We're all Beginners Again¶
While interviewing early adopters of Claude Chic I heard two common refrains:
- "Oh, I'm not very advanced with AI"
- "Programming feels fun again!"
These feelings were universal. I thought they'd be good to share out loud.
Beginning again¶
Everyone was anxious sharing how they worked with AI, afraid of being judged for not being advanced enough. Here's the thing:
No one is very advanced with AI
No one I spoke with was using multi-agent swarms or GasTown or whatever. But everyone was doing something different. The space is wide-open and no one has the answer yet. This should make us fearless.
We're all beginners again, and that's what makes it fun. It's like being twenty years old at university, the world full of possibilities.
Programming feels fun again¶
Everyone is in good spirits, despite the anxiety.
To me this feels like Python did 15 years ago when there was so much to build and so much new ground to cover. We were in a green field inventing the future against all odds, rather than maintaining legacy software under an increasing weight of success.
Today I see people working on personal side-projects, goofing around, playing.
I'm reminded of these quotes from director Francis Ford Coppola during the making of his recent film/boondoggle, Megalopolis
"You know why I'm doing this? I have money, I already have fame, I already have Oscars."
"What do I get that I want? Tell me.""Fun! I wanna have Fun."
and
"All the great things in life come from play, never from work, never from toil".
"Toil gives you nothing. Play gives you everything."
We're having fun again, and that's fantastic.
Learning from Python¶
I had the privilege to experience the growth of the Python data ecosystem from the inside, before it became cool. The way I feel now reminds me of how we felt then.
Not everything is the same though. I think we could improve our culture of communication. What I'd like to see more of:
- More casual sharing of how we work (not just the tools or products we've built)
- More questioning and critical thinking about popular directions (are multi-agent swarms really the way of the future?)
- More chats over beers without an agenda
With COVID and remote work we've gotten too efficient with our communication. We need more un-conferences and hallway tracks—the unstructured spaces where real ideas emerge.