Just tossing in my two cents - half the $25K cars people are asking for do exist, or did, but we’re basically banning them from the country with tariffs. It’s like we’re saying, “nah, we don’t really want cheap cars.”
Look at something like the Dolphin from China - it’s going for $8K–$9K USD over there. Ship a whole fleet of them and you’re still well under $25K. And we’re not talking junkers either - these are electric, decent build quality, ~300km range. Like... what exactly are we protecting here?
Feels like we’re pricing affordability out of the market on purpose.
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this whole AGI timeline talk—like, people saying we’re going to hit some major point by 2027 where AI just changes everything. And to me, it feels less like a purely tech-driven prediction and more like something being pushed. Like there’s an agenda behind it, probably coming from certain elites or people in power, especially in the West, who see the current system and think it needs a serious reset.
What’s really happening, in my view, is a forced economic shift. We’re heading into a kind of engineered recession—huge layoffs, lots of instability—where millions of service and admin-type jobs are going to disappear. Not because the tech is ready in a full AGI sense, but because those roles are the easiest to replace with automation and AI agents. They’re not core to the economy, and a lot of them are wrapped in red tape anyway.
So in the next couple years, I think we’ll see AI being used to clear out that mental bureaucracy—forms, paperwork, pointless approvals, inefficient systems. AI isn’t replacing deep creativity or physical labor yet, but it is filling in the cracks and acting like a smart band-aid. It’ll seem useful and “intelligent,” but it’s really just a transition tool.
And once that’s done, the next step is workforce reallocation—pushing people into real-world industries where hands-on labor still matters. Building, manufacturing, infrastructure, things that can’t be automated yet. It’s like the short-term goal is to use AI to wipe out all the mindless middle-layers of the system, and the longer-term vision is full automation—including robotics and real-world systems—maybe 10 or 20 years out.
But right now? This all looks like a top-down move to shift the population out of the “mind” industries and into something else. It’s not just AI progressing—it’s a strategic reset, wrapped in the language of innovation.
I simply think that the majority of people in AI today are scifi nerds who want to live out these fantisies and want to be part of something much larger than they are.
Theres also the obvious incentive from AI companies that automating everything is extremely lucrative (i.e, they stand to gain lots of money/power from the hype and in the event that AGI is real).
> pushing people into real-world industries where hands-on labor still matters.
Your average worker in the Anglosphere is forty-plus and pre-diabetic, has a weak back and joints, and has low cardiovascular fitness, from decades of sitting down. It'll go swimmingly!
This reset just impoverishes everybody including those pushing it. Maybe they are Lovecraftian monsters that feed off mass pain.
I wish my AI would tell me when I'm going in the wrong direction, instead of just placating my stupid request over and over until I realize.. even though it probably could have suggested a smarter direction, but instead just told me "Great idea! "
I don't know if you have used 2.5, but it is the first model to disagree with directions I have provided...
"..the user suggests using XYZ to move forward, but that would be rather inefficient, perhaps the user is not totally aware of the characteristics of XYZ. We should suggest moving forward with ABC and explain why it is the better choice..."
Have you noticed the most recent one, gemini-2.5-pro-0506, suddenly being a lot more sycophantic than gemini-2.5-pro-0325? I was using it to beta-read and improve a story (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43998269), and when Google flipped the switch, suddenly 2.5 was burbling to me about how wonderful and rich it was and a smashing literary success and I could've sworn I was suddenly reading 4o output. Disconcerting. And the AI Studio web interface doesn't seem to let you switch back to -0325, either... (Admittedly, it's free.)
It really gave me a lot of push back once when I wanted to use a js library over a python one for a particular project. Like I gave it my demo code in js and it basically said, "meh, cute but use this python one because ...reasons..."
Wow, you can now pay to have „engineers” being overruled by artificial „intelligence”? People who have no idea are now going to be corrected by an LLM which has no idea by design. Look, even if it gets a lot of things right it’s still trickery.
