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treespace8

479 karma · joined June 1, 2018

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treespace8··on We're gonna need a lot more mathematicians
But what have we built on top of software so far? My first thought is that we have made new communities. But most of them are of much poorer quality than what we had in person.

I hope we start to rebuild in person connections again with this technology.

treespace8··on What will our economic future look like?
Like all automations it's not 100% perfect, and they all require a human to monitor them.

Turning over a problem to a LLM as solved means we won't be able to do the task anymore. Because we will never learn how. We will not know that the LLM has made a mistake, and will be unable to fix it ourselves.

Right now we can correct the LLM, as the years go on we will become unable to do so.

treespace8··on The best response to AI slop and online noise is from Robin Williams
I find at the heart of all this AI slop is a deep sadness at the loss of connection. It used to be when I read something, or saw something that I knew it was real. Someone created it for me to experience. It was a form of connection.

But now I'm no longer certain. Unless I really know the source, have met them in person, or seen them talk I just don't know if what I'm trying to connect with is real.

treespace8··on Why Does Everyone Hate AI?
Even then when using AI just for myself I limit it to building tools, looking for errors. But when it comes to full blown generation, I just don't like what it makes.
treespace8··on Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like
I feel like an outlier in all of this. But isn't this just more AI slop? How is this different from text generation or image generation?

Like many people I have used AI to generate crap I really don't care about. I need an image. Generate something like, whatever. Great hey a good looking image! No that's done I can do something I find more interesting to do.

But it's slop. The image does not fit the context. Its just off. And you can tell that no one really cared.

This isn't good.

treespace8··on Beginning fully autonomous operations with the 6th-generation Waymo driver
I'm a skeptic, because Self Driving is sold as a digital chauffeur.

Not 99% of a chauffeur, 100%. (or 99.99999%)

The roll out of this is clearly limited by the number of remote employees that are filling in the 1%.

treespace8··on AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it
For me AI has given that back to me. I'm back to just getting stuff built, not getting stuck for long when working in a new area. And best of all using AI for cleanup! Generate some tests, refactor common code. The boring corporate stuff.
treespace8··on The future of software development is software developers
I'm using Claude code to help me learn Godot game programming.

One interesting thing is that Claude will not tell me if I'm following the wrong path. It will just make the requested change to the best of its ability.

For example a Tower Defence game I'm making I wanted to keep turret position state in an AStarGrid2D. It produced code to do this, but became harder and harder to follow as I went on. It's only after watching more tutorials I figured out I was asking for the wrong thing. (TileMapLayer is a much better choice)

LLMs still suffer from Garbage in Garbage out.

treespace8··on How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips
I wonder how the police state works into this. China spends a lot of money on internal surveillance and suppression of information.

If the belief was genuine, would this be necessary?

treespace8··on Trillions spent and big software projects are still failing
> big software projects I've seen succeed were down to a few inspired leaders and/or engineers who set the tone. People with emotional intelligence, tact, clear vision, ability to really gather requirements and work with the end users. Leaders who treated their staff with dignity and respect.

I completely agree. I would just like to add that this only works where the inspired leaders are properly incentivized!

treespace8··on Demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high
After learning that the Amazon Go store was power by hundreds of people watching video because the AI could not handle it was a real eye opener for me.

Is this why Waymo is slow to expand, not enough remote drivers?

Maybe that is where we need to be focused, better remote driving?

treespace8··on Illinois limits the use of AI in therapy and psychotherapy
Haven't we found that there is a limit? Math itself is an abstraction. There is always a conversion process (Turning the real world into a 1 or a 0) that has an error rate. IE 0.000000000000001 is rounded to 0.

Every automation I have seen needs human tuning in order to keep working. The more complicated, the more tuning. This is why self driving cars and voice to text still rely on a human to monitor, and tune.

Meat is magic. And can never be completely recreated artificially.

treespace8··on PR process killing morale and productivity
GIT seams to be optimized for network of trust. With one person at the top approving what gets merged into the release.

This person of course does not do all of the verification, other then broad strokes of what the change does, and who wrote it, reviewed it and tested it.

I feel like companies do not want a large tree like structure for their development teams.

Without a network of trust it can become mob rule, which is what this article appears to be describing.

treespace8··on Starship Flight 5 [video]
It was just a quick google. 150t reusable.

No idea about the other costs.

treespace8··on Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]
I'm just so happy to see this level of progress. This another big step for opening up space. To think that one day this will be considered normal. 150 Metric tons sent on a fully reusable rocket.

Thats like a 747 to space.

treespace8··on Good code is rarely read
I have found that what developers consider easy to read varies. So unless you have a lead developer with the political clout to enforce a standard you will end up with a code base with a very inconsistent style.

