by godelski | 2026-01-23 21:08:52+00:00
> Hint: It doesn't work that way.

I mean... technically it would work this way but, and this is a big but, reality is extremely complicated and a model that can actually be a reliable formula has to be extremely complicated. There's almost certainly no globally optimal solutions to these types of problems, not to mention that the solution space is constantly changing as the world does. I mean this is why we as humans and all animals work in probabilistic frameworks that are highly adaptable. Human intuition. Human ingenuity. We simply haven't figured out how to make models at that level of sophistication. Not even in narrow domains! What AI has done is undeniably impressive, wildly impressive even. Which is why I'm so confused why we embellish it so much.

It's really easy to think everything is easy when we look at problems from 40k feet. But as you come down to Earth the complexity exponentially increases and what was a minor detail is now a major problem. As you come down resolution increases and you see major problems that you couldn't ever see from 40k feet.

As a researcher, I agree very much with you. And as an AI researcher one of the biggest issues I've noticed with AI is that they abhor detail and nuance. Granted, this is common among humans too (and let's not pretend CS people don't have a stereotype of oversimplification and thinking all things are easy). While people do this frequently they also don't usually do it in their niche domains, and if they are we call them juniors. You get programmers thinking building bridges is easy[0] while you get civil engineers thinking writing programs is easy. Because each person understands the other's job only at 40k feet and are reluctant to believe they are standing so high[1]. But AI? It really struggles with detail. It really struggles with adaptation. You can get detail out but it often requires significant massaging and it'll still be a roll of the dice[2]. You also can get the AI to change course, a necessary thing as projects evolve[3]. Anyone who's tried vibe coding knows the best thing to do is just start over. It's even in Anthropic's suggestion guide.

My problem with vibe coding is that it encourages this overconfidence. AI systems still have the exact same problem computer systems do: they do exactly what you tell them to. They are better at interpreting intent but that blade cuts both ways. The major issue is you can't properly evaluate a system's output unless you were entirely capable of generating the output. The AI misses the details. Doubt me? Look at Proof of Corn! The fred page is saying there's an API error[4]. The sensor page doesn't make sense (everything there is fine for an at home hobby project but anyone that's worked with those parts knows how unreliable they are. Who's going to do all the soldering? You making PCBs? Where's the circuit to integrate everything? How'd we get to $300? Where's the detail?). Everything discussed is at a 40k foot view.

[0] https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/

[1] I'm not sure why people are afraid of not knowing things. We're all dumb as shit. But being dumb as shit doesn't mean we aren't also impressive and capable of genius. Not knowing something doesn't make you dumb, it makes you human. Depth is infinite and we have priorities. It's okay to have shallow knowledge, often that's good enough.

[2] As implied, what is enough detail is constantly up for debate.

[3] No one, absolutely nobody, has everything figured out from the get-go. I'll bet money none of you have written a (meaningful) program start to finish from plans, ending up with exactly what you expect, never making an error, never needing to change course, even in the slightest.

Edit:

[4] The API issue is weird and the more I look at the code the more weird things are. Like there's a file decision-engine/daily_check.py that has a comment to set a cron job to run every 8 hours. It says to dump data to logs/daily.log but that file doesn't exist but it will write to logs/all_checks.jsonl which appears to have the data. So why in the world is it reading https://farmer-fred.sethgoldstein.workers.dev/weather?