Prompting is not a “skill.” It is simply a usability burden until better alternatives come along.

It’s funny because what are the alternatives… when we want ppl to do something visual for us we describe it and also ‘show’ them (could be an image or a drawing we made)

and when we want someone to make some music we hum the melody or scat the drum beat (as a former musician this was normal)

What about speaking? The oldest user interface.

Well we never fully relied on speech alone. Think about human history. Face to face communication was the majority of the interface we had. And that includes facial expressions, visuals, and body language all working in concert.

These are for human-to-human communication. First time in personal computer history we can get rid off screens thanks to speaking interface. We can have real accessibility. Imagine a computer disabled people, babies, dogs and cats can interact with. I’m keen to talk to AI tbh.

Love the discussion here. It is super interesting how computer interfaces evolved over time. I had a blast reading this book on that subject. Spoiler alert, the punch cards were the first, if you don't count wiring copper together.

The book is The Dream Machine press.stripe.com/the-dream-mach… Sorry I forgot to hit paste. :)

Stripe Press — The Dream Machine

A biography of J. C. R. Licklider, the psychologist and scientist who inspired the work that led to the internet, and shifted our understanding of what computers could be.

press.stripe.com

Instant buy, thanks for sharing 🙏🏻

Totally valid points. I’m looking at the current state of affairs and seeing the disproportionate amount of attention given to prompting as a skill. I think there are far better interfaces to Gen AI which are yet to come and the people who will create them are in this community.