cauliflower99

Anyone else struggling with the aggressive claude "staccato" sentences? It's really jarring.

Folks who are new in any role in any industry really need to understand that remote work is a huge disadvantage when you know nothing or nearly nothing.

Anecdotally, I've run an apprenticeship program for a few years now in software. We hire 5 apprentices at a time - usually people who have done some online courses in programming and want to get into the industry. They would be pre-junior.

The year we went fully remote for lockdowns, the failure rate of the apprenticeship went from 0% to 80%. We went to a hybrid policy of "you choose how many days you want in the office" - failure rate dropped to 40% with the top of the group being the 2 people who were in the office everyday. Today, it is a mandated 4 days a week in the office - failure rate is at 0% again.

Not only does nobody fail, but the folks who consistently turn up to the office and get involved talking to seniors are inevitably the ones who progress the fastest. The ones fighting to work from home because it's inconvenient consistently do worse.

All those opportunities to improve by 1% via a meaningful conversation or a whiteboard diagram disappear when working from home. The 1%'s matter the most when you're a junior.

Super surprised to see Ireland mentioned at the top comment here. I've always thought it catastrophic that betting companies could advertise on TV here, but never really considered how other countries compared to us. Is it really the case that we're outliers? Would love to see laws change here.

This article seems to be in stark contrast to the online opinions where all we hear about are senior engineers with decades of experience who can't get a job.

So is it a sample bias where a few stories are grabbing lots of attention and giving the impression of a job shortage, or is there really a better outlook for the software industry?

Irish man here - Over the last few years, we've graduated from providing cheap energy to now importing most of our energy. We've seen huge energy price increases as a result. We're seeing more and more cost-of-living protests, the war now means more will suffer with fuel prices and we're still going ahead with closing down energy suppliers (this is a 2025 article but the point still stands).

To anyone praising these stupid, politically incentivised initiatives - congratulations to us on making the poor and middle-classes poorer.

But it's all good - we're saving the world I guess. The poor folks can sort themselves out.

I agree with this agreement. Read the lot with no problems. It's an exciting piece.

https://www.dcaulfield.com/

Anytime I'm asked for feedback via the O'Reilly website (I manage the business account for my company), the first thing I always say is that the app is unusable. I've tried it on my Amazon Fire Tablet, Ipad, different phones - it doesn't work.

The user metrics in O'reilly (and probably most learning apps) has floored in the last 12 months. I see they've launched a new AI platform now. They're definitely going in a direction - time will tell if it's the right one.

Personally, I'd love a website that can provide all the ebooks oreilly provides. But it needs to work on a tablet.

The real comparison needs to be between pre-covid and today.

I mean...is there anyone here who isn't on this bandwagon?

From a teacher's perspective, I'm sure the craft is a mess of bad school policies vs. so-called "best practices" vs. real learning science vs. government policies vs. ancient bad advice (eg. learning styles and tablets in classrooms) vs. personal opinion.

It's not like there is a senior engineer who's got mountains of expertise to defer to (like a software team would have). Teachers are likely given directives from their schools and get dumped a bunch of tablets and are told this is "modern" education and to just roll it out.

Anyway, to your point - top-down directives are what change schools. There has been success such as banning smartphones in Ireland & UK recently. Schools taking on the problems and then solving it themselves could go a long way, rather than waiting for government to mandate things.

The examples used in this student's classes demonstrate how inept the teacher is at designing a classroom promoted for learning rather than performance. If I were a teacher and I send around sheets of paper of exercises, my first directive is "Close all laptops" (or never have them there in the first place) followed by "If I see any use of technology to cheat, you have failed the exam." This is EXACTLY what is was like when I was in school only a few years ago.

Similarly for the debate club - why are teams allowed to have any technology in the hall in the first place?

Education is supposed to be difficult - that's how we learn!! Teachers seem to pander more and more to students who complain that "This is too difficult". As if easy learning was ever a thing!

I wrote a blog post looking at a similar vein: https://www.dcaulfield.com/mastery-4-ai

If everyone uses AI, then the standard of mastery hasn't lowered - it's increased!

We're now caught in a dilemma: Do we play the short term game and use AI at the expense of our skills, or do we play the long term game and avoid AI where possible to build up expertise while risking being out-competed by everyone else who is using AI?