I get popcorn and wait for more work coming my way 5 years down the road. Someone will have tidy this mess up and gen-covid will have lost all ability to think on their own by then.
One trick I found is to tell the llm that an llm wrote the code, whether it did or not. The machine doesn't want to hurt your feelings, but loves to tear apart code it thinks it might've wrote.
I like just responding with "are you sure?" continuously. at some point you'll find it gets stuck in a local minima/maxima, and start oscillating. Then I backtrack and look at where it wound up before that. Then I take that solution and go to a fresh session.
Except they have no concept of what "right" is, whereas I do. Once it seems to gotten itself stuck in left field I go back a few iterations and see where it was.
It's completely broken for me over 400 lines (Claude 3.7, paid Cursor)
The worst is when I ask something complex, the model generates 300 lines of good code and then timeouts or crashes. If I ask to continue it will mess up the code for good, eg. starts generating duplicated code or functions which don't match the rest of the code.
It's a new skill that takes time to learn. When I started on gpt3.5 it took me easily 6 months of daily use before I was making real progress with it.
I regularly generate and run in the 600-1000LOC range.
Not sure you would call it "vibe coding" though as the details and info you provide it and how you provide it is not simple.
I'd say realistically it speeds me up 10x on fresh greenfield projects and maybe 2x on mature systems.
You should be reading the code coming out. The real way to prevent errors is read the resoning and logic. The moment you see a mistep go back and try the prompt again. If that fails try a new session entirely.
Test time compute models like o1-pro or the older o1-preview are massively better at not putting errors in your code.
Not sure about the new claude method but true, slow test time models are MASSIVELY better at coding.
The “go back and try the prompt again” is the workflow I’d like to see a UX improvement on. Outside of the vibe coding “accept all” path, reverse traversing is a fairly manual process.
Having full control over inputs and if something goes wrong starting a new chat with either narrower scope or clearer instructions is basically AGI level work.
There is nobody but a human for now that can determine how bad an LLM actually screwed up its logic train.
But maybe you mean pure UI?
I could forsee something like a new context creation button that gives a nice UI of what to bring over and what to ditch from the UI as pretty nice.
Maybe like a git diff looking method? Drop this paragraph bring this function by just simple clicks would be pretty slick!
I deffinetly see a future of better cross chat context connections and information being powerful. Basically git but for every conversation and cpde generated for a project.
Would be crazy hard but also crazy powerful.
If my startups blows up I might try something like that!
Definitely a new skill to learn. Everyone I know that is having problems is just telling it what to do, not coaching it. It is not an automaton... instructions in code out. Treat it like a team member that will do the work if you teach it right and you will have much more success.
Sounds interesting, I'll give it a look. I'm unfortunately limited to CSV, XML, or XLS from the source system, then am transforming it and loading it into another DB.
There are consultants who bring real value. They’re experts at the top of their fields, offering skills not available in-house. They help upskill staff, deliver results, and provide knowledge transfer that has long-term benefits. Those people deserve to be paid well for what they bring.
But too often, consultants are brought in to do work that existing staff could already handle or to maintain systems that should’ve been fixed years ago. It’s not always outright corruption, but it props up managers who rely on outside help to get by. And many of these consultants aren’t adding value — they’re just billing for work that could be automated or easily solved.
One example involved consultants paid to babysit an outdated system. It was generating massive reports, and instead of fixing the root issue, someone had to manually delete files every few hours. Thousands per week were spent when a simple script or hardware upgrade could have fixed it. It’s wasteful and completely unnecessary.
This isn’t rare. It’s everywhere. And while it’s not always illegal, it’s driven by self-interest, favoritism, and comfort. That’s where the real waste is, and that’s where the cuts should happen.
Consulting used to be about value. It was a profession grounded in skill, purpose, and a drive to contribute. Now, it’s often about milking the system. People leave the public service knowing they can return as consultants and get paid two or three times as much, just because of who they know.
We’ve replaced public service and merit with opportunism. Instead of building better systems and serving the country, we’re incentivizing people to exploit it. And the worst part is, it’s become normal. But it shouldn’t be. This is structural corruption — accepted, embedded, and everywhere.
