ColdCard fiasco, as seen by a programmer with around 50 years experience.

I absolutely agree. The issue is mostly unskilled people who attempt to do what skilled people do except they do not possess the discipline, curiosity, patience, and cognitive capacity to actually learn. It is what annoys me by far the most in today's era. Too many retards who are fundamentally mediocre and below average, or have no knowledge whatsoever and yet claim with utmost confidence that they know what they're doing. All they do is take shortcuts every step of the way instead of doing that which is inconvenient, but necessary, in order to actually become good at something and understand it. We are seeing the exact same phenomenon occurring in the Monero community with too many users vibe coding AI slop and services not lasting more than a few months. AI is useful, if used in certain ways, but it also enables spoon–feeding on every level. Before AI, you had users on stackoverflow holding people accountable at least to some degree by discouraging it, but in the present day era, AI just gives users what they want at any time. It's like a parent just giving their young child candy whenever the child wants it. The child learns absolutely nothing and just becomes more and more entitled as everything is just handed to it.

As a community, I think we should take a stand on vibe coded AI slop and begin to discourage it. There are times when it is useful when it is about saving time or automating processes, but it should not replace logic. In the end it's the logic that really matters and that requires critical thinking skills, precision, and experience, which is something AI simply can't do. Initiation, intent, and logic need to be handled by an experienced dev.

Given the logic behind AI, I like to visualize it in four quadrants. You have an axis labeled "precision" and an axis labeled "cost" with the latter including money, time, and other resources.

Low Precision / Low Cost: This is where AI excels. Precision isn't needed and the cost is lower than what it would otherwise be if you hired a person or did the job yourself. Examples include rapid prototyping, proof of concepts, branding for small business, generic stock photos, copy editing.
Low Precision / High Cost: Some things have a high cost associated with them, but don't require high precision. A good example would be actual art, not the generic shit. It's not precise and doesn't have to be, but it costs a lot of time to produce. Using AI, you would have to roll the dice over and over again until you finally get what you want and even then it can be a long shot. At this point, you are better off just doing it yourself or having another human do it. AI can assist at times with ideation or retouching, but it can't complete the work in its entirety.
High Precision / Low Cost: Some thing are simple, such as looking up drug dosages and yet precision is required. AI being prone to mistakes can easily mess up the dosage, which could be fatal. AI can be useful here as an aid, but that's about it. Experience and education are absolutely needed and proper data management isn't optional.
High Precision / High Cost: This is where the money is, especially in fields like engineering, security, and the sciences where precision is extremely important and the cost is high. Unfortunately, this is where AI is not only not useful, but counterproductive and will create severe risks of its own.

Or summarized:
Low Precision / Low Cost: Significant use cases for AI
Low Precision / High Cost: Some use cases for AI
High Precision / Low Cost: Some uses cases for AI
High Precision / High Cost: No use cases for AI

@Yuzuki Agree on that. AI should be use minimally in the low risk sector. This is how I see it, whatever you're doing that make you have value must not be replaced by AI.

This mean if you are a writer, you must never use AI to write content for you.
If you are an artist, you must not use AI to draw art for you.
If you're a singer, you must not use AI to sing for you.

But that AI can be used to complement your skill. Lets say you're an artist but you don't know shit about copywriting to attract customer, then you can use AI to help you promote your art. If you're a writer and can't draw good enough to make a cover for your article then you can utilize AI to help you cover your weakest link.

@nemesis Holy shit I don't got 50 years experience BREATHING. The blog seems very interesting.

@Yuzuki
No way I use ai for everything I do from growing weed to cooking to programming to art to bitcoin cold storage (lol) to making basic decisions to making important decisions. There no problem as long as ai always assumes an intellectually subordinate role. Its no different to left brain right brain; you can use your left brain for everything you do, as long as it knows its place as the subordinate part. You are right though that many people fail this and think they're smart because they have an ai but are still as stupid as ever. That said I'd NEVER use ai for writing because if you can write the prompt you can write the damn piece. There is so much humanity subtly expressed through writing that shouldn't be thrown away.

@nemesis
My two take aways from this whole thing:

• Relying on brand new and unneccesary (redundant) security products is painting a target on your head.
• Your seed phrase is only as secure as the randomness used to generate it.

@Nebuchadnezzar_II

Your seed phrase is only as secure as the randomness used to generate it.
The seed phrase alone gives away nothing.

@NickZ2
'The seed phrase alone gives away nothing.'
Sorry bro you'll have to explain that. What do you mean?

@Nebuchadnezzar_II Dude knows his shit, whether tech related or as the blog is named, markets. He speaks harsh, but says what he means ans means what he says.

@Nebuchadnezzar_II true and true. When I first got into cryptos, I had considered a cold card. Then I watched a video on its use, and the thing was clearly a piece of garbage, the physical end of it. Looked like some $2 calculator made by child slaves in China so that alone was a red flag for me. I've done electronics and semi-conductor manufacturing for around 20 yrs, so let's just say I know quality when I see it. So my thought was anything that sloppily made couldn't possibly be reliable. Never thought of something this bad though. I was just just concerned about it breaking in a week.

@Nebuchadnezzar_II if interested, he wrote a great book on the how and why of market crashes. If memory serves it was in response to the 08 crash mostly (been quite a few years since I read it), but touches on much much more.

Leverage: How Cheap Money Will Destroy the World
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/leverage_karl-denninger/701138/?resultid=452879bc-fd37-4025-9f6e-42a3dceb8f24#edition=7370283&idiq=7074401

@nemesis Thankyou, it looks interesting and I'll add it to my list. Maybe it will be a wakeup call for me because I had assumed gold would be a safe haven in a deleveraging. I'm reading Moby Dick at the moment which is a funny read in the context of crypto.