Ask HN: Do you cuss at your agent?

2 pointsposted 12 hours ago
by ak39

Item id: 49837715

9 Comments

joegibbs

11 hours ago

Yes, but hardly ever at Astra, because it usually gets the job done. Definitely at worse models when you give them very clear instructions and goals to follow and they respond telling you that the job has been completed perfectly, verified byte-identical, all tests pass, etc etc and you look at it and it’s a pile of garbage.

montroser

11 hours ago

I do very sparingly, same as with humans.

I also give them praise, and sometimes give them pep talks. Like, hey, I know you can do this. Stop asking me for feedback, make good decisions, and let me know when you're done.

apothegm

11 hours ago

Fuck yes, I do. Not the most effective way to get things done, but a bit cathartic. And no, the stochastic parrot does not have emotions. And yes, it sometimes does worse after being cursed at, but you’re generally better off forking/rolling back the convo to a point before it screwed up anyway. And other times strong language manages to provide the emphasis you need to get it to actually pay attention.

Anyway, why are you ashamed of it?

ak39

10 hours ago

I felt ashamed because it fooled me into believing it had feelings like a living thing.

apothegm

9 hours ago

Ah.

I feel free to curse at it precisely because I’m confident it doesn’t have feelings, and it’s like swearing out loud at an inanimate object like when a shoddy screwdriver breaks, or strips a screw, or whatever.

JojoFatsani

11 hours ago

Don’t blame the agent for not giving it the right requirements and skills to accomplish a task.

montroser

11 hours ago

Sometimes upstream providers swap in lobotomized aggressive quants in order to shed load or cut costs. In that case the user is not to blame. And the agent is not so much to blame, either. Same as how you wouldn't blame a child for crashing a car.

It's the fucking provider who took your dollars and handed you back a shit sandwich in return.