My take on all this is that everyone seems focused on the U.S. dollar’s dominance, the empire, trade deficits, and exchange rates. And sure, there’s some validity to that, but the real issue, or really the real goal, is getting people back to work.
You might not see it, and maybe I don’t fully see it either, but as office workers, bureaucrats, and technologists staring at screens all day, we’ve lost sight of the fact that America no longer produces like it used to. Yes, there are still people out there working with their hands, feeding the country, and running small industries. But broadly speaking, the U.S. relies heavily on other countries for complex manufacturing — for actual building. Shipbuilding is just one obvious example. A lot of critical industries have withered to the point where they can't even meet domestic demand, let alone compete globally. Meanwhile, other countries are pushing forward in tech, producing better, more efficient, more productive products — and pulling ahead.
It’s not happening all at once. It’s a slow decay. Generational knowledge industrial skills, trades, machinists are all fading. And when those go, the backbone of resilience and self-sufficiency starts to collapse. A nation that can’t produce can’t stand. Export power becomes a dream.
And I think part of the issue is that we’ve become lazy. People don’t want to work anymore — they want things handed to them. Entitlements, bonuses, luxury homes, multiple cars, the works. But someone has to build all that. Someone has to maintain the food supply. Someone has to assemble the vehicles. Someone has to keep production alive. Yes, technology can help fill gaps, and we’ve done amazing things — and still do — but America’s edge in tech? That’s slipping away. China has surpassed the U.S. in key areas of advanced technologies, auto manufacturing, aerospace, and absolutely obliterating in shipbuilding. U.S. industry? Ashes in many places.
So what’s the answer? Unfortunately, hardship. Nobody likes to say it, but raising prices and tightening the belt forces people to make hard choices. And when that happens, the jobs that matter won’t be office jobs or desk jobs — they’ll be builders, machinists, welders, factory workers. Producers. And those jobs will start commanding the wages. People who’ve been unemployed or living on subsidies will be pushed — or pulled — back into that kind of work. Slowly, painfully, maybe, but steadily. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll rebuild that base. Maybe industry will return. Maybe factories and production will grow again.
That’s the end goal here; even if we don’t like how it’s being done. Even if it’s painful. Even if it doesn’t work the way it’s intended. Because maybe we’re not as strong as we think we are. Maybe we fail. It’s happened before — look at the USSR collapse. It was a fake economy built on fake production and apathy. They endured 20 years of hardship, and they’re still trying to catch up.
So yeah, that’s where I think we’re headed. Is Trump the guy to do it? He’s doing it. Someone had to. Is it the right way? I don’t know. Is it going to work? No clue. Will we succeed? Who knows. Or maybe we just keep punting the problem further down the road; business as usual — until it breaks completely.
But either way, the path forward is either a slow crumble followed by a rebuild, or a brutal reset with the hope of rebuilding something stronger on the other side.
Not one single job was moved offshore by a foreign country. Every single one was moved offshore by an American business looking to reduce costs and increase the quarterly bottom line.
Now they're run out of jobs to move offshore and they're looking to the government for the next handout. This time, it's by adding a new tax on Americans on what they buy from overseas.
The people to blame for the economic problems are rich Americans, and the solution is to increase taxes on poor Americans, but the story is that the problem is foreign devils and the solution is to make them pay. The misdirection is working and the magic trick is successful.
> Not one single job was moved offshore by a foreign country. Every single one was moved offshore by an American business looking to reduce costs and increase the quarterly bottom line.
That’s something I haven’t thought about. Is there a 25% tariff on importing knowledge work? In the consulting world that would make onshore teams more competitive. Well you’d need about a 500% tariff to make it close.
> Every single one was moved offshore by an American business looking to reduce costs and increase the quarterly bottom line.
> This time, it's by adding a new tax on Americans on what they buy from overseas.
If adding/increasing tax on product oversees increases the costs of said products, wouldn't American business look to reduce cost by moving back to America?
