brailsafe

Also for the record, I wasn't trying to take a personal shot at you or your project—nor am I sure of how valid that would be, if that were to have been my intention—it's just a gripe I have in general what I think is somewhat degrading the trust I can have in certain types of projects, especially those that someone shits out, puts on the app store, appears on the surface to visibly look ok, but ultimately has no uniquely valuable contribution or long-term outlook and is just someone's zero to one replication of something that has an api and already exists. It is admittedly cynical, but I now scrutizinize what I pay for more aggressively as a consequence.

This is one of the aspects of this year that I've been finding very grating and wasteful. Collaboration still happens among people with the ability to do so and the technical skills, but everyone else is taking their own helicopter to the top of the mountain, "putting it out there", and there's just a ton of redundant projects that do the same thing.

Interesting! You're absolutely right, I'll check

I think this is both a fair cultural observation and one that's a bit excessive. I think people regard it as a point of pride because it didn't necessarily harm anyone, and because that experience was one of their pivotal early programming challenges that has a tangible return and that they had relatively high agency over. I look back on my time as a player of WoW during the Glider days as one where I was largely pissed that botters were ruining the economy for actual players, but I look back on my time in RuneScape as one where I was completely fixated on running my little factory and not wanting to actually play what was kind of a boring tedious game. I'm not proud today of having scammed people when I did, but I was proud of having a modicum of ingenuity and figured out how to exploit various things in the system. Real world trading, like many rules, isn't inherently immoral, but deliberately stealing money or items from people is.

I highly doubt I'd have ever given a damn about programming if I hadn't tried my hand at Scar scripting as a kid for both RuneScape and Neopets. Simultaneously, I also scammed people and ripped off friends in various games, but that the two activities were mutually exclusive and I was just an asshole. I'm glad I got to explore the worst part of myself in a sandboxed environment rather than taking it to any serious level.

> The comparison breaks down because noise pollution is unavoidable.

That's not remotely true, but it's not just noise pollution, it's also actual pollution, and it cheapens the overall experience with the presence of an excessive amount of people who've potentially pnly bought their way there and have no long-term care for keeping it serene. More litter, dog shit on the trail perhaps, etc.. and yes more noise.

It's an analogy for the poisoning of the market for whatever you'd be working on, hollowing of the process to get there, and further destruction of the long-term viability of the pursuit itself by compromising its integrity through transactional commodification. In theory, there will always be people who exclusively and ruthlessly only care about the numbers, getting the product "done", or the raw numeric achievement of climbing the mountain, which is how everything gets enshittified.

Similar thing with gaming. You could tell me that if I truly like a game, it shouldn't matter how much they gradually dumb it down, make it efficient to play for almost anyone, or pack it tip-to-taint with microtransactions, but the reality is that all of those factors are the equivalent of strip mining the player base and leaving an empty pit.

> If you love the process what do you care that AI can do it faster? You can still do the thing

I can still hike to the top of mountains even though helicopters exist, but if helicopter tourism is as popular as it seems to be becoming, and Bluetooth speakers are as available as they are, the journey and result is going to feel very different, if it's not entirely ruined.

PvE didn't necessarily have formal individual rankings at that time, but it sort of does now.

PvP was a perfectly legit thing to be sweaty about ranking in. I had about 3 friends who were in some of the top rankings for their battlegroup for their classes.

The ram is not on the same "die" it's in the same package

Meh, although I'm conscious of the possibility I might be seen as a creepy old guy in his mid-thirties, I still find that hostels can be fun. I don't necessarily want to go out partying with 20 year olds, but an occasional few drinks with strangers and the ability to re-allocate funds to something more interesting than a hotel is very valuable. Travelling is already expensive as hell, I'm going to do it the way I want, and there's usually outgoing people within the same approx age range that want to do similarly.

That said, much like hotels, some hostels do suck; bedbugs are not chill, location is important, cost is important, vibe is important. I found that hostels that were more suited to families trying to save money were the least appealing as someone with just a spouse and a type B personality.

I hate paying for hotels so much that I visit my hometown less than I would otherwise if the city had a decent hostel.

> The negotiations are because Canada taxes US cultural exports (movies, etc.) and gives that money directly to their Canadian competitors.

Canada subsidizes U.S film production to incentivise the companies to use Canadian labour. It's the opposite of a tax, but there is a consumer digital services tax that's only been a thing recently.

In your opinion, how does extended release Adderall differ from the equiv Ritalin?

