Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
What employees have you fired so far?
In Zvi's recent post, I noticed an interesting pairing of two things:
and:
It was a bit stark, because getting a pretty good answer, vastly better than you could otherwise get without a real estate professional, would seem to cost ~$0, when the professional apparently costs something like $36,000 and up. So why not fire the real estate agent?
There could be a variety of reasons involving the nature of the work, regulatory barriers, etc., but one thing that comes to mind is that Zvi has paid for a real estate agent before and is consciously thinking about what that situation is like when thinking about whether he would hire again. Whereas, I doubt he's hired a radiologist before and is probably not in a situation where he's thinking super seriously about the considerations that would be involved if he had a need for such a service.
This leads me to ask, "Which employees have you fired?" In this case, "employees" can be read broadly, covering folks like real estate agents/radiologists, who you may procure services from on occasion, in addition to actual employment relations if you're a manager/business owner. But I want to particularly hone in on examples where you have paid a human for a particular service in the past and have subsequently encountered a nearly-identical need, but have chosen to not pay a human now for the service.
This question is in significant part simply selfish. I might be missing some aspect in my life where I can save a bunch of money. That would be cool, and I'd like to do that if I can.
I use an LLM before every doctor's visit to get myself familiar with the issue so that I know what exactly to talk about to my doctor. Based on my experience, as long as it's not urgent care or a serious issue, an average (specialized) doctor's visit lasts about 7-10 minutes, where most of the time is you answering some questions for the nurse. Then the main doctor comes in for 2-3 minutes and that's it, here's your $200-400 bill. So, to get any real help, I need to come in with a clear understanding of what my issue is and what type of treatment I'm seeking, that way I can direct the conversation and get actual help. One time I was vindicated with my approach when I was about to be prescribed a drug with a common side effect of drying out meibomian glands (eyes), which would've definitely left me with permanent damage and lifelong pain had I not researched my issue, learned that this drug is a common solution to it and that this was it's main side effect beforehand. I had a laser eye correction surgery few months prior, and FDA has an advisory notice to not take this drug for at least 6 months before/after laser eye surgery. The doctor was dumbfounded when I told her about it, genuinely seemed like it was her first time hearing of this. A LLM didn't have access to my full medical history, so it didn't directly bring this up either, but I was able to connect the dots and research further once I learned that one of the side effects had to do with drying out your eyes. I think you could easily replace large chunk of all doctor visits with an LLM and get comparable, perhaps even better level of care. But I doubt it ever happens, healthcare is a big pie and beneficiaries will fight to keep it as is.
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