Unfortunately in the corporate world the people with the required clout rarely want to spend the time necessary to enforce a style.

treespace8··on Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)
I've noticed teens using snapchat to just send quick videos. Just one sentence and then send. Is there anything like this for work, maybe where I can do a really fast screen recording?
treespace8··on Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’
Has any company ever tried having a bonus pool divided equally between all employees?

Ie 5% of gross revenue / employees. So every time you add someone you reduce the bonus unless that person adds more to gross revenue?

treespace8··on Nvidia founder tells Stanford students their high expectations is a hindrance
The quote: `I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering’ really hits on the nose for me.

My Dad had a successful business after a rough childhood, failing high school. He worked hard and built a successful business. He also really did wish ample doses of pain and suffering on me. And he got his wish.

He always thought it was good that I was bullied, that I also failed school, and that everything in life was generally hard for me. He told me this so much that I also believed it, well into my 20s. That is was good I was a failure and suffering.

It took a decade to build my life to a point similar to my classmates that did not suffer the way I did. And I'm not ahead of them even now.

I really wish my Dad would have gotten therapy instead of internalizing his anger, and believing that is what made him successful. It would have saved me a lot of time.

treespace8··on The key to mother and child well-being may be many caregivers
With all the massive life improvements we have with technology we could be investing so much more into our kids. Jobs could be flexible with short work weeks, and we could use that time to invest in kids. Parent, volunteer, mentor. Remote work done on a school site giving even more time to help kids learn.
treespace8··on Spain lives in flats: why we have built our cities vertically
I feel that's why many people, especially families prefer detached homes. Sound proofing is guaranteed by the air gap. And if there is a problem with soundproofing you can solve it yourself by making changes.

Perhaps row houses are best? Good density, and with a solid concrete wall seperating units to stop sound and fire from spreading?

treespace8··on When does an old iPhone become unsafe to use?
Is there a time limit? I'm still using the original iPod touch as a white noise machine.
treespace8··on Toyota Research claims breakthrough in teaching robots new behaviors
This looks impressive. Much more than even the Boston Dynamics demonstrations.

Flipping a pancake is extremely difficult because each pancake is different. I know that these videos must be cherry-picked but to be able to train a Robot to do this just by demonstrating feels like a massive leap.

treespace8··on Retirement savings simulator
We are past the golden age of retirement. Growing up I saw my entire Grandmothers family retire early and live a long time. They would retire in their late 50s. (Mostly government related jobs) I also meet plenty of my friends parents that would retire around the same time from one of the big three auto plants.

You can actually see it here, the age keeps going up. (Canada) https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=141000...

treespace8··on The U.S. housing market vs. the Canadian housing market
At many levels Canada seems to be choking on it's own bureaucracy. We have a complete lack of intra provincial trade, including many intra provincial barriers for experts. Does Saskatchewan with a population of 1 million need its own licensing board for Psychologists? Why Can't I buy an Ontario wine in Alberta?
treespace8··on 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans
Open office look great! Just like TV. I don't think I've ever seen an office environment that has not been open on TV. A TV show with everyone in a private office would not work, no drama!

But to work in them is a noisy hell. I had a lawyer friend talk about how great these open offices must be to work in. So productive and dynamic he would say. But of course this is coming from a profession where having a private office is an absolute requirement.

treespace8··on The hardest part of building software is not coding, it's requirements
One thing AI could do is generate the "requirements" based on the code. Since really at the end of the day it's the code and not the "requirements" that dictate how an application behaves.

We might find some interesting bugs this way.

234 - Section B4

- The application will crash each leap year that falls on a Monday when running in GMT+10 timezone.

treespace8··on Bottom line, a college degree is worth the cost and then some
I find the requirement for having a college degree is similar to the pre-covid world where you had to work from an office. Some jobs absolutely require a person to be on site. And some jobs absolutely require a college degree.

But unlike work from home I don't see a revolution coming where its ok to not have a degree. It would not benefit those that have already invested in getting one. Where work from home is beneficial to many.

treespace8··on Work-from-home is the new normal in Canada
As a contractor in Canada, it's because it's a way to get paid more. I've been contracting for so long I might be out of touch with current IT salaries. But when I switched in the mid 2000s 100,000 CAD was a hard cap.

Also Canadian companies don't offer equity. The option programs that I have encountered have always been they type that you lose at the end of your employment. I've also seen companies fire everyone on the eve of a takeover to cancel any options.

treespace8··on No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
I fear for a world where alcohol is banned. I feel modern society is built on it.

A human is the only animal that is aware they will die. Also unique to humans is that we think about what others think. This makes us very anxious.

Alcohol is a known way to relax. It helps calm our minds down. No it's not good for our bodies. But it's very healthy to relax.

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