This is brilliant.

6 week contract at my company (not sure what your skillset is though): https://zinkworks.teamtailor.com/jobs/5678393-dba-graphdb-6-...

Note: These are just my personal opinions.

If I can list out the issues you have mentioned, just to get a picture first:

- Burnout in current job.

- No alternative jobs you want.

- No appetite for job hunting.

- House is gone.

- Wife is gone.

These are big problems - too big for someone to solve alone. First step is to find someone trusted who can support you. Whether it's a friend, family member or a professional. If they aren't available, a local support group. And if that isn't available, find a pro bono service online. You need someone checking in with you and helping you put a plan together over the next few months.

Next step is to prioritise the list. What MUST be fixed right away? Create a plan for each item.

After you have a plan, you potentially need some time to execute. Think about taking extended leave, a break for a few weeks. You need time and space to stop the spiral.

Great article. Anybody know how can I make graphics like this?

Haidt appeared on the Huberman podcast a few days ago talking about this. Highly recommend: https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-jonathan-haidt-how-sm...

That google-control article shines a big light on the problem. If all the companies are own by the same parent, they'll naturally follow the same strategy to maximise clicks.

Have I finally found the reason this why all recipe sites operate the same dysfunctional way??

Thanks for the response! I'm going to try some of your workarounds, particularly the search results date.

It would be cool to have a search engine that folks specifically on public forum results.

Many of my colleagues at work have this linked in their MS Teams status.

Conway has said GOL is not something he is particularly pleased got as famous as it did. (Ref: https://youtu.be/R9Plq-D1gEk?t=600)

Why do you think that is?

Edit: This is the video I meant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA

Interesting idea. Could there be a market for pre-AI era content? Or maybe it would be a combination of pre-AI content plus some extra barriers to entry for newer content that would increase the likelihood the content was generated by real people?

I (currently) have the same problem!

How did you learn to speak more about yourself when (if you're like me), your mind starts to shut down as soon as you start?

While this problem applies to everyone, it unfortunately affects younger brains FAR more than mature brains. I think Jonathan Haidt's work said kids shouldn't be having these kinds of technological interactions and prompts until at least the age of 15/16.

Has anyone found any 'solutions' when managing technology with their kids? A colleague of mine has just a blanket rule of no smart phones until they're 14 and then no social media such as tiktok. His kids seem to respect it because they now see how silly everyone looks on their smartphones the whole time (having not been indoctrinated during their early teens).

Any other recommendations?

I'd call this "Checkbox onboarding"!

I agree with your first statement. When in-person, it isn't good to have a hot desk. You need to reset your space each morning. You can't have anything personalised at the desk. You have new neighbours who you probably couldn't be bothered talking to because they'll be moved tomorrow.

But I disagree that in-person is the worst way of working. I think some people are more productive in areas that are well-defined. But if teamwork, group problem solving or large amounts of communication is required (such as onboarding a junior), then there is no comparison: In-person has far more communication points than remote. Working in a team remotely requires you to schedule every communication point. This is frustrating when most information that gets passed between people is by osmosis / overhearing.

This does not bode well for the future. We are at a record low for interaction between men and women as it stands. Bringing in substitutes for social interaction just plays into the problem. This will not cure loneliness - these types of initiatives will increase loneliness in the long term.

There is one thing that cures loneliness - talking to other people and developing relationships.

The steps to stepping into a leadership role are largely two-fold:

- Express to your manager your interest in stepping into a leadership role over the next 6-12 months.

- Write down a list of responsibilities / behaviours a good leader has in your company. Take on one of these responsibilities one at a time to show that you both interested and serious about a leadership role. Advertise to your manager how you are progressing with these extra responsibilities each month via email so they had a written record.

A leadership role has much higher responsibilities and so your manager (if they are a good manager) will not promote you into the role without knowing you can do the job first. Leaders lead by action, not be theory. I know some great leaders who have a very poor theoretical understanding. And I know some horrible leaders who know the theory inside out.

Focus on action.

Companies generally offload the expensive resources first requiring the cheaper, juniors to step up and take on more responsibilities. This is good of course, but if the junior cannot get support to learn their new responsibilities, they'll just be stressed, we'll get lower quality code and overall the morale goes down.