Tcepsa

Honestly, not necessarily--there are often many ways to solve a given software problem. If someone else has a vision for the software and a plan to achieve it as a team, as long as I can see that it is looks like a viable alternative I'm generally happy to go along with it. Far better than flapping in the breeze with nobody providing clear guidance or input, in my opinion!

Thank you for pulling this all together here, it really helped me understand what everyone is talking about!

I believe that is one of the points the author of the article is trying to make: that the data scientists ought to be able to work in whatever language lets them develop the model most quickly and then hand it over to a software developer to make it work well in code, so that each can focus on doing what they do best and both aspects can be done very well.

I expect that it makes sense to have the modelers do at least enough coding to test the common use cases/expected inputs for the model to validate it before handing it off to be "properly" implemented.

That sounds similar to my experience with the Python ecosystem (of which I have a profound dislike at the moment). If you haven't tried Mamba yet I encourage you to give it a shot; for me it has had a pretty significant impact on the time I have to spend sitting around waiting for Conda packages to install.

Thank you for sharing this, and for providing a way to use other editors--I can't wait to try it with an Emacs client! (I had something similar in the past with just Firefox; I love the idea of being able to access it from anywhere!)

I believe the trees continue to grow over the intervening near-decade between harvests, sequestering CO2 not only in the part of the bark that is harvested (which sounds like it is potentially only a meter or two off the ground) but also as new growth along the rest of the tree. I suppose that that statement implies that, on average, they harvest 1/73rd of the growth that a tree has had since the previous harvest.

(Note I am not attempting to state whether that claim is true or not, merely offering one potential explanation of how the trees might sequester 73 tonnes CO2 for every tonne of cork harvested)

In that case, my condolences.

It was fun and engaging and I enjoyed it!

That having been said, and I apologize for raining on the parade, but I do not think it is a new type of puzzle. It's basically a visual representation of a state machine. I believe the classic "Get the farmer across the river with his wolf, goat, and cabbage" puzzle is the same sort of puzzle and could be represented in a similar way.

If there is some aspect of it that I have failed to take into account that makes it unique, I'd very much like to know!

And again, thank you for sharing this; it was fun ^_^

Not sure whether it would help, but if someone finds themselves in this kind of situation maybe try to find a way to discreetly suss out whether they are doing it because they've drunk the kool aid or as a "work to rule" strategy. It seems to me that many of the Agile methodologies, and Scrum in particular, are susceptible to that kind of approach.

I still do. Generally data structures and flow more than actual code these days, but sometimes I'll also sketch out an API or something by hand. I find it tremendously helpful for cultivating understanding, designing systems, and solving problems!

Given the continuing high price of video cards these days, I'm going to say yes, many people are still leveraging GPUs for mining. EDIT: Maybe not as much as previously, but still enough to have a noticeable impact on the market.

As someone who likes functional programming, I appreciate .bind as a reasonably convenient way to do partial function application.

I think the idea is more that the waste heat pouring off the CPUs (crypto processing units ;-) ) could be used to help heat up a living space

Best of luck with that! I'm a little too close to 45 for that to be likely to work for me, but in the meantime I am pursuing working arrangements that are more sustainable and fulfilling!

Thanks! So far so good, though the packing up to move is taking longer than I'd like ;-)

Not sure exactly what you're looking for but it at least seems to do a good job of telling me the line in my .fnl file that has the error (though it also says "in function ?" despite being in a named function). Also, that's running through the Fennel interpreter rather than transpiling to Lua and then running it with Lua.

Definitely have been struggling with stuff along these lines since my late 20s or so. It's been kind of like a revelation-onion, slowly peeling back the layers of expectations from myself and from others and realizing "Hey maybe I don't have to try to keep up with the media that everyone else is watching," and "Oh, if I want I really can pursue <obscure hobby>!" and developing into "You know, maybe this managerial track really isn't for me and focusing on developing into an effective senior IC would be more satisfying" and "Screw it, I'm sick of living in this area with its traffic and its noise; time to see whether my job will support me as full-time remote or find one that will, and find a house in the midwest"

Given this trajectory it seems like there's maybe a risk that I'll end up as a hermit in the woods... but would that be so bad, if I were an extremely fulfilled and satisfied hermit?

I fully believe that there are companies out there for which this is true. I also know that there is at least one organization out there for which it is not true, at least in several parts of the organization, because I've spent the last fifteen years working there. (It's a big org; there are probably parts that do have this kind of toxicity but I've been fortunate enough to avoid them). My work slides to the right all the time, but because I keep my managers appraised of the risk, give them as much warning as possible when something unanticipated interferes with progress, and work with them to consider alternatives and figure out how to respond, I have gotten consistently positive reviews and a wide selection of projects for me to choose from whenever I have availability.

Maybe I just got super lucky--it's a good fit for me and it's a huge part of why I've stayed so long--but to say that all companies and upper management are as you've described? That's painting with too broad a brush.

Kleen Kanteen sells non-insulated metal bottles as well; I've used them for this purpose (not sleeping, but holding against my body to help stay warm in a cool room). Bonus: once the temperature drops far enough you can also drink it for a quick internal thermal boost, if needed.