This is something I've considered wanting, and I'm glad it exists, but after some thought it's absolutely not at all what I want my Kobo to do. Much like how I wouldn't bring headphones or a Bluetooth speaker with me on a hike, or a laptop with me camping, I don't even want the option of games or anything other than a good reading experience when I'm using my e-reader. I'd assume this is a redundant take, but I don't even know if my Kobo can produce sounds, and I'd like to keep it that way.

What's tricky is that although I don't want it to be an unconstrained app platform, I do want the ability to integrate with services that host my things to read. Karakeep, RSS, Google Play Books or Internet Archive, etc.. but I think that could be handled in a more narrow fashion.

That may be true, or maybe you need to try some other things, including different medications and different pursuits.

Fwiw, I've been taking Concerta 27mg since being diagnosed. Haven't really felt much of a need to experiment with others, but full-on depression is a rarity for me, perhaps helped by investing heavily in my social and physical life. The only time I get jittery is when I accidentally drink as much coffee as I would on a non-medicated day, so I have to be a little careful with that. It's a very mellow, long-acting, subtle effect that is most noticeable when I'm trying to flow through a conversation or imagine things, which I think I'm better at on non-medicated days, but am okay with the temporary tradeoff. Overall, it's not magic, but it helps keep me on track. Higher doses have been slightly unpleasant and I've dropped back down.

I think what's become more clear to me over time is that I really shouldn't try to live like the stable careerists around me and on HN who have different kinds of parameters for success, yet have what I'd describe as immensely boring unhealthy or obsessive vanity-oriented lives. I'll never have a house, and I may never hold a job for 2 full years, but I can push myself to the top of a mountain, make friends and keep them in my thirties, and maintain a strong lean physique. The most difficult thing is figuring out how and where to apply myself when I have a blank slate professionally. I don't and will never speak like a manager, and yet my conduct with juniors in a recent role seemed to be welcomed and appreciated, before they threw me under the bus for some inane issue and fired me.

I say this mostly because although life is difficult, isolating, and ambiguous at times, to be comfortable in ones own skin means coming to terms with the things you do well, having humility, being open, ambitious, and authentically grateful for what that brings you (without depending on explicit praise or reciprocation, because it may never come from what you'd hope). You must be able to throw your own parade sometimes, be proud of the floats you can put together, and happy about whoever was able and willing to show up.

On this site there's constantly a vibe of "what should I be doing", but fuck that, do whatever you need to do and then let yourself do what you want to do; take some time, figure it out, let the nebulous sense of guilt subside, because it's not good for much.

I am now and have in the past been in this sort of position, albeit not with an existing completed degree under my belt, just a simple one-year continuing-ed diploma and years of sporadic career experience.

I went back to attempt to complete my CS degree on the basis that I figured I already had learnt most of what I would learn anyway and might as well both prove to myself I can do it, as well as get the credential for whatever it was worth. This was when I was ~27, and hadn't been diagnosed with ADHD yet. I discovered that I was absolutely capable in theory, but that the hard part wasn't the material, rather it was doing rote tasks to get the grade regardless of that grade's relevance in the field. I found myself completely capable of doing the homework and understanding, writing various persuasive essays, and intellectually applying myself, but failing horribly when it came to anything my brain identified as less interesting than any other subject matter, and I had effectively no control over that (unmedicated). I also had no ability to be on time, and once I realized that I was effectively wasting time and money trying to pass through the Type A Gen X career gate defined largely by the binary of having a degree/not having a degree, I opted to not continue. It wasn't about learning anything, it was about a checkmark, and I didn't and never have really internally care about checkmarks.

It would be the easiest material or courses that I'd bomb the hardest at, forget to do entirely, or simply not be stressed enough to do well; basic trivia, courses where 50% of the grade depended on labs where I'd be required to draw diagrams by hand, exams that required writing Java for 3 hours in pencil. When other students were anxiously scribbling away, I just flatout wasn't worried about it and just kind of spaced out for a while wondering why I was trying to bother. Exams require anxiety in some form or fashion, and in many cases I could not provoke that in myself. In some cases, I indeed didn't do so well on an exam either because I couldn't burn it into working memory well-enough (never having learned a study practice that worked for me) or I overslept... as a 27 year old adult.

