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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 2485 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 26 comments
By definition (Score:5, Funny)
If one is responding to this poll, by definition the last thing one has read is something online, right? Or did Slashdot finally launch that vote-by-post card feature I requested in '98?
Re:By definition (Score:4, Funny)
Re:By definition (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, I'm beating up a nerd and having him write what I tell him. And the most brilliant part is that I don't even know how to read.
(please save me)
Eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
If your assailant can't read what you write, why are you writing what he says?
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Re:By definition (Score:5, Funny)
Missing option (Score:2)
(...) and then smashed my face on the left mouse button to submit the vote.
Logitech logo
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Yes, that's why I clicked something online. But within the past week I've read something in all of the categories mentioned except the non-fiction book and it's just a coincidence that I didn't do that.
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Technically, the last phrase I read before voting was "Print is Dead". So, I voted for that.
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Hi, can I read some of her stories?
One of my pet projects is an initiative to write stories for children. I wonder what subjects she writes about, who the protagonists are, etc.
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If one is responding to this poll, by definition the last thing one has read is something online, right?
Wrong. I'm no longer reading slashdot: I'm seeing it.
BTW: what did think of the Cowboy Neal in the red dress?... He, uhm, well he doesn't talk very much, but, but if you'd like to meet him, I can arrange a much more personalized meeting.
The red Cowboy (Score:2)
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I think you're a word there.
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That was my thought. Or maybe you responded to the poll without reading anything. Maybe you're illiterate and just like clicking on buttons. Or maybe you have your browser configured to turn off all text and you just select poll answers blindly.
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Once I read all the poll options, the last thing I had read was "Print is Dead".
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Although I "read" slashdot, I don't consider it "reading". It is too interactive to meet my definition of reading. Now, you can read the articles linked to by some of slashdot's summaries, and I would consider THAT reading, but nobody actually reads the articles. They just read the summary and then try to work in some angle where they can use the contents of the summary to bash Republicans or Christian
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I was reading a button that said "Submit".
Uhm... (Score:5, Insightful)
An article on Slashdot.org. I don't know if you've heard of it.
Good poll (Score:5, Funny)
No, this was a very sensible poll. We all know that the large majority of the people here never read the articles, so I guess that we all want to know what they did read (if anything) before responding.
It's either that, or all those comments saying RTFA are meant to be humorous. :-)
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I am only here to ignore the comments.
I don't always read, but when I do... (Score:3)
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I am unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals.
Well, considering how many people enjoy books, and considering how almost all people enjoy fictional stories in some form, and therefore should be able to at least understand how some may enjoy written fiction, there is only one conclusion: very few men are sane..
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I am unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals.
You should make a spoof of those commercials, showing a bunch of hot chicks sitting around you at the table while you look up from a manual and say that.
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I am unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals.
WTF are you doing on Slashdot then?
Re:I don't always read, but when I do... (Score:5, Funny)
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I am unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals.
I may not always read, but when I do, I read the label of a Dos Equis.
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Discworld (Score:4, Interesting)
I am going to get to the latest book of this series if it kills me.
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I am going to get to the latest book of this series if it kills me.
Coroner 1: Cause of death, patient died from trying to read the discworld series.
Coroner 2: What, that's like the 5th this month.
Coroner 1: When will they learn.
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I would say the evolution of the Vimes character makes the reading order of the guards books important - I don't think it would make any sense to read those out of sequence.
They also reference earlier stories quite frequently in passing comments about events or characters not central to the current story.
If I was recommending where to start, I'd suggest reading Guards Guards first to get a feel for them, then go back to The Light Fantastic and work through them in order. He took a couple of books to get in
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This Poll (Score:5, Informative)
Isn't it obvious?
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Isn't it obvious?
If I'd been thinking I would have made my choice, put the mouse over the submit button, read something else, and then clicked the mouse without looking at the screen.
Or the mouse logo.
Truly astounding... (Score:3, Funny)
As I read the results now, nearly 2/3 of those polled clicked something other than "Something Online" (or "Print is dead").
I know people are into multitasking today, but I never realized so many people would read a poll question on Slashdot, then go read a novel, and then come back and click the button to respond to the poll.
I'd like to see more research into this area -- perhaps polls asking questions like "What is the last thing you thought about?" or "What was the last thing you moved your mouse over?"
Eventually, we can move to the truly puzzling poll questions, like "Are you lying in your response to this poll? Yes or No."
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I read my twitter stream on the train on the way to work this morning and read a few emails when I got to my desk and then a couple of new stories form the local online newspaper (does that count as newspaper or online?), then a couple of stories on SlashDot. Plenty of trivial in there.
As of this post... (Score:5, Funny)
About 63% of voters are either confused or lying...
