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Comment by jermaustin1 | Hacker News Reader

I feel like my wife’s job is AI proof as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, but there might be a downturn that affects how much she can earn, which means I don’t need as lofty ambitions for my future job of “farming” - basically 1-2acres of veggie patches, and couple chicken coops to sell and eat.

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Many people are using AI for therapy now. Even if AI gets as good or better than the average therapist, I think some people will prefer to see a human in person, so her job should be safe in that sense. But I wouldn’t be surprised if rates go down as the fee sensitive shift to AI.

I wouldn’t trust AI with my therapy. I’ve done “sessions” with it before to just see how good it would be, it’s about as good as Eliza. My wife ripped them apart.

It gets concepts wrong, and can’t resolve interweaving narratives which a human can follow without issue. The advice it gives is generic and impersonal, and if you’ve ever had real therapy, you immediately sense of it’s short comings.

I’m sure a lot of that gets less noticeable as training and models get better, but it seems like we’re plateauing in the returns we get from more training.

The most recent AIs are really good. Which one did you use? The AI is free and always willing to talk and adapt to your needs.

And ready to egg you on if you start having delusions. Super dangerous and destructive for the people who need help most.

Unless something changes, I think that even the idea of AI being your "friend" is a giant meme. Kind of like dating apps, people will claim all the kids today have AI friends and AI therapists and talk it up as if it's just ad good, but there's a good chance that, given a decade, everyone will recognize that it's crap.

Human knowledge is not the same thing as human experience. Create an AI that experiences the world autonomously, experiences trauma and come back to me.

I say this as someone who uses AI and doesn't completely dismiss it like many on HN these days. So far, I don't see it replacing the human being for connection and understanding. Replacing coders? That's a whole other question.

I'm not sure how AI would be successful for group therapy like marriage counseling though. One of the the primary benefits is having a mediator for conversation.

I haven’t tried it, and I’m not sure how good it is currently in terms of actually therapeutic benefit, but I would guess using OpenAI’s advanced voice mode, and giving it a good prompt telling it to play the role of a marriage therapist, would actually work pretty well in terms of conversing with two people, listening to both, being empathetic, guiding each person to really hear the other, etc.

How will you pay for property taxes?

Similar plans, but the problem I have is that property taxes are onerous anywhere near a population center.

The food you grow can likely sustain you depending on where you are in the country, you can dig a well for water, and you can buy solar panels for power. But the taxes never go away.

I think you can apply for an ag exemption depending on location

Where I am, the ag exemption barely blunts the taxes. You can claim the exemption on the land on which your house does not sit, but the house itself and the 1 acre around it is not exempt. Anywhere near a major population center, a house + 1 acre can be thousands, if not tens of thousands, per year in property taxes.

Ag exemptions vary, but it usually ends up that you still owe a significant amount. Usually it's something like you get a break on the tax on the land/barn/etc,but still owe all or most of the amount on the house.

Our property tax is right at $250/yr. It’s the home insurance that terrifies me, went from $1300/yr to $2300 last year, and I’m waiting get the new increase in August.

Yep the escrow for taxes and insurance is the biggest part of my mortgate payment by far.

That doesn't seem to add up. Even .5% on a $150k house should be 3x that tax. $2300 in insurance on a $150k house is outrageous.

You seem to be familiar with the situation. What are the property tax laws and insurance risk where the commenter lives?

I'd like for them to explain it. The data I have shows .5% tax is one of the lowest values, with $2300 insurance being the national average for a $300k dwelling. Based on this data, the numbers don't add up. Maybe they can explain so we can learn.

Rural Louisiana and a Homestead Exemption on a house that I bought for $85k.

> you can dig a well for water

You can pay someone upwards of $10,000 to drill a well for you. FTFY!

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