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I would like to compare the various free and paid AI subscription plans, primarily from the most popular vendors like ChatGPT, Claude, Google, etc.
I can find countless static webpages, YouTube videos, etc. that compare subscriptions, but their information quickly becomes out-of-date, or isn't detailed enough.
I'm looking for a tool that grabs the latest information on what each plan provides (features, models, context windows, etc.), and compares them across different subscriptions. I imagine this information would be obtained from API calls or scraping. The comparison tool should not rely on AI to get its information.. I want the latest facts (ideally checked at least once a day).
I'm particularly interested in any AI assisted software. Assisted being the keyword; I'm not interested in AI generated slop, but something that makes intelligent suggestions as you write.
In other words: The rate that your learned skills become obsolete relative to technological advancements in your field. e.g. new libraries, frameworks, etc.
Employers require engineers to outpace this Skill Obsolescence Rate through reskilling, often on our own dime and time. This endless pressure to evolve our skills can be exhausting, especially when it consumes our free time outside work and degrades our work/life balance. I don't feel like other similarly paid professions have as short a skills half-life as we do.
I wondered what caused this weird landscape of the last 15 years. It wasn't like this in the 2000s. I feel like it's mostly Github? Don't get me wrong, Github is amazing. Yet, from the very beginning its fostered a very ego-driven environment amongst unicorn developers to prove their new wheel is better than the last wheel. We've been stuck in wheel factories where every wheel is a different design -- sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes a wash -- when the wheels we had from 5 years ago could have built the wagon of today just fine. I don't even think upper management is the problem, I don't think they care what wheel we use, but engineering leads want shiny new things.
I'm currently in a React job that's had a few stressful migrations just in 2024, and I'm tempted to find a Rails job. Its wheel factory is tiny in comparison.
This physical pain makes concentration extremely difficult. It has become so challenging that I quit my software engineering job of 10 years a couple of months ago due to my inability to focus on the work required.
Severe chronic pain is probably similar to severe ADHD in terms of how it affects productivity, except that attention loss is caused by your body constantly sending pain signals. There are no drugs that I have found to help, at least not ones that don't cause significant harm to the body in other ways, such as opioids.
Unlike ADHD, severe chronic pain is not legally considered for disability, despite its impact on effectively performing jobs that require deep concentration or physical labor. I can still move, my range of motion is good, and my mental faculties are normal, except for the aforementioned ability to concentrate. It's just that I'm in constant physical pain. The U.S. government doesn't consider any of this as qualifying for disability.
I'm currently unemployed with state insurance, but the insurance is more for catastrophic accident coverage (car accidents, etc.) than for helping me with my chronic pain. When I had private insurance, I was never able to get proper treatment despite trying for years, and all it amounted to was enormous medical debt. I could probably find an engineering job, but I fear I would have the same problem of not being able to concentrate with the pain I'm in, despite how much I love programming. It's hard to be around people when you're in constant physical pain. I feel like I have a miasma around me, and I don't want to spread that to others, so I feel I'm better off alone. Previously, I would just hide my emotions at work and pretend everything was great, but the pain has reached a point now where I can't continue to do that (the pain causes me to physically grimace during web meetings sometimes). I'm spending my time now improving my engineering skills (React, Vue, etc.) and doing contract work; it's just an uphill battle with the pain.
I'm honestly unsure about what path to take in life. It's a terribly tragic thing when the physical human body gives up despite the mind and soul wanting to thrive, especially when young. My body has been broken for so long that I can't remember what it's like not to be in physical pain. I see other programmers and think how nice it must be to just code and not worry about pain, and reminisce when I was the same. I've long given up on my body healing on its own. The saying "All things heal with time" unfortunately isn't true for severe chronic pain.
All said, while my body has given up, and despite these depressing writings, my mind has not given up. My only goal in life has always been to live as long as possible to witness and experience life and future advancements in civilization, and that's still the case. I just wish I could have done it pain-free like most people my age, instead of having to live the rest of my decades in constant pain.
Just search "mri review free" on Google for examples.
Of course sending your MRI to 10 different doctors takes a lot of time, like needing 10 different CDs of all your MRIs (medical industry standard still seems to be using CDs instead of USB drives for diagnostic imagery, at least in the U.S.).
What if there was a secure service where you could send your MRIs to, and on your behalf they would make copies of your MRIs and send them to dozens of different doctors for MRI review and 2nd/3rd/4th opinions? You would then receive communication from dozens of different doctors and many 2nd/3rd/4th/etc. opinions. Then based on the diagnosis and interaction with the doctor you can decide who to use. After all, not all doctors are equal and some are definitely better and more qualified than others, especially when it comes to surgeries.
I deal with a lot of chronic pain, and I've spent months trying to get diagnosed and treated and this idea popped into my head because of the frustration of trying to get diagnosed and treated for chronic pain. The normal route of GP -> Referral to specialist isn't working out for me, mostly because the specialists I end up with all seem to be shit (the problem of living in a small town).