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Oh I've always thought people like SUVs just because they want a bigger and pricier toy than the other guy. Is it not so?

> isn't just a marketing delusion, but subjective joy

What is the difference? When a product is being marketed, isn't the subjective joy created by the marketing?

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Attributing all joy and personal preference people experience to marketing influence is a pretty cynical take, and also a pretty inaccurate and overly simplistic one: Some people might never be reached by a marketing effort, yet buy a specific car because they remember a childhood story, or like pronounced rounded shapes, or because the interior design appeals to their sense of fashion.

Or more specifically, for the case of coding agent harnesses, where many developers have experimented with a wide range of tools - someone might just favour the interactions with a specific one from their personal experience. Entirely unrelated to marketing.

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Yes, of course not all personal preference is caused by marketing, but much of it is. Actual personal preference is whether you prefer running or cycling, the marketing part is which running shoes or which bike you buy.

> or because the interior design appeals to their sense of fashion.

Surely you'll grant me that the sense of fashion is mostly marketing in sheep's clothes?

Yes, I'll grant you that the choice of a coding agent harness is influenced by marketing to a much lesser degree than eg cars. I still think Anthropic does marketing way better than OpenAI!

[Edit:] I use the pi.dev agent. I was heavily influenced by its marketing: minimal and mit-licensed and espoused by the HN crowd. Do you think I read the source code and made an actual informed decision? Nah...

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Luxury cars are indeed a good comparison. The subjective joy is a result of the delusion. That is why so much money is spent on such marketing to begin with. The analogous comparison would be if a blindfolded passenger turned out to prefer the Sienna to the 911.
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I suspect a blindfolded passenger might prefer the Sienna. I can imagine it might be easier to get carsick blindfolded in a 911.

But also, as a driver, there is a clear difference between a Sienna and a 911. The differences are objective, but of course the preferences are subjective.

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I would actually say it is a luxury car where you have your personal driver and you are free to work on other tasks, and it gets you faster to the destination. Time to me is at least the most valuable thing.
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I hope you can one day grow to understand that other people have preferences that are different to your own.
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> The subjective joy is a result of the delusion.

Repeat after me:

_Other people can experience things you do not experience and it is still valid, and not a delusion_. They are not sheeple who fell for marketing.

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I understand that's your opinion, but don't feel any inclination to repeat that.

Sure, the subjective joy is valid, and yet it was 100% induced by marketing.

> They are not sheeple who fell for marketing.

People generally fall for marketing. Why do you think these specific people didn't?

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Imagine you try two products you’ve never heard of. You prefer one over the other. Was it marketing? That’s what’s happening here. Marketing can get you to try something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and it may suggest benefits you’d get if you tried it, but your preference of using one thing or the other is a subjective experience of your own.
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> Imagine you try two products you’ve never heard of. You prefer one over the other. Was it marketing?

No, obviously not.

> That’s what’s happening here.

No, that's not what's happening here.

> Marketing can get you to try something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and it may suggest benefits you’d get if you tried it, but your preference of using one thing or the other is a subjective experience of your own.

Marketing can very much shape your preferences and create wishes you didn't have before. That's why companies invest so much money in marketing.

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this site is reddit 2.0
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