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I read the poll, clicked an option, and tabbed down to the submit button, then read a book, blindfolded myself, and hit enter by feel, you insensitive clod!
That's obviously what everyone else did too.
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Ok, I stand corrected. About 63% of the voters are either confused, lying, or clinically insane.
Still going with #2 for you, though ;)
Yay, pedantic arguments! (Score:4, Insightful)
I figure the spirit of the question is blindingly obvious, but whatever. My only uncertainty was whether to choose from the book I just finished (which was fiction), or the one I'm now in the middle of reading (which is non-fiction).
I went with the one I'd finished.
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PS. The Tripods: The White Mountains, by John Christopher. Might be a children's book, but entertaining nonetheless.
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Thank God for that clarification! With the additional information you provided about your vote, we can now make a more informed analysis of the poll results. You have helped the future poll interpretations be less skewed, good sir. This sentence will now simply refer to itself as simply being more facetiously grandiose praise because the author has run out of clever phrases and is hoping this counts.
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I figure the spirit of the question is blindingly obvious, but whatever.
Phrasing a poll question on a nerd site that so easily falls to the most cursory of pedantic analyses (i.e., a glance), must, in my estimation, either be intentional, or is naïvely presumptive about some nerds' abilities to not subconscious evaluate the logic of whatever questions/statements may be before them.
If the pollster wanted the extant skew to occur—well, congratulations—mission accomplished. If not, then I must conclude that the poll's author fucked up—not the thousands of re
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It's not obvious to me. I suppose it's what another commenter said, The latest [non-trivial] thing you read, but still, do I include doxygen documentation for the code I'm working on? News articles? Well, for me it's easy as I'd have to use a complex definition to exclude all the online stuff and include the scientific papers I printed out or the novel I read at night
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I only read the summaries and I don't consider that reading. If I had read any articles, I would probably consider that reading, but only if it was actually of any journalistic value.
Time of day ... (Score:4, Interesting)
My answer to the poll's question would be different depending on which time of the day that I would be asked:
* I always read the newspaper in the morning while I eat breakfast.
* I often read on-line in-depth articles during the day and evening, either in a trade magazine or online (frequent visitor to Ars Technica.. which a third of Slashdot topics seem to link to anyway)
* I often end the day with a good book (fiction).
And as to the question if visiting Slashdot itself would constitute the answer "Something Online", I would answer: No, not unless you have actually clicked a link in a story and read the article that the story links to.
Books (Score:2)
The last book I read? (Score:5, Funny)
-vi Forums (Score:2)
Ignoring forum and Facebook reading/posting, the last book I read is Slash's autobiography (of Guns & Roses if you don't know).
[John]
C'Mon Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
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Admit it. 50 Shades of Gray. All of you. Go ahead, look me in the eye and tell me it's not true!
I can look you in the eye and tell you it's partly true... and partly false.
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Only 50? Hah! Try Fifty-Thousand Shades Of Grey [amazon.co.uk].
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Or maybe Shifty Grades of Fey.
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It's not true. But then, I am not a woman.
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My Reading Habits (Score:2)
2) Some linked article if I want more detail
3) Twitter for up to the moment news, and @GreatDismal
4) Facebook for family news
5) Bunch of other web sites for specific information
6) Books, fiction, from Library
Such a sad life (Score:2)
Re:Such a sad life (Score:4, Insightful)
The last book I finished was "The Wehrmacht on the Western Front", almost a text book (re-reading). The last book I'm still actively reading is about the Bismarck (again, a re-read). For fun. I need help.
Or company. I'm reading "The Russian Court at Sea" - about the embarkation and exodus of the surviving Romanovs from Yalta (the Crimea) in 1918/1919. As Rasputin/(Boney M), said "Oh, those Russians...".
(Damn - what have I done - I've now got that tune in my head).
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(Damn - what have I done - I've now got that tune in my head).
Here, let me help:
Oh, my darlin'
Oh, my darlin'
Oh, my darlin' Clementine [youtube.com].
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Have a listen to the Rasputin cover by Boiled in Lead. It's ... unique. I can't seem to find it online to verify that it's the song I remember.
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He could talk the Bible like a preacher
Full of ecstacy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher
Women most desire...
The Economist (Score:4, Insightful)
I still get this in dead tree form. I can keep it in the bathroom (where electronics aren't welcome) and I get a look at international news that is so hard to come by in the US. That and Playboy (yes, Playboy) will be the last magazines I give up.
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For the same reasons that you stated about the bathroom, I have for quite some time, and will always subscribe to National Geographic as well as The Smithsonian. My poopin' time just isn't complete without a quick read-through of the latest art/history/nature/humanity article.
I will only fail to renew my subscription when they fail to print.
