[lomase]

So your big advantage is that nobody has lauched agentic tools for the end user yet?

[simonw]

Anyone can learn to unblock a sink by watching YouTube videos these days, and yet most people still hire a professional to do it for them.

I don't think end users want to "optimize their PostgreSQL servers" even if they DID know that's a thing they can do. They want to hire experts who know how to make "that tech stuff" work.

[lomase]

I agree that people like to hire profesionals. That is why I hire db experts to work on our infra, not prompt engenieers.

Saying that anybody can learn to unblock a sink by watching youtube is your tipical HN mentality of stating opinons as facts.

[simonw]

"Saying that anybody can learn to unblock a sink by watching youtube is your tipical HN mentality of stating opinons as facts."

I don't understand what you mean. Are you saying that it's not true that anyone could learn to unblock a sink by watching YouTube videos?

[lomase]

Yes I do think not all people could fix it with Youtube. My grandma couldn't for example. I had a neigbor come for help with something like that too.

Is not that hard to understan mate. Maybe put my comment in the LLM so you can get it.

What is your point again?

[simonw]

My analogy holds up. Anyone could type "optimize my PostgreSQL database by editing the configuration file" into an LLM, but most people won't - same as most people won't watch YouTube to figure out how to unblock a sink.

If you don't like the sink analogy what analogy would you use instead for this? I'm confident there's a "people could learn X from YouTube but chose to pay someone else instead" that's more effective than the sink one.

[ezekiel68]

You're exactly right (original commenter here). I began my career in professional software engineering in 1998. I've despaired that trained monkeys could probably wreck this part of the economy for over 25 years. But we're still here. :D

[simonw]

Personally I'd like to hire a DB expert who also knows how to drive an agentic coding system to help them accelerate their work. AI tools, used correctly, act as an amplifier of existing knowledge and experience.

[lomase]

As far as I know nobody has really came up with proof that LLMs act as an amplifier of existing knoledge.

It does make people FEEL more productive.

[simonw]

What would a "proof" of that even look like?

There are thousands (probably millions) of us walking around with anecdotal personal evidence at this point.

[lomase]

Some years ago when everybody here gave their anecdotal evidence about how Bitcoin and Blockchain were the future and they used it every day. You were a fool if you did not jump on the bandwagon.

If the personal opinions on this site were true, half of the code in the world would be functional, lisp would be one of the languages most used and Microsoft would have not bougth DropBox.

I really think HN hive minds opinions means nothing. Too much money here to be real.

[cdelsolar]

you can become a db expert with the right prompts

[lomase]

You can learn how to pour a drink in 1 minute, that is why most bartenders earn minimum wage.

You can't become a db expert with a promt.

I hope you make a lot of money with your lies and good luck.

[simonw]

You can become a DB expert by reading books, forums and practicing hard.

These days you can replace those books and forums with a top tier LLM, but you still need to put in the practice yourself. Even with AI assistance that's still a lot of work.

[lomase]

You could not replace good books with Intenert and you can't replace good books with a any LLM.

You can replace books with your own time and research.

Again making statements that are just not true. Typical HN behavior.