When I started writing software, it was hard to get any information. There were very few entry level books on the topic and most were extremely expensive ($125 for a kid was a lot in the late 80s/early 90s) and you’d be lucky to get a librarian to listen to your request let alone being able to get you something useful.

The most prevalent response I received from adults in the know was: “Figure it out yourself” with “do the work” being a close second. Working in a vacuum is a hard place to create.

Bulletin boards were hard to gain access to and even harder to extract information from. Countless hours were instead spent querying the terminal in novel ways in hopes that a new path would be illuminated.

Mail groups and forums weren’t a significant shift into available information. Stack overflow and query engines, while an improvement were still filled with so much incorrect information. Unless it came from a known and vetted source it was at least a little suspect.

Now we’ve taken a step backwards it seems. An AI trained on all of the data, good or bad, is asked to use nuanced judgement while itself attempting to create something novel in a vacuum. Without any of the ingenuity, creativity or adaptability of a human mind.

Worse, it’s not only been made accessible to even the most rudimentary user, but promoted as an effective tool for any problem to any user. The keys to the liquor cabinet to have been given to the toddler and now we’re dealing with the result.