Now we're talking about the features of paradigm shift: crisis, incommensurability (new paradigm isn't just a better version of the old, it requires a new language). How can we map this onto software dev changes? Think about "normal science" and "anomalies"--social change takes years and decades
Trying to describe the behavior of probabilistic systems in the terms of the old language is continually failing... The mental objects developers need here are complex and different. Another shout out to identity crisis! "We need to know how to research it"
Now we're diving into the history of psychologists thinking about mental schemas and representations! It's so fun to see some psych in this space :)
This is getting to be too much mental systems ideas for me to post but I like this idea that we really need to think about the types of mental models we have for how these systems perform and that these old assumptions are where we're seeing breakdown. This is a social and learning challenge
"we lack the mental models to simulate the systems we have already deployed" phew
Soooooo interesting to see on her research once again that developers are seeking to use AI TO LEARN! No one believes us but the developers themselves! This is not a brainrot story.
Hearing now about SAP's DevEx approach -- huge program including 20k users of Claude who aren't in engineering at all. Some interesting data suggesting that managers using AI strongly predicts more team usage of it (wish there were a specific process investigated here though, that could be confounded with a lot of things)
@grimalkina so interesting!! What are they using it to learn?
@minmi navigating existing codebases, trying new languages, trying to gather examples of types of solutions to learn from, basically personalized learning in the context of the codebases
@grimalkina cool!!
@grimalkina Generations. Some concepts are simply out of reach for people who are a lifetime deep into certain belief structures. I’m thinking about how I tried to explain and teach my Dad (WWII gen) about the computer “mouse.” He kept picking it up and holding it against the screen, like a (laser) pointer. The idea that it could move in a totally different geometric plane was beyond his ken.
@grimalkina Is it just... being assumed that the paradigm shift is going in the direction the industry wants it to?
Like - a lot of the response is opposing, whatever the tech side looks like when the dust settles is still very unclear; how do you even determine *which* paradigm shift are the ones that need to be focused on, and which are just symptoms of some of the other changes happening?
@miss_rodent I don't think that's being assumed, it hasn't been stated. paradigm shift isn't necessarily good or bad in a values sense, it's just a description
@miss_rodent for instance even if you wanted to say ai in software dev is bad you still need correct mental models to think about what it is doing
@grimalkina No, good or bad doesn't matter - my point is, where the narrative is focused, seems to consistently assume "AI" in somethign similar to the current trend will persist - while the actual shift could be to that, or something unrecognizable, or something unrelated, or something with similarities and significant differences - mid-paradigm shift is a volatile state; How do you address the *range* of possible outcomes, which may require a range of differing mental models to navigate