Death of Trust

Hardly a hot take, but I love working in high-trust environments. I think most people do. It's nice to be treated like an adult, to be trusted to do your job, and to be given the freedom to make decisions.

I want to live in a high-trust society. Unfortunately, experiences in various contexts have made me reflect about the importance of trust in our lives and how it can be eroded.

media

Much has been said about the state of mainstream media. I think it's fair to say that the media landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. The rise of algorithm-driven social media bubbles and the survival attempts by traditional journalism have led to a situation where misinformation and sensationalism are rampant.

While I feel that I am relatively media-literate, I am aware that I am not immune to the effects of this environment. I'm certainly in a bubble or two (or more)! So in general, I try to be skeptical of anything the internet.

Luckily, I can rely on real people with whom I interact in meatspace to be honest and trustworthy.

Right?

hoodwinked

Our roof had some damage from a storm. We called a local roofing company to come out and take a look. They sent someone out, who took a look at the roof, took some pictures and said he would send us a quote. Then he mentioned that he would be able to do the work that same day if we wanted. I was surprised, but said sure. I paid him.

He went up on the roof, did some work, and then came down to tell me that it was almost done - he just needed to get some more materials. He was to return the next morning to finish the job. Of course, he didn't. I called the company, who denied knowledge of the job. I was out the money, and had to get another company to come out and finish the job.

Naturally, I got an earful from my partner. This isn't how you deal with tradespeople. You don't pay them before the job is done. You don't trust them to do the work. You wait until the job is done, and then you pay them. Lessons to learn.

For me, I've lived my whole life with successful money-for-service exchanges. You say you're going to do something? Great! I'll pay you for it. I trust you to do the work.

It burned me this time.

And then again, and again. Reputable, licensed, insured tradespeople making mistakes at best, or being outright dishonest at worst. Checking in with someone just before they were about to cut a hole in a structural beam to feed a pipe through. Water filtration components being installed out of order. And so on.

In these cases, we were able to catch things that were at the limits of our knowledge. Hey, maybe you shouldn't cut that? Hey, I think that should be the other way around? But what about the things we don't know? What about the things that are outside of our expertise? It takes years of experience to become experts; I don't have time to master every trade... how am I going to keep up on the frontend-framework- or llm-du-jour? That's why I'm hiring someone!

Wait, LLMs you say? Hmmm...

AI

Problem solved. Just ask ChatGPT! It knows everything. Now I know exactly what to ask and how to stay on top of others' work. Except... two things:

1. I think few experts love having their work second-guessed by an overconfident client who doesn't really know what they're talking about. I imagine it is akin to a doctor dealing with someone who found their symtoms on WebMD.

2. Anecdotally, when I ask ChatGPT about something about which I know a lot, it often gets things wrong.

On the first point, I might just have to get used to being a squeaky wheel. I don't want to be a jerk, but I also don't want to be taken advantage of - and I want to learn. Hopefully, I can find a way to be respectful and to ask questions without being a jerk.

On the second point, I know that when I use LLMs for work, I have to be careful. I have to double-check everything. I can't just trust it to do the work for me. I have to be skeptical of everything it says. I have to be on my toes, and I have to be willing to dig deeper if something doesn't seem right.

Even knowing that, I am amazed at how willing I am to trust it in domains outside my expertise. It sounds so convincing, and reasonable. I have no grounds to challenge it without diving into the details. And now, I run into the same problem I had above: I ain't got time to be an expert in everything.

But what concerns me is that these tools are rapidly becoming sources of truth for many people. And despite experts in their own niches being skeptical of them, the general public is not. Further, the promise of these companies is that we can trust them, and Soon™ they will replace real experts. What?

I think the base premise of "don't trust the internet" continues to hold.

help

At some point, I have to trust. To be so skeptical of everything all the time is exhausting. But where is the line?

How are you dealing with this? I'd love to hear about different approaches to this.