sammoorhouse

It allows you to query a system (some databases support this) in a temporal context. This is useful in financial services where you have market data baked into a price you've offered to a client, where the underlying market data might have been later corrected by a vendor.

So you can query how the world looked last tuesday 4pm; but also - given what we now know, how ought the world have looked last tuesday 4pm.

Interesting stuff.

And, like, literally everyone since Adam Smith and his pins.

Assessing how good people are at skill A by trying to determine how good they are at ever-so-slightly-related skill B is what led google and the rest of the valley down the ridiculous problem solving interview quest of the aughts. Take your manhole covers and suck on them!

Abstraction is a skill, one that’s difficult to assess in an hour-long interview, but one which allows me to say “I’m great at C# but I’ll call someone when the printer is broken” - because there are only so many hours in the day.

Completely disagree, and I think the people spending the 2010's clearing up screeds of idiomatic perl 5 would side with me :)

Right, but the one follows from the other.

I'm passingly familiar with K, Q, and a+. I've worked with Borror and I kind of own an a+ compiler. I think if you define "readable" to mean "you can learn it with two weeks intensive tuition" the fine, yeah, it's readable. But to me, lightning-fast speed doesn't make up for terse-to-the-point-of-dumb syntax.

  +/&~&/(!1000)!/:3 5

This seems like a really weird thing to optimise for - would you mind saying more? I've never found myself thinking "man, I wish my function could _do more_".

> This syntax is very readable.

Objectively, by any measure, this isn't true.

One memorable answer was simply "Of course not." Maybe it's the same guy?

The internet isn’t going to work for you any more. Get past it.

Oh come on, you're making it too easy!

Which includes maybe the (greatest;worst;most horrifying) header file: https://github.com/PlanetAPL/a-plus/blob/master/src/a/arthur...

RTL evaluation semantics aside, the argument I’ve heard for the terseness of the q language is that the interpreter is tiny so it fits inside a page. Okay, great, so use your words and kill the built-in webserver.

For example: I’d hate to be stuck in a train carriage for two hours, packed in with people I don’t know, maybe Underground with no internet, all because my job requires me to be in a certain place at a certain time.

That’s two hours I could have spent sleeping; with a loved one; sleeping with a loved one... you get the idea.

Off you pop!

Wait, she’s what now?

I’m a software engineer by trade but now I teach others how to write code. When I’m not doing that I work with clients to write teaching material for the products they own, and I run a non-profit in my spare time. I hate the phrase “digital nomad” but I’m writing this from a co-working space in Morocco, so the shoe fits. Here’s a brain dump:

* There’s an expectation that when you start a project you’ll be able to hit the ground running; clients don’t want to pay for you to ramp up to become productive. Luckily, starting a new job is something you get better at with practice; you learn how to phrase the dumb new-guy questions and abstract just enough that you’re competent quickly. Part of this is showmanship.

* That said, you’re a subject matter expert in your field.

* Perhaps you’re able to work off-site, in which case you’ll need better time-management skills than you might need at a traditional desk-bound job in your field. Perhaps you travel a lot for work or otherwise.

* Unless you’ve got a solid client-base you might find yourself hustling for work. Certainly your client-management and self-marketing skills will be better than someone who changes jobs once every three or four years.

* You might get to choose your holidays. I’ll be working over Christmas.

* You’ll have more cash money but no benefits unless you pay for them yourself. I’m from the UK so I don’t have quite the same healthcare issues as my friends across the pond, but I’ve got to manage my relationship with the state explicitly.

* I’ve got a fucktonne of airmiles.

* Maybe you’ll work unpredictable hours in weird places, so explicitly making time for your family and friends is important. I don’t bump into mates any more, so making friends is just something you have to make a point of.

* You’ll be more exposed to boom and bust hiring practices - supposedly, you’re charging more money as your position with a client is more mercenary.

* Unstructured work isn’t for everyone. I don’t like the idea of going back to an office job with a boss any more, but it’s different strokes for different folks. In the last month I’ve worked in New York, Montreal, London and (now) a small town in Morocco. Next month I’ll be in Ghana then London. I love it, but that much solo travel puts a strain on whatever kind of relationship you enjoy with people.

Because you spilled water on your keyboard?

Obviously you don’t owe anyone an explanation, but do you mind discussing your objective here? Is it to make it harder for someone to find the study? Or you don’t want to promote the page by linking to it? Are you worried you’d be breaking the law by adding a direct link? What are your thoughts on the legal vs moral impact of the study being publicly available?

I don’t have an agenda, it’s just clear you’ve put some thought into the whole thing. Cheers.

Steady on, pal!

More than a little patronising, and also: really??