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atmartins

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I disagree. I think it's about pivot time, not having a warmed up stable of skilled workers just in case. Nature never optimizes for that and it shouldn't. We should lazy-load that skillset if and when it's necessary. We have writing to carry knowledge forward. Also, video and other media. People are smart and I'm sure a large cohort could be assembled with the right amount of money in fairly short order. As long as that's cheaper than keeping a battalion ready just in case, then I'd argue it's the "correct" way to approach it.

Cash back? Attention is finite and I don't want a payment processor forcing me to pay a fee so I can turn around and try and earn it back. How about lower the fee and let me keep that 1%?? Then I can earn interest on it for the month, not them. And then I don't have to read additional terms and conditions, use it or lose it, book travel through their marked up garbage store, etc. It's insane to me that you'd defend cash back as some kind of advantage to consumers when it's anything but. It's a crappy product that you can choose to avoid but I want the up front transaction fee reduced by the same amount.

Emotions? Motivations? Self awareness?

To really reach another level of intelligence I think these are required. If I met a humanoid with zero of these, and I mean zero... I would wonder what's "intelligent" about that creature.

I'd argue these come from our basic human needs, which ultimately come from a desire to survive (or pass on genes).

I'm curious how general AI will behave with some yet unknown natural selection pressures, of sorts.

Wait, what? Why is AI unlimited? There are many constraints like the speed of information, calculation, available memory, etc. Where does it cross into the physical world? And at what scale? Is it going to mine iron unnoticed or something? How will it get raw materials to build an army? Firewalls and air gapped systems are all suddenly worthless because AI has some instant and unbounded intelligence? The militaries of the world watch while eating hot dogs?

A lot of things CAN happen but I'm confused when people state things as if they WILL. If you're that much of an oracle tell me which stonk to buy so I can go on holiday.

What about the law of conservation of matter? When have you seen anything cease to exist, and not merely transform?

Isn't the question about the universe existing really asking where energy/matter came from? How the energy and matter are configured is a different question entirely, it seems.

Should... should. So. Should they move the canneries, ports, flat land, abundant sun and all the skilled labor and their families? Mechanics, installers, fabricators, etc.

It's not like it's a small operation. There are canneries almost a mile long. There are small mountains of peach pits that form when they're processed (these are used for other purposes by the way!).

What about mature orchards?

I'm not sure why people hate California so much. It's got a lot of problems, like most places... But it's pretty amazing how much shit goes on there.

I'm not sure the ratio is that different. In 1994 how many different browsers, connection speeds, phishing scams, competitors shipping fast forcing you to do similar to stay competitive, accessibility considerations, etc. If memory serves, it was dramatically less than now.

This thread of comments is kinda weird to me, there's like a romanticized view of old timers or something, and the problem must be the young, money hungry and unenthused. It feels like boring old internet gatekeeping and is not insightful.

There is a totally different world in tech now than in 1994. Tons of stuff and often optimized for mean time to recovery. I crave quality too (believe me) but I think shipping fast and breaking a few eggs (not directly but that's essentially what you're left with) is what is asked of engineers in 2022.

All of my peers seem to care about quality and we do our best but even in the days of buying software on floppy disks, bugs existed.

Yes. And it's on your home IP address. I see things based on what others in my household have done with Tok Tok

Aren't the gas and electrical lines akin to some core capabilities of the system? I have yet to find a (web project) that doesn't need auth, eventing, logging, etc. I don't expect those to change how they work frequently, just line the guts of the building.

To keep with the metaphor, I DO expect to plug an appliance in, though. Or that a room could be used for another purpose. Obviously changing from an office to a commercial kitchen is a major change but if that's what somebody wants to spend their money to do...

So I guess my thought is, "software engineering" and "engineering" are very broad. I actually think software challenges are not so unique. My experience has been that many people lack intuition about the software in question. Most people live in a building of some kind and if they asked for only Brawndo in the water pipes, it would be easy to convince them of how short sighted that is (or they wouldn't even ask). With software I feel like there's still some expectation of magic and zero friction just because it doesn't take a jackhammer to move a wall.

Here me out: this sounds like an excuse. If you really want to solve it you could. I did.

I use a wok to cook and it's faster than going to McDonalds. It's slower than a frozen meal but not by much. I don't aim for perfection, rather, most of my meals I try and make healthy. I still love bacon.

In less than 10 minutes you can chop celery, broccoli, tofu, chicken, etc. If it takes longer then solve that problem: better knife, cutting board always handy? Chop faster, fingertips aren't that important.

Turn the wok up to 10,000 degrees and put a little avocado oil in there, throw it all in and stir. Put some low sodium soy sauce and monkfruit sweetener (if you want no sugar, otherwise brown sugar) and a little cornstarch+water too thicken. Ginger, whatever.

Anyway, you can make tons of variants of this dish. Curry, yakisoba, subgum chow mein. Almost all will be 90% vegetables. Do some rice or noodles with them.

Then solve salads. They are fast, easy, and can be delicious if you chop stuff up small and put a lot of variety. Keep trying different things. Watch YouTube videos about it. If you are thinking "I don't like salads" shut up. That's another excuse, there are an infinite number of ways to combine and prepare veggies.

Explore and solve the problem just like a crappy little software app that needs to be built. You just have to want it and be willing to learn.

It sounds like you're a holistic or big picture type. I struggle with this too. I don't have all the answers but my advice would be to try and focus on a smaller thing and get a win with that. Don't propose several projects, propose one and give it enough attention and proof that it's hard to refuse. Are your proposals measurable? Are they valuable? Are they framed in business context?

If more is thrown at you, push back using phrases like "adding this initiative may put effort #1 at risk. I think we should concentrate on effort #1 a bit longer while #2 takes more shape"

Why are your PRs not being approved? Do you need more time pair programming so what you submit is more aligned with reviewer expectations? Have you asked for that pairing time?