If I understand correctly that's what Trump is trying to do.
Yes, this is the theory. Also to return manufacturing to the US, for jobs but also for national security. If a major war breaks out, which is more likely than in the past 2 decades, we can't effectively fight without a strong manufacturing base.
US businesses who offshored all the US manufacturing jobs now have their day of reckoning. The government can't really say, "move your jobs back," without some sort of constitutional change, they can only incentivize businesses do so, ergo tariffs on offshore labor / goods.
"A nation that can’t produce [physical goods] can’t stand."
Based on what evidence?
"And I think part of the issue is that we’ve become lazy. People don’t want to work anymore"
Americans work more hours per week than a majority of countries. Low-paying factory jobs are off-shored because they're low-paying.
"So what’s the answer? Unfortunately, hardship."
You probably should do more research on the subject, and successful onshoring regimes that have been implemented by other countries. If you, for e.g., determine that America needs to produce a certain quantity of semi-conductors to insulate from various natsec risks, there are ways to tackle that problem and usually they don't involve hoping an onshore industry magically appears because you've haphazardly shivved trade across the board.
> And I think part of the issue is that we’ve become lazy. People don’t want to work anymore — they want things handed to them. Entitlements, bonuses, luxury homes, multiple cars, the works. But someone has to build all that. Someone has to maintain the food supply. Someone has to assemble the vehicles. Someone has to keep production alive. Yes, technology can help fill gaps, and we’ve done amazing things — and still do — but America’s edge in tech? That’s slipping away. China has surpassed the U.S. in key areas of advanced technologies, auto manufacturing, aerospace, and absolutely obliterating in shipbuilding. U.S. industry? Ashes in many places.
It has nothing to do with "people being lazy" and everything to do with poorly-run companies combined with globalization.
This started in the 70s/80s with American auto manufacturers. The Japanese cars were much more fuel efficient and a much more robust build. The line worker wasn't responsible for that, management is.
Then the global free trade / NAFTA in the 90s. Ross Perot was as popular as he was, because a big segment of the US population saw this coming.
That all seems built on some romantic notion that a job making physical objects ("working with their hands") is fundamentally better than a job providing a service ("staring at screens"). But it's not obvious there is a lot of factual support for the idea, either on the level of individual jobs or the economy as a whole. You could certainly use protectionist barriers or subsidies to try to force industries like ship building back to the US, but would the US really be economically better off overall if you did so?
That said, it's really irrelevant since Trump's current approach isn't looking to support specific industries or outcomes, it's just across the board tariffs on everything. We're not just going to have to build our own ships or cars, but grow our own coffee and bananas. Targeted, strategic tariffs and subsidies on the industries we want to support could be arguable, but this is not that.
The US can use internal policies to support the industries and skills you mentioned. Tariffs as implemented, and greatly damaging longstanding relationships with allies, will have the opposite effect. The existing lead in services will be lost, consumption will drop, and the increase in production of goods due to tariffs won't offset it. I would recommend you read the outcome of the Smoot Hawley tariffs.
I hate this mindset that Americans are lazy, they are usually some of the hardest working people in the globe. The wealthy are greedy, and wealth and power continue to concentrate at the top while infrastructure, working conditions and public services crumble. I don't fault anyone for not wanting to contribute to that, quite the opposite. I don't see how the jobs you mentioned are going to start commanding better wages when everyone has to rush to do them because there are no more options.
It kinda just depends on the agenda, one source says it’s nothing, another says it’s a trillion, and that huge gap usually means someone’s trying to push something, like tougher laws or justify some policy shift. Half the time it feels like the facts don’t even matter, just the story they wanna sell.
Half is being generous. Too much damn policy takes the form: I want policy action X for reason A, but people would be pissed if I said that's why, so I worked backwards to fabricate problem B which I will pretend to be deeply passionate about and plausibly has solution X.
It's god damn maddening. At least one side effect of the new GOP is they're partially dropping the pretense of needing B so we can at least not talk past one another sometimes.
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