I miss thinking hard
3 days ago
- #AI-impact
- #deep-thinking
- #software-engineering
- The author reflects on the lack of deep, prolonged thinking in their life, contrasting it with their university days when they thrived on solving hard problems.
- They describe their personality as a mix of 'The Builder' (focused on creating and shipping practical solutions) and 'The Thinker' (who enjoys deep, prolonged mental challenges).
- The author laments that modern software engineering, aided by AI, has reduced the need for deep thinking, as AI provides 'good enough' solutions quickly.
- They express a conflict between their pragmatic 'Builder' side, which values efficiency, and their 'Thinker' side, which craves challenging problems.
- The author is unsure how to reconcile these two aspects of their personality, as AI's efficiency makes it hard to justify spending time on deep thinking.
- They have tried to find mental challenges outside of coding, such as revisiting physics, but struggle to justify the time spent on irrelevant problems.