ubu7737

What next, a chess game?

Oops.

This is evidence of Horseshoe Theory, really. Shouting about the failures of Capitalism during a crisis is essentially what the far-right does about Progressivism. "I told you so" mentality in dupes who bought the theory but never paid any attention to the practice.

Get down off your high horse and pay attention.

The car is not driverless. You are just backseat.

The greatest risk you run with your current attitude is that you contribute to the "it's a crisis but I have higher priorities" thinking. This is what bends the horseshoe, ideology. If we weren't in a crisis, I'd be more sympathetic.

That's a clever way to inject your agenda, but I'm not having it. The immediate problem is ecological collapse, the proposed solution is a Sun-shade, and you're basically shouting that "we'll do nothing until we get to the bottom of the failures of Capitalism!"

Enough. This isn't a Parliament and you don't get a liberum veto.

Moralizing about the imperfect behavior of people during a crisis is essentially bikeshedding.

It makes me wonder about the people doing the moralizing: do they really care to contribute to the solution, or are they grinding their own personal axe about the behavior of others?

Sounds like the reasoning of a terrorist. Seriously.

If your primary goal is to force people to do something they don't want to do, on principle, call yourself an activist, a freedom-fighter, or a terrorist, I don't care. It's all the same to me.

If your primary goal is the survival of the human race, you shouldn't moralize.

Do you also oppose administering Gardasil to prevent HPV infections, on the grounds that youngsters will stop pursuing safe/marital sex?

> Buying time is good only if that time is properly paid for.

Buying time is always good if it forestalls doom.

Climate change activists who let perfect be the enemy of good will get all of us killed.

When engagement is sold to advertisers, it's difficult to trust any changes to the UI.

The scrollbar should be sacred. Otherwise everything will wind up with sliding-window advertisements.

What I nailed is the idea of back-pressure. Removing the consumer's ability to use back-pressure mechanisms against excessive stream provision is an anti-pattern.

Providers who want to maximize "engagement" do not care.

This is known as "spam".

This is absolutely terrifying thinking. You seem to believe that readers are passive consumers of a stream, and should not have agency in their consumption of said streams.

> it's a wider population of students being expected to understand computers

There it is.

It isn't just education, obviously. All software has to be subjugated to an ease-of-use that buries details.

Also in agreement, breeding pets so they can be lifestyle accessories is probably wrong.

Both my pets are rescues, I have no difficulty with falling in love with rescued animals.

Very happy with Windows 10 and WSL.

This is ridiculous language. The horrible stink of authoritarianism in this thread!

Good thing for you, that excellent software is always written at the bark of a sadly decomposing mind. You're making wherever great again, I suppose.

I simply cannot believe how myopic this whole comment is. It seems you simply cannot be satisfied with excellence, and would prefer mediocrity.

This is the condition of our society. You have absolutely no knowledge of the history of software if you think this engineer fits the description of anything but "brilliant pioneer".

If you had any skill whatsoever in your role you would be pushing your team to match his effort. The problem is blindingly clear, and I want to thank you ironically for making it so honestly clear in your comment.

People like you describe love structure, if it's supportive. You didn't provide a supportive structure. You accused him of falling behind on synthetic targets because of his ambition.

It's no wonder he prefers to avoid that sort of "structure". Jesus Christ.

The elephant in every room you occupy is probably "this guy needs his authority validated".

Monkey see, monkey do.

Does that sound like a good strategy? Perhaps you are a monkey.

Cultivate the qualities you see in yourself. If you cannot do that, nobody can advise you.

> how do I get to be like this employee?

You don't.

If you have to ask, you aren't anything like that employee.

Life as a human being is not a choose-your-own-adventure, and your personality can't be altered in a deterministic way.

Learn to embrace the person you are, or fuck right off.

> Leadership is soft skills

Grifting.

> the employee in question doesn’t have them

The employee in question seems capable of upending your financial priorities.

> stop the demand on labour

For compliance, right?

> petulant child

We hate about others what we hate about ourselves.

> Bartleby is clearly depressed, as many of us are in these times. He’s broken, not committed to repair. And he’s encouraged to stay that way, in part, because no one really knows what the hell to do with him.

As Szasz points out, this is the basic attitude of modern psychiatry. "What the hell do we do with these depressed people? They should repair themselves and get lively in the world (that we have miserably abused)."

Like all projects hoping to reduce the complexity of software development, this will go nowhere.

> A really great new idea should empower millions of people completely unlike us to build software.

Do you mean, like, some sort of "silver bullet"?

1. the US average is not meaningful in Texas

2. $75 for an oil change including filter and synthetic oil is not an overcharge

3. I am more than able to change the oil on my vehicle myself, just as I'm able to adjust the derailleur cables on my bicycle and mow and edge my own lawn. Ask yourself whether you are overcharging yourself to do these things

I can put all of my bicycles on the stand and replace frayed cables and crimp aglets onto the ends, or I can put every single bicycle I own into the back of the truck and have the bike shop do it for me. It's not a question of whether I've improved myself, it's not a Don Sharp "Under the Hood" question whether I respect the work involved. It's a time and annoyance issue best left to people who earn less than I do.

If I'm dissatisfied with the pull on badly-run brake and shifting cables, or badly installed cable housings, I can complain and have them replaced. If the mistake is my own, I am left with a dilemma: How important is it to me, in terms of blood and treasure, to fix the problem myself? This creates a schism in my thinking about priorities and commitments.

Bike shops do not have this problem. They source parts in large quantities, they perform these tasks with regularity, and the customer is always right when he says "I want the featherweight Shimano DA cable, just get it from QBP or whomever, but do it."

> The only big benefit I get out of it is that I can drop everything and go on a camping / skiing trip several times a year.

This is my only excuse for owning a vehicle, too. I can be spontaneous and do a thing that requires multiple people with coordination that Uber/Lyft can't provide.

I went 12 years without owning a car (in my 30s and early 40s). I bought a vehicle a little over a year ago and I've changed the oil every 5,000 miles which amounts to 5 changes at $75 per change.

If you're changing the oil on your vehicle twice a year you're either underutilizing the vehicle or ruining it.

The basic premise of the article is "help the environment". If that is no incentive to you, so be it.

"I'm writing this because I'm too angry to work."

This is a poor premise.

I give it a pass because RMS was probably in a similar pique when he sent his ridiculous email.

But elevating this conversation (and actually ditching RMS) will require calm