Now, I'm once again out of work, considering going back to school for... something, but I have all that exposure in the back of my mind. Even now that I'm medicated and otherwise quite happy, I have doubts that I'd be able to succeed in any type of educational institute unless every facet was perfectly aligned for me. Having money on the line or an abstract incentive aren't sufficient rewards to have a functional impact; I need to find it intriguing throughout and believe it's useful, or be fighting my way out of a tangible corner, of which I'm not in and don't naturally panic about being in.

It's still disappointing that they botched the MX Master 4 with a slow polling rate and still stupid high cost. My V3 is getting long in the years but I wouldn't pay more than it originally cost for basically the same hardware nearly a decade later. Still, it's nice to have some alternative software

> Some programmers enjoyed the code writing more than the problem solving though.

Programmers enjoy problem solving and coding, but wishing to have problems solved isn't the same thing and only satisfying if it wasn't something that was going to get done otherwise. Wishing products into existence is more of a PM dream

I do get the impression from people who don't have multiple physical/outdoor pursuits that they perceive the landscape of being fit to be either going to the gym and being regimented, or not going to the gym, and everything else is just leisure, and these people tend to not even walk much (It's just an impression, not a broad generalization; I'm not looking down on these people). For people (or at least me) who do have multiple things going on, outdoor interests, climbing etc, the gym is like... my rest day almost. It's the place I go to supplement everything else, to socialize if I'm lucky, and hit a few muscles that only get uneven infrequent abuse while doing all of my other stuff. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise how volatile my career's been been, because the impression I get is that those who have the aforementioned perception pretty much go to work, imagine going to the gym one day, hate the notion of it, and then simply don't, but also don't do anything else physically healthy instead. If you set out to be physically engaged nearly every day, and you make a point of living near the gym, then it becomes the easy option.

> If the bookstore owners were smart they'd be digitizing all their books and selling digital copies to AI companies.

Ah yes, the old "if you can't beat the ruthless type A sociopathic American capitalists who literally don't give a shit about anything other than money and power, then you should join them and make a quick buck while the world burns". A tale as old as time really; we must mirror the behaviour of people who'd tell their self-driving car to drive over a gaggle of baby geese in order to continue working on the important task of privatizing the world's knowledge. \s

Hell no. Small town bookstore owners probably have the best job in the world; if they're smart, they'd continue doing exactly as they're doing.

I feel like relying so much on supply is a farce if the supply is always able to be bought up by people who are already rich and able to continue owning everything by outcompeting working people. Building more has started to mean little to me if we (as in arbitrary municipalities or governing bodies) don't treat it as a special market in which people can't just buy as many as they want

It's quite beautiful, but also a bit scary that it can pop up all over urban areas on the west coast of Canada/U.S in Autumn, as well as in the forest. I'm not sure if it's common enough knowledge for people to teach their kids not to mess with them.

This is something I've been concerned about. Out of work again for the something like the 7th time this decade, I'm not sure I even care to try and get another one. Unless a place is super low key and actually tests relevant skills, even with kore experience under my belt than last time I ran that gauntlet, I believe companies are likely to be even more conservative than they used to be, which was already comical. I don't believe I'm incapable or a detractor to a team, but the pressure to try and prove it in this economy and in this timeline feel... not really worth it exactly, especially when there's likely to also be pressure from management to move faster and take less time or affordance for actually thinking about what's being done. It feels like what I'm facing is a mountain that could be double the size it used to be, and that has a summit in the middle of a forest with no view.

Working on a small, existing, established product that can gradually be improved upon while aided by LLMs if necessary seems like the best place to be. Starting something new (not that I have any legit worthwhile ideas or the resources to pursue them) seems pointless because people are shitting out poorly designed AI slop constantly and poisoning the market.

But what do I do instead? Trades programs are already waitlisted or require another 5-10 yrs to earn something worthwhile. Transitioning to anything else seems like a tenuous prospect. I fear that unless I get incredibly lucky, the last job might have been the last chance to earn a living that made any sense.

To be clear, I'm not giving AI more credit than it's due, and this article describes the reasons for that which are valid, but the perception that they're magic engineer replacers is more important than reality. At least I can hope that the housing market completely crashes or enough crap code is produced by opportunists that I can ride it out, but other than that it's a confusing time.

> They just figured out what you like to watch and showed you more similar stuff.

> you have to figure out what people DON'T want to watch and regularly shove it in their face so the feed is bad

They did both, and figured out the perfect delivery mechanism to keep you watching; just the right amount of everything, with an interaction pattern not dissimilar to a casino.

YouTube and Instagram are dramatically less addictive if you just download discrete videos.

