slightly off topic, but we need to be clear that certain harder drugs -- the ones most likely to kill you -- can absolutely change people
But if you're an asshole on the inside but it never comes out, are you really one? This is a pretty dangerous trap. Compare abusive situations where someone needles someone else for ages until they've had enough and the target gets angry. What would be a good response? "I'm sorry I made you angry" or "I knew you were really like this all along!"
(there is no correct answer by the way, it depends on many factors and relationships can't be abstracted away that easily, let alone by an external person on the internet who hears only one side of the story)
Anyway, if Hitler was Hitler but had filters so he never actually said what was really on his mind, we wouldn't have had WW2 and co. In theory.
Confidence isn't a very good indicator of skills though
I've met a ton of high confidence people who are actually dogshit at what they do. Confidently incompetent is a dangerous mix and this is the sort of person I see amplifying themselves with AI the most.
It turns out that software engineering in large organizations is a process greatly influenced by human psychology.
Also, "confidence w/o ability" is the core of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You have to know a fair amount to understand how shit you are at things.
I agree with you. That's why everything is shit!
I said to a guy, "Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful," and he said, "Because it intensifies your personality." I said, "Yes, but what if you're an asshole?"
I've noticed the same thing about agentic coding. Not really the agents, but the way people responded to agents. If you were the kind of coder who was a little unsure of yourself, agents made you more unsure of yourself. If you were confident with your abilities, you were more confident.
By the transitive nature of HN comments, we can therefore conclude that LLM coding agents are drugs.
I am now wondering if there's a conversation to be had about Dunning-Kruger and Impostor Syndrome. In the modern agentic era, is it better to hire people who know less than experts, though clearly somewhere above complete novice? Perhaps this is why I find it difficult to find a job. Perhaps I am "overfit" to the world before descriptive ambiguity was an advantage?
I am reminded of the words of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs: "act like a dumb-sh*t and they'll treat you like an equal."
Anyway... yes... I agree with @freefaler on this one. AI is a qualia amplifier.