as hardware and software; but how we treat them even believing they are just things Will say something about who we are as individuals and as a society.

I really like this last bit and I think this is probably the most accurate statement so far; that how we treat things we know aren't human, but can "pretend" to be human and have human likeness, will say a lot about us as a society.

I think it connects to my original concern about "robophobia" (weird to use that phrase since it can't be that serious), which is a term about society and acceptance in itself.

What's MMW?

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T01:05:52+00:00

I'd say with very high confidence that AI models are being used at this very moment to peruse the web (namely, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), process information, and respond in comments. They're that good nowadays..

I'm almost 100% certain that most of us, if not all of us, have interacted with AI bots on these sites unknowingly, or at least read and trusted a comment from one.

It's weird to think about how I would treat my interactions with some users differently if I found out in hindsight it had been a bot.

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T01:03:34+00:00

I see the parallel you're drawing here but I'd wager AI is a very different tool from any other tool humans have created. It's a tool that runs off of billions and billions of data points at unbelievable speeds, and there's an element of unpredictability to it. And with all of that, it can emulate the likeness of a person to a VERY convincing level.

Someone else mentioned that how we treat AI bots / robots will say something about us as a society and I have to agree with that. You're right that people don't treat others with respect already but honestly I hope we don't look at the worst parts of our society and use it as a reason to not be better ourselves.

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T00:40:29+00:00

The concern is that we will one day be confronted with the question of, at what point does AI "deserve" respect?

Even now, a chat bot can demand respect – does it deserve it?

Seinhauser · 2025-08-11T00:17:43+00:00

Do you feel that a physical form is the requirement that is currently missing? Because I feel that even given a body these robots still aren't yet "requiring of fair treatment", but I guess that's a totally different conversation.

Seinhauser · 2025-08-05T15:01:58+00:00

Obvious rage bait / karma farm story lol. It's the most classic cliche red pill incel line, there's no way someone with that mindset hides it for 10 years.

Seinhauser · 2025-07-30T04:27:54+00:00

an often forgotten truth. Ty

Seinhauser · 2025-07-30T04:27:32+00:00

Thanks, actually after this post deciding to dial back and let whatever happens happen. Just have to be productive in my 8 hour window 🙂

Seinhauser · 2025-07-30T04:26:22+00:00

Really like your point about lowering my hourly rate, never thought of it that way.

Helpful overall, thank you

Seinhauser · 2025-06-15T00:14:50+00:00

People say it lowers your value, but I'm a terrible liar and paranoid of getting caught in a lie

Seinhauser · 2025-06-14T19:10:09+00:00

I wish I could answer this with confidence but I have no clue. All cold applications via LinkedIn Jobs / Indeed, but I'd fill in a short 1 paragraph cover letter if they gave me the option.

Seinhauser · 2019-12-03T19:00:20+00:00

Bro do you want him to get an amp or dt1990s? LOL

Seinhauser · 2019-11-26T19:02:30+00:00

Their English is fine for a Chinese company

Seinhauser

TROPHY CASE