I'm a huge proponent of deleting all of these apps, but if you think you organically really like certain content, download it on the fly from a list of select channels.

Most people can't will themselves to even drink coffee without sugar and cream to dampen the bitterness. You care enough to make your normal coffee at least quite good, but maybe not enough to obsess beyond that, and that's fine, not everything needs to be a hobby.

Additionally, if you mess up a really good steak, that's like $30+, whereas if I mess up a pourover, that's ~$20/(340g / grams per cup); a relatively small risk surface.

Personally, I think if you actually like coffee, most of it should be drinkable, and the really great cups with rare beans that sit on the margins can be appreciated occasionally for what they are when fortune prevails. The bottom of the barrel for me is basically anything "second wave" or straight out of a gas station. Even instant coffee and McDonalds isn't as bad a place that has "Java" in the name or claims to have "gourmet" coffee. Older Italian places often fall into this, because (some) tend use the absolute cheapest Robusta beans with the harshest darkest roast profiles. Robusta tends to be the most rubbery burnt tire tasting crap out there.

> Not sure this is a meaningful factor for normal circumstances (for example below 1km altitude and for water that's safe to drink).

Some very populated cities are above 2km, many are above 1km, and most great coffee is grown ~>=2km. Water hardness and flavour is a big deal as well.

> The value you get from AI is exponentially increasing.

Perhaps in some cases, but the value I personally and professionally got out of LLMs reached a limit a while ago and has since kind of fluctuated between that limit and a bit less.

If the best model was instant, like the demo here, it could certainly provide more value, I guess, but I think the limit I'd quickly hit is the same one as now, which is how much of it do I want to produce, for what reasons?

I think a more salient point is made here:

> "In addition, there's generally a lower chance that the friendship develops out of convenience alone. Don't get me wrong, many in-person friendships are born this way and can turn into the most meaningful lifelong connections."

I don't have any "online friends" at the moment, but if I did, I'd have met them in the online equivalent of my city, but not at work and not next door, not in highschool. On the extreme end of convenience, you have precarious, proximity-oriented, passive, almost lazy social activity; you meet the friends at work, and you might invite them to drive out to your bbq in the burbs where you've also invited the people next door and across the lane. On the extreme other end you have friends that occur despite every communication and proximity challenge being thrown in your way. Great friends come from mutual investment despite some level of inconvenience you both can tolerate, and it's my opinion that if the seeds of the friendship are planted only in the shallow soil of easy access, then the plant won't bear much fruit, and may be ripped out of the ground as soon a layoff rolls around.

I don't online friends as meaningfully distinct from the requirements of any other robust type of friendship. They're just formed in the ephemeral online equivalent of a cosmopolitan city. I have strong friendships in different pockets pf the city for different reasons in different circles, and don't think they'd all work well together in the same room. Some I climb mountains with, some I watch movies with, some I play video games with.

Online acquaintances meanwhile, are formed in one discrete silo of interaction and don't stretch beyond it, much like your nextdoor neighbor or coworker.

> Also comfortably traveling longer distances might alter where we live.

You mean like last time? More cars being the answer to problems created by creating too many cars and reasons to use them is like more people buying guns to counter the gun problem, and I can't think of better "tragedy of the commons" applicable situations.

As I start to get older and I spend less and less of my time in the deep suburbs, I'm starting to be more aware now of the phenomenon for people to get less social and less trusting the further away from a core area (or, arguably also the ground in the case of skyscrapers, but much less so) they live. I don't think it would be a net win to hypothetically encourage further dispersement from one another.

I think it's a little of both, but last time I tried making a performant NavigationView/NavigationSplitView/VStack like that, it chugged along compared to the same layout built with AppKit

I wonder if I could get this running on my 48gb M4 Pro. Haven't been able to load anything beyond 27B

> There are hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store that are 100% SwiftUI. They are real. And they are very much "production grade"

The first is a statement of quantity, the second is a statement of quality, dubiously supprted by the first.

The Mac Settings app still lags between panes years after it was redesigned to look like iOS. I would think that if they had a viable way build a high quality and performant app with even relatively basic UI components (if they cared to do so) they'd do it for the 1 app that's deployed to every mac.

SwiftUI does work in certain circumstances, and does work for allowing people to shit out their ideas faster, but it has struggled with the aspects described in the video. Some companies don't care either, and turnaround time is paramount, but in this discussion it's about quality compared to what came before.