Where is (Score:4, Informative)
The "All of the above" option.
If I read anything these days, its on the screen. I read (science) fiction books I purchase from Baen and downloaded. I read magazines and newspapers in Kindle format on my tablet. These days you don't get a Manual , you get a PDF file om the disc with the driver software.
And of course I read Slashdot online.
Missing Option (Score:2)
A slashdot poll. Come on is it a trick question? Its obviously the thing i was reading right before answering the question.
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Only one of those is the *last* thing you read...
Call me old fashioned... (Score:2)
...and you would be correct. I am old fashioned in a lot of ways. I enjoy (most of the time) reading my weekend newspaper with coffee Saturday and Sunday mornings.
With Project Gutenberg + eink classics are back (Score:4, Interesting)
The last thing *everyone* read... (Score:2)
...was online. You read this poll.
The poll makes no sense whatsoever (Score:5, Informative)
"Something Online" is the medium.
"Fiction" or "Non-Fiction" is the content.
So how can the options Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Something Online, all be in the same poll? What if I read Fiction online, or read Non-Fiction online?
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You must be new here
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"Something Online" is the medium
"Fiction" or "Non-Fiction" is the content.
So how can the options Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Something Online, all be in the same poll? What if I read Fiction online, or read Non-Fiction online?
The polls are quick and dirty constructions -- as the disclaimer states -- mostly in fun with some effort done in earnest; meaning, there is always going to be a lack of clarity in its design, opening it up for discussion. In this case, it's a classic mistake of confusing medium and message. The answer then to your rhetorical question is: The pollster made a mistake. :)
Print vs Pixel
Fictional vs Factual
Cory Doctorow, "Pirate Cinema" (Score:2)
Just finished it last week. I enjoyed Little Brother a bit more (partly due to the newness, I'm sure -- this one was somewhat more of the same) but I couldn't get into For the Win at all so I was very pleased by this one. Very British (only a couple times too much so) and I dig the idea of kids talking like Dickens characters for fun. Read it for free here. [craphound.com] My other favorite by him is Makers. [craphound.com]
Missing option (Score:2)
Discworld (Score:2)
It's a graphic novel by Terry Pratchett .. not normally something I'd read, but it was recommended to me on one of the IRC channels. I'm also knitting a tin foil hat .. do you think I'm too suggestible?
Just picked up The Illustrated Atlas Of The Univer (Score:3)
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Atlas-Universe-Tirion-Garlick/dp/1740893778 [amazon.com]
I'm amazed at how good books are these days. $30 gets a nice hard cover book with ~300 pages of full colour, high quality, informative, pictures and star charts.
I wish books of this quality had been so easily available and affordable when I was a lad.
Something online, duh (Score:2, Insightful)
A badly written proposal (Score:3)
Instead of the not so well chosen option "something online" I would like to propose "A badly written proposal" as this was the latest thing (beside a /. article and a news article) I read. In most cases I read papers from other people who sometimes suck. So "Scientific Paper" would also be a great option. Or a "Fox-News Article", which would be the total opposite of the "Scientific Paper" option. However, that could also be rated under "Fiction" or better "Phantasy".
Spook Country (Score:2)
Just returned the dead-tree version to the public library. I only got it because they didn't have Neal Stephenson for some reason, but I had heard him compared to William Gibson a lot, so I gave it a try.
Too much hipster brand-name dropping for my tastes. I didn't identify with any of the characters. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know (though the way he describes one of the main characters reacting in stupor to dropping terms like 'steganography' made me feel stupid by empathy anyway...
Instruction Manual (Score:2)
I'm working my way through a useful instruction manual to better improve my skills, She Comes First [amazon.com] . A few years ago it might've seemed like fiction to me...
iBooks (Score:2)
Newspapers (Score:2)
Academic Journal Article... (Score:2)
Fiction (Score:2)
The Last Thing I Read Was (Score:2)
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Nah, he is a Finnish traffic cop. As you know, they come in pairs: one knows how to read and the other knows how to write...
Re:I can't read (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, he is a Finnish traffic cop. As you know, they come in pairs: one knows how to read and the other knows how to write...
Is that the setup, or the punchline?
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Do Finnish cops pull you over for not driving like you're in a rally? Sober driving? Under the minimum speed? Making a turn without using the handbrake?
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What about Academic Journals? I just said non-fiction book, but it's not the same.
... what with so many Academic Journals being works of fiction - or based on fictional data?
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(pity I already posted, otherwise I'd do it myself)
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1984 -- fiction.
I thought that was a prophecy?
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That's a classic! I've read that so many times and enjoy it every time. I suppose I should read it once or twice before I get around to seeing the upcoming movies... Or I might skip the movies altogether so as not to ruin the images in my head.