[thoughtpeddler]

I hear you, but I don't understand the logic. If you were wealthy enough to have an executive assistant or a chief of staff who handled most of your email and admin on your behalf, is your instinct to say, "I will still write my own emails because I don't want that skill to atrophy?" No. It's simply not high-value work. I'd assume you rather do something else.

You don't see the ultra-wealthy say "Oh no! Not my ability to still do 'architecture, database, coding, testing' on my own!" They just move further and further up the stack.

And I think this is a useful frame for everyone else: just move further up the stack.

Again, I hear you. As a fellow nerd, I love all of these activities too. Computers can be really fun, endlessly fulfilling, truly. But I have the awareness to say to myself, "Ya, but seems like that may have been a temporary phenomenon ... of getting to control and master these machines, just like I don't really crave to hack away at stone tools anymore, because that's not the time period I was born in."

[vivzkestrel]

except you got one part of that wrong. Most beginners are trying to generate entire UI, API, design, database schemas, and god knows what else with AI. the concept of the so called marginal AI user simply doesn't exist and you know it

[thoughtpeddler]

I think that's a passing artifact of the current phase of AI development we find ourselves in. Capabilities (note how I'm not saying 'model intelligence', as I think various agentic flows and robust scaffolding/harnesses can lead to capabilities growth that goes beyond model intelligence plateauing) will continue to improve such that 'beginners' will gain greater and greater leverage.

If by 'marginal AI user' you mean a user who leverages AI tools to enhance the marginal utility of their labor or tasks (by making them more productive or efficient, broadly defined), then I do think that user archetype definitely exists.