FWIW we used to make rice on the stove for years and it was fine, but then we got an Instant Pot and it's even better--makes rice that was comparable to what we'd get with the stove, plus all the other stuff you can use it for. So personally I'd encourage you to consider a "smart" pressure cooker with a rice setting rather than a dedicated rice maker.

EDIT: Might also help you tip the balance of the negotiations in your favor ;)

I suspect, though I have no documentation, that they are generally built with "cleanout" access points along the exhaust path (possibly in the form of "these are the stones to chisel out if the thing needs cleaning; be sure to mortar them back into place when you are done!")

If you're on board with loose-leaf, I haven't found a better paper than HP's Premium LaserJet paper for use with fountain pens at a reasonable price point. I know it's a bit counterintuitive ("Printer paper? Seriously?!") but it has worked great for me for years. Not too scratchy or feathery, and no bleed through. Given that I'm often doing the equivalent of semi-throwaway rubber-ducking with it I greatly appreciate being able to use both sides!

I see what you did there (and I appreciate it! ^_^)

Oh hey, I'd clean forgotten about that one! Thanks for pointing that out!

FWIW it's the Mississippi, but your description is probably more valuable given your point. (Though I think it's wild that people drive across the Mississippi, and I grew up just southeast of there in Rochester!)

tl;dr -- I have spent the last nearly-fifteen years at a large-ish (5k-10k employees) research-oriented US government contractor and generally yes, I do feel free to express myself where I work (it is a large part of why I have stayed so long!) I feel that I align pretty well with the overarching culture of the organization, and that I have been able to find projects and teams within the organization with whom I have a good cultural fit. This is tremendously important to me, and I am a little surprised at the number of responses that have answered "no"--thank you all for sharing; it has been eye-opening!

Some examples:

I have a poster of a dragon playing a text adventure in my office. I have a shoji screen (that I brought in) separating my desk from my officemate's desk to help me get a little more privacy. I have a few more framed prints of some iconic videogame scenes that I have not yet brought in because the pandemic hit before I had gotten them framed, but I have no doubt that they would be allowed to stand and that some of my colleagues would comment favorably on them. Management supported me in getting a chalkboard instead of the standard issue whiteboard, and in moving it when I switched to a new group.

Upper management has expressly stated support for people wearing what they are comfortable with to work so long as it does not interfere with their work or with safety protocols. (Specifically in response to a question about shorts and t-shirts, so I am sure there are limits to this, but they are well beyond what I am generally inclined to wear).

I generally use Emacs though most of the teams that I've been on have used Eclipse, IntelliJ, Visual Studio, or, more recently, Visual Studio Code; nobody has ever told me I need to change to something else.

I'm a bit of a joker and I find that humor can be an excellent way to alleviate the stress of working under a tight deadline or the frustration of a bug that just won't quit, but I am also aware of the harm that joking around can cause and try to take that into consideration when choosing whether to attempt a humorous statement. I also try to be aware of the culture of the teams that I am on (I have worked on several projects throughout my time here, many at the same time) and adjust my levity accordingly. My colleagues seem to generally appreciate my wry sense of humor and application of sarcasm.

As I get to know a team, and they get to know me and my productivity and contributions, I will sometimes bring a fairly small handcraft to meetings to help keep me focused (especially for longer meetings and/or meetings for which my portion of the project is not the main discussion). Chainmail, knitting, and cross-stitch have all been things I've brought, and while these often draw comment it is generally neutral-to-favorable; I have never been asked not to bring these sorts of things. My teammates also seem to enjoy receiving the trinkets that I was working on as I finished them.

I do not generally get into detailed discussions of politics, and I would say that generally it does feel that the organizational does somewhat discourage those in general (not a particular party or ideology, but overall discussion of politics). That is not to say there is not the occasional grumbling about the latest continuing resolution or a government shutdown disrupting funding, but generally people leave their soapboxes at home.

Regarding your last statement, and depending on how much experience you have with the software-dev side, you may find you have more options than you expect. Lots of folks seem to be looking for software devs at the moment, and I personally would see the mathematics background as a potential bonus (even if not directly applicable it generally suggests a certain amount of rigorous consideration that is beneficial for software development as well). There appear to be quite a few remote options (see the "who's hiring" discussions) but also, if you're willing to relocate, my employer would likely be interested. E-mail me at my username @ gmail.com if you'd like more details/to discuss further.

Sincerely, A just-finished-being-forty electrical-engineer-turned-software-dev

PS I'm planning to write up a response to the OP next; check that out for a little more insight into what my employer is like

Very reassuring to hear that I am not the only one in a position like that; thank you for sharing! (I am planning on stepping pretty firmly off the path to Principal Staff to substantially alleviate work-related stress and anxiety)

That does, in fact, appear to be a nearly textbook example of JavaScript object destructuring. See the Mozilla Developer reference site[0], specifically the "Unpacking fields from objects passed as a function parameter" section.

(Edited for clarity)

[0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...