A Lot of Splendid Nonsense

It does seem like the way through, is through. We need to get past the hype curve, and reify these potentialities into actualities. The vibe code projects of today will be barely remembered a year from now! Heck, the first websites were about nothing special and resulted in nothing of note. Except that one that sold Pez dispensers.

But human creativity is like warm water poured on top of a cubic foot of clear Jell-O. Stick with me. At first it just makes a pointless puddle on top, spreading out in all directions. But then it starts to cut channels. The water starts to gather in those channels, widening them, reinforcing those interesting paths that actually get somewhere. We’re at that moment with AI where the warm water has hit the Jell-O, is spreading out, is finding its paths.

(Let’s hope that’s my least-tortured metaphor for today.)

As with the early web, there seems to be a stiff-minded insistence that this welter of possibilities should self-reify into a recipe list that we can confidently choose from and reap predictable ROIs. And while the enthusiasts enthuse about clever approaches and celebrate each others’ incremental ideas and insights, the critics will complain that none of this means anything because, c’mon…it’s just amateurs wasting time.

But like the early web, we’re going to create a lot of splendid nonsense first. We have to, to see where this stuff goes.

So let’s get to it.