Overall I hear two disconnects, one at a business/product level and one at the engineering level. Your expectations sound out of alignment with your peers. You might try and work on relationships, build trust, find the fun puzzle and try and enjoy any little bits you can.

On your last point I'd add that using GitHub copilot has (at times) felt like pair programming to me. It has made suggestions for something I didn't know or think of yet, but I noticed that I remember that next time. So it's possible that I'm actually learning more when aided by tools, much like a teacher looking over my shoulder.

I used to work for someone who was convinced phone gps + maps would doom young people because if they became unavailable, everyone would lack navigation skills. I thought it was absurd. First, who was ever taught how to use a map explicitly (for basic usage)? Second, what is there to learn? I think these kind of arguments forget that most people are pretty bright, especially in times of need. If gps is down, I'm sure people can find their way to Burger King with a paper map and stopping to ask a few of the locals, just like everyone did intuitively back in my day. They just wouldn't have to walk uphill in the snow with onions on their belt, because the war.

Is the clarification that they're open to the public but privately owned? As distinct from spaces that are both publicly owned and open to the public like the sidewalk downtown. You can't get kicked out of the sidewalk unless you're breaking the law and get kicked out of public altogether by way of being put in the slammer.

It's kind of interesting because you could still walk by the mall if you were kicked out, looking in through the windows longing for the aroma of that giant Cinnabon just one more time. Similarly you could visit Facebook's login screen but would not be allowed to enter any more. I doubt Facebook smells quite the same in the inside, anyway.

Many of the things listed in the article burn me out, though. Any additional expectations about team building or water cooler talk only extend the amount of time I'm ignoring my family and shackled to the screen. My employer or coworkers are not who I look to for improvements with mental health as I feel it is a very personal topic. I wish there was more respecting boundaries. A tech manager is not equipped to deal with the mental struggles people may have and so this just comes across as a cheap way to increase productivity (or to prevent a decrease).

Some of the passive suggestions are better, such as making time off or other resources available. Trying to force anything or intervene even with games or other interruptions is wrong imo. Even an invite "that the whole team is doing" feels like pressure. At a minimum it's an interruption and another context switch. I'd personally rather take that hour to walk and get some fresh air, so I'm not focusing on my screen for an unrelated thing.

I know everyone's different but this is how I feel when I hear or read about this kind of thing. It reminds me of something I heard a long time ago "you may have the right message but be the wrong person to deliver it". Let work be work and let people recharge with family and friends if they prefer.

I'm sure this is partially true but I don't remember it being the norm. I remember it being harder to find things (Netscape days, Altavista, etc), content embedded in Flash or jsp mess, low resolution, non interactive maps (let alone 3D), low quality audio and video 360p or worse. Dot matrix printing and just generally lower fidelity. Super slow connections requiring the phone line is totally incapacitated while using the net.

I agree that I can't find a recipe without an obnoxious amount of crap writing around it, at least it's there if I scroll far enough. Wikipedia, by the way, suffers almost none of the complaints I see here, loads extremely fast and is free (donate!).

So I guess what I'm saying is it could be better, but the Internet is pretty incredible still.

Not agreeing or disagreeing but this is a poor argument. First, it's not like wars of the size and intensity of WW2 happen often, so a lack of similar action since then isn't surprising. Second, the lack of use may be partially explained by threat of repercussions. Are you not aware of standoffs like the cold war? Third, agreements between nuclear powers to not launch under almost any circumstance.

Maybe a lot of people are struggling to get by? "Their money" represents the ability to pay for food and housing so I'm not sure it's only about wanting others to suffer, as you imply. I think it's at least partially about their own sense of security.

Doesn’t happen to the same degree as in plumbing. With front end or back end, yes there are good jobs and bad jobs, but if the data gets to where it’s going and there’s no bit rot, you’re pretty much done. If the data is in the db and not on the paper forms, and you can’t see it decrypted at rest, it’s a good job. With plumbing, there seem to be endless layers of nuance between good or bad, finished or unfinished.

Also, it should take X hours to code a feature of Y size with this many fields or inputs. There are unclearly established timelines for a job and any big deviation from that will get you fired (or not hired again by the same builder). There’s no “due to this plumber’s lack of sobriety with the world, a project that should have taken 2 weeks took 4 and a half months, and the connections on the joints are poor”.

I am that homeowner. Here are some things I use my tractor for: turn compost (6ft tall piles), till a large garden, grade landscaping for drainage, dig holes for posts and plants, distribute mulch, repair driveway and distribute gravel, and help my neighbors with many of these same items.

I also use it to move heavy items like wooden beams and Mac's mom.

All of this could be done without the tractor, so I wouldn't say it's necessary. My back is not wrecked right now, though, I'm glad I have it. Also, I imagine my use will slow after having lived here for longer (only been a few years so far) - we have several projects we want done at the moment.

The way I figure I could rent a tractor for about $150/day when I need it, or buy an old one for $6k to use for many years and then sell it... probably for near $6k (I know I've spent money on maintenance). Renting every other weekend is annoying, and I often work 1 hour in the evening.

Anyway, hopefully this helps answer your question about why someone with a few acres would own such a thing.

In a complex application I'd rather send a very short lived and tightly scoped token to a service written by another team or another company that I know less about.

If the service handling your access token has some security issues (old version of x y z, etc) there is limited damage if nefarious actors acquire that token. They could not keep your session alive, spread horizontally, etc. Also, you can make access tokens very short lived to minimize the window of opportunity, should someone acquire one.

Then I can concentrate on my "session service" (the thing issuing tokens) to be very secure, and tune the characteristics of either token as needed.