What AI developers could learn from Charles Bukowski?

A blog post draws parallels between Charles Bukowski's approach to writer's block and the need for AI developers to prioritize quality over quantity, citing Bukowski's poems 'the block' and 'the trash can' to argue against the Silicon Valley obsession with overwork and the rush to ship code. The author references a discussion between Jaron Lanier and Neil deGrasse Tyson, where Tyson suggests AI could have freed him to spend more time on the beach, yet observes that tech workers instead embrace 996 schedules and high PR volumes.

What AI developers could learn from Charles Bukowski? Published:Allow me to jump straight in: now I have become spoiled, I walked into here tonight expecting more luck but the night has been slow. and rightfully so— occurrence must precede action, the tank must refill./…/ when the lulls arrive there is nothing to do but wait, do other things./…/ there are other things to do. like now I am going downstairs to see my wife and my 6 cats/…/ it will be all right. I’m sure it will.they might even remember me. – an excerpt from the "block" by Charles Bukowski. Charles is describing a writers block. Then he's being wise and self-conscious about it and instead of forcing himself to write more slop or ill words in his world he stands up, moves away from his ~~computer~~ notebook and goes downstairs to his wife and 6 cats. He knows this block is temporal and things will – presumably soon – be all right. Actually, he's sure of that. So why do we, developers supercharged with AI tools, have a sudden urge to spend more time building software than ever? Silicon valley, since its inception, has been obsessed with working crazy hours, or at least that's what successful folks in their autobiographies told us. Charles knew that more output does not equal quality output. Even before the AI, he was okay to throw away work that didn't cut the mustard 👇🏻 the trash can this is great, I just wrote two poems I didn't like. there is a trash can on this computer. I just moved the poems over and dropped them into the trash can. /…/ it's always better to reject yourself before the editors do. /…/ – an excerpt from "the trash can" by Charles Bukowski. In a recent discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a ZKYH8v do between Jaron Lanier that geeky dreadlocks scientist who also makes music and Neil deGrasse Tyson that geeky astrophysicist who wrote a book on that subject for normal people that I still didn't understand , Neil said that he has written around 50,000 lines of code – and spent awful lot of time doing so – which AI models today produce in seconds. Then he said: If I had access to AI back then, I'd probably just spendmore time on the beach. Preach on But… how come we don't see this happening? Why aren't tech folks sipping tequilas on the beach? Why are we instead witnessing a 996 phenomenon. Why is there a sudden urge to ship 4,500 PRs per day? How many of those PRs have improved anything for our users to those lucky enough to have users or solve "a" problem actual people – not personas – verbally said they have? Would we be more creative if we wandered off to listen to people about ideas we're trying to build? But maybe the fact that Bukowski turned his inability to write into a poem about his inability to write, and wrote "the trash can" about poems he deleted… Maybe that's enough to give us all a FOMO, so I'm off vibe-coding my next zero-time Pulitzer Prize winning startup. PS: If you enjoyed this read, here's part 2: What AI developers could learn from Ernest Hemingway? https://galjot.si/what-ai-developers-could-learn-from-ernest-hemingway If you enjoyed the "block" or "the trash can", consider buying Betting on the Muse https://www.amazon.com/Betting-Muse-Stories-Charles-Bukowski-ebook/dp/B000SG19BK , a collection of poetry and short stories by Charles Bukowski. blog comments powered by Disqus //disqus.com