ChrisMarshallNY

I followed the link, and see that Veracity is still around, almost 30 years later, but in a very different form from what it must have been, back then.

Usability and simplicity have been cornerstones of my work, since the early 1980s.

Simple is hard. Like, really hard. People think that it's just about removing UI elements. In my experience, it's about adding the right ones.

I guess the downside might be, that someone could be replaced by this, but it seems that this is a perfectly valid application of AI.

In fact, lead generation seems to be a natural fit for LLMs.

However, what you have described, is pretty much exactly the organization that I've been involved in, my entire adult life.

I won't mention it, here, as we maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and film.

I'm "on the spectrum," which, of course, means that my K-12 days were a living hell. It was bad. I spent most of my early years, acting as a punching bag for any bully or proto-bully that was feeling the need to let off some steam.

Needless to say, I tended to be a bit "sensitive," during that period.

I also learned, early on, that I was absolutely terrible at determining motivation in others. I have learned to ask, explicitly, before assigning motive, so the sensitivity has extended far past my bully-magnet days.

These days, I'm fairly old, and have developed highly effective compensation/coping mechanisms, but it took a long time to get here.

All that, to say that, in my case, I feel as if the "sensitivity" was real, but as a secondary symptom of my "normal" autism lite.

There was a lot of that, last century. Made being an Apple developer challenging. We would suffer torrents of abuse (the current Apple hate is almost quaint, compared to that).

I enjoyed his writing, but there was always a lot of showmanship and posturing, so it was hard to take seriously. For me, it was entertainment.

I'm quite sad to hear of his personal travails.

People are drooling over Apple customers; not complaining about having their personal devices locked down.

Everyone wants to force Apple to reduce the burden on developers, so they can more easily sell to Apple customers, ignoring the fact that this very restrictive environment, is why Apple customers choose Apple.

It's similar to Amazon. Amazon is notoriously tough on vendors, but provides a very smooth customer experience.

> It takes a tough man, to make a tender chicken.

-Frank Perdue

In any case, their chunk of the market never came close to Microsoft's. Also, Microsoft aggressively went after the domains of other companies, like trying to take over the Web (with some success). Apple is protecting their own market.

You do have to be careful about cooking the goose that lays the golden eggs, though. I don't feel like people are actually "playing the tape through," and thinking about the long-term ramifications of these policies.

Makes for an attractive customer base. I know that there have been a number of studies, that found Apple apps make a great deal more money, per app, than Android ones (I'm sure there are special outliers in both camps, though).

I make free apps. In my case, it has nothing to do with "snobbery." I've just been doing it for most of my adult life, so I'm invested in the platform, like many of us do.

I also enjoy working in a challenging environment. I've learned to adapt.

That's different from "doing what I want on my own device."

...anyone?

...Bueller?

Apple customers are a very lucrative demographic.

People that sell Apple apps, stand to make a lot of money; even if they have to pay 15% (unless they make over a mill).

But the reason that all those Apple customers love Apple (and they do; even if HN participants don't), is because of that walled garden and restrictive policy stuff.

So, if we destroy that, we are likely to also destroy the reason that so many people want access to the Apple ecosystem.

It's very much human nature, at work, here.

<img href="/person_sawing_off_branch_hes_sitting_on.png" />

Still, I suspect a lot of independent Web developers are sweating. It was already getting tough, but this is a coffin nail.

Good name.

Having thugs on speed dial opens a lot of doors.

I suspect one day at the top of HN's front page, will exhaust that.

That's a big reason I never mention my apps, here.

I've read that very passage in the Ts&Cs, numerous times, and it didn't sink in.

It will, now...

But it's not that simple. We definitely need to "pave the bare spots" (desire paths); It's just that we need to start off, at what we sincerely believe to be an optimal place, knowing that it isn't, in fact, optimal.

Goodreads is commercial, but it does a good job of describing books and series of books.

[UPDATE] Ah. Figured it out. It's the trailing period. I think HN removes it from the link.

I'm reading Deadly Quicksilver Lies, right now.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/series/49491-garrett-files

That's the dark side of these types of dependencies.

But they provide a great deal of utility, so I can understand the attraction.

I don't think that literary editors are doing a particularly good job, these days. That may be because they've all been fired.

LLMs can do a decent job of editing, but it imparts a "sameness" to the writing.

Get used to it. I don't think we're far from every bit of prose online, being at least edited, if not authored, by AI.

If people don't want to read AI, then they won't be reading anything but literary classics.

I'm not saying I find the prospect thrilling; just that it's inevitable.

As for the topic, projecting values, and life stories onto people from single data points, is a favorite sport of just about anyone. We often see people on this very forum, praising or attacking others as a person, and assigning motives; based on only a single comment. One habit that I've developed, is if someone posts something either in support or in opposition to one of my posts, I look them up, and try to find out as much as possible about them, before responding. It often fails, because people don't want others to know about them, but I suspect that it succeeds, a lot more than people might think.

If I were a serious gamer (I'm not), then I'd get a hardware rig, but otherwise, I've not needed it.

I had a doctor that kept an original NT machine, for many years, because his bespoke app worked on it.

That part will still be necessary. I suspect LLMs can help polish and optimize self-promotion, but that also means everyone else will be doing it, and the competition is likely to be stiff.

Why are you so interested in defending DOGE?

Solutions aren't always good solutions. We need to drill into the details, but not the problem's details. We need to look at the solution's details.

https://littlegreenviper.com/problems-and-solutions/