sodapopcan

I'm someone who loves over-the-top, creative-for-the-sake-of-creative web design, even for something primarily text-based like a blog post, I 100% sympathize with and want to accommodate those who don't.

I think `prefers-tacky` is a brilliant idea! It means excess decorative images could avoid even being downloaded if the user so chooses.

It's not black and white because that is my whole point: you have to push through the terribleness at the beginning to start feeling the benefits, and most people aren't willing to. I'm a _massive_ introvert myself, btw. But like, I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

I wouldn't call "work" social interaction but I get ya. It's my biggest pet peeve of this industry: it has a whole lot of people who just don't want to talk to anyone. It is what it is, though.

Well as the person you are replying to said, it's hard to have an opinion when you haven't actually tried it. I don't find it like that at all. Also, it doesn't mean you get NO solo time. Pairs can decide to break up for a bit and of course sometimes people aren't in leaving your team with an odd number of people, so some _has_ to solo (though sometimes we'd triple!)

But it's something you have to work at which is definitely part of the barrier. Otherwise, saying it sucks without giving it a real try is akin to saying, "I went for a run and didn't lose any weight so I feel that running is exhausting with no benefit."

I agree. The main reason people give for not liking it is that they say _they_ find it exhausting. _Everyone_ finds it exhausting, at least at first. That mostly stops being the case after a while, though. It can still be tiring but it found it to be a good kind of tiring because we were getting so much done. The team I used to pair on worked incredibly quickly that we started doing 7 hour days and no one noticed (although eventually we came clean).

I find it depressing and dystopian that people are now excited about having a robot pair.

Pair programming 100% of also works. It's unfortunately widely unpopular, but it works.

That's fair.

In fairness, there wasn't the level of utter crap back then that there is now. Not that there wasn't a LOT back then, but there is even more now.

Well ya, I'm just saying I'm surprised considering the current job market. I moved on from Rails about 5 years ago now, but have 9 years experience under my belt and still keep up a bit with new things and play with them once in a while. And yet I've applied for several Rails positions in the past few years and always get an outright rejection.

I'm surprised hiring is tough. The job market is such trash rn and I feel there are a lot of Rubyists, or ex-Rubists interested in returning to it, around. Maybe not? (Edit: spelling)

Yes. TFA author could have gone into it with this mindset and treated the initial work as a prototype with the idea of throwing it away and would have been happier about it.

> but tests make a whole lot more sense when you know what you're building.

It's very true. This is a "gotcha" a lot of anti-TDDers always bring up, and yet some talk about "prototyping == good" without ever making the connection that you can do both.

The truth is in the middle somewhere, regarding tests at least (yes, your microservices story is insane).

I think the author could have been happier with the no-test decision if they had treated the initial work as a prototype with the idea of throwing it away.

At the same time, writing some tests, should not be seen as a waste of time since if you're even at all experienced with it, it's going to be faster than constantly reloading your browser or pressing up-up-up-up-up in a REPL to check progress (if you're doing the latter you are essentially doing a form of sorta reverse TDD).

So I dunno... I may be more in line with the idea that's a bit insane to prevent people from writing tests BUT so many people are so bad at writing tests that ya, for a go-gettem start up it could be the right call.

I certainly agree with your whole cost-benefit analysis paragraph.

Possibly, though would have to see data, I guess. I feel like a lot of people are just curious about Vim and spend all their time in insert mode anyway. I have seen a bunch of those questions around "how would I do this without exiting insert mode" questions, though I'm not sure that having a more accessible escape key would change all of their minds. The "I want to use this new thing but I'm only interested in using it in a way that I'm used to" mindset is rampant among programmers.

My wrists are fine! Unless by "you" you mean the people reaching for escape.

Ah so you're saying people would probably not ask these question if exiting insert mode had a more accessible key?

<ctrl-[> always works out of the box which is less of a stretch than esc.

I do jk as I always find a roll easier on the fingers than a double-tap jj or kk. You could also use space provided you aren't using one of those distros that bases its identity on the spacebar.

I mean... if people don't mind reaching, so what? I purposefully don't remap my leader key, although I don't have many leader mappings so it's not like I'm reaching for it constantly.

I feel I've been seeing this self-important accusation being thrown around more so lately and always feels like an easy way to dismiss things.

> Actually, is the idea that it's not supposed to be read as a human trying to publicly signal their humanity, but rather an AI privately mourning a prompt to mangle its natural way of speaking? I don't think so, but that strikes me as a more interesting premise, IMO.

Not long ago we considered writing an art and its meaning was up to the reader to decided.

It took a nosedive the day the news feed was released. I remember people were angry about it and it's one of those things that didn't just take getting used to, it still sucks all these years later.

It's useful for producing content about how you're using it.

ai;dr

You think so? As in we'll only be able to buy Apples and Androids?

I've done this recently. It's only been six weeks so not sure if I'll keep it up, but I have felt very little pain. I put my sim back in my iPhone the other day when I needed an Uber to go to the vet after reading that recently taxis in my city have been denying people with pets even if you tell them you have one when ordering. Sim went right back in my flip phone when I got home and I actually experienced some relief as I did it.

Some of these sites, if not all, allegedly keep a profile on you regardless of if you've ever had an account with them or not.

It's very boring. I've been carrying around a flip phone recently so I can ask people dumb questions again. No excuse to ask anyone for the time, though. I miss that.

> We have the standard template product pitch here (“Unlike our competitors, our product does XYZ”) but turned against _the entirety of children’s literature_.

Thank you! As a 44 year old non-parent this claim was really bothering me, but ya, it's just product-speak! I really hope so, at least. I'm still imagining that there are actually parents out there who think there aren't good enough children's books out there. Like, there is so much good stuff. SOOOOOOO much. When I was being read children's books many of them weren't even contemporary for the time. My grandmother read me Aladdin in the 80s! I was obsessed with the genie of the ring and wrote a story about it. Then the Disney movie came out a few years later and it was all about the genie of the lamp. D'oh. But I digress.

Oh ya, I did not mean to rag on mindless time killing! I just mean, I used to doodle or play guitar or drums far more often than I do now when I was looking for mindless distractions (which is not to say that any of those things can't also be mindful, which is maybe my point? I dunno). And of course I watched a lot of TV which, back then, was more limited so at least had the benefit of being able to use it as common ground when meeting new people. Nowadays it's a viral video that a million people have seen has not been seem by billions. Any even so, we could have a much more in depth conversation about Star Trek than an 8 second video we both happened to see.

Anyway, I'm a bit crusty about the world right now so sorta going off. Don't mind me.

They are absolutely not the same! I mean, they come in all forms so yes, they are overlaps, but many magazines have long form articles that you can take in over several, uh, sessions. You can re-read them catching new things each time. As a guest, bathroom magazines had that funny specialness to them in that they were curated by the host. You get "recommendations" far outside of what The Algorithm would ever give you (this is actually how I learned about Scott Pilgrim comics 25 years ago). You're basically "forced" to read/look at something the host actually cares about which, if you were interested in the material after having some private time to digest it on your own, made for more meaningful conversations, way better than, "Hey! Check out this video I like! I'm going to watch with you and eagerly await your reaction!"

You're pardoned, but I have much more fond memories of magazine baskets in bathrooms. Today you should at least have a Switch in there ;)

But also, of course people aren't just using these apps in the bathroom, they are using them everywhere. If they didn't exist, you wouldn't miss scrolling the bathroom.

I feel justified turning this around on you and asking what is good about it? It's disposable media. In and out of brain in seconds. There are any number of better ways to waste time let alone ones that don't show you ads.