the idea that these webs of laws or these models of “how things should work” mean anything tho the people with power are complete nonsense.

Kinda ironic that you are discussing the nonsense of “how things should work” on a federated service where you control the intermediaries you work with and through, which is, IMO, the way things should work.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.

It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains.

The stains become a warning.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

Fair point, and thank you. Let me clarify a bit.

It wasn’t my intention to say ChatGPT isn’t helpful. I’ve heard stories of people using it to great effect, but I’ve also heard stories of people who had it return the same non-solutions they had already found and dismissed. Just like any tool, actually…

I was just pointing out that it is functionally similar to scanning SO, tech docs, Slashdot, Reddit, and other sources looking for an answer to our question. ChatGPT doesn’t have a magical source of knowledge that we collectively also do not have – it just has speed and a lot processing power. We all still have to verify the answers it gives, just like we would anything from SO.

My last sentence was rushed, not 100% accurate, and shows some of my prejudices about ChatGPT. I think ChatGPT works best when it is treated like a rubber duck – give it your problem, ask it for input, but then use that as a prompt to spur your own learning and further discovery. Don’t use it to replace your own thinking and learning.

There was a story once that said if you put an infinite number of monkeys in front of an infinite number of typewriters, they would eventually produce the works of William Shakespeare.

So far, the Internet has not shown that to be true. Example: Twitter.

Now we have an artificial monkey remixing all of that, at our request, and we’re trying to find something resembling Hamlet’s Soliloquy in what it tells us. What it gives you is meaningless unless you interpret it in a way that works for you – how do you know the answer is correct if you don’t test it? In other words, you have to ensure the answers it gives are what you are looking for.

In that scenario, it’s just a big expensive rubber duck you are using to debug your work.

Not just parents – my wife has an unhealthy mobile game addiction. We’ve talked about it and talked about it, but it’s still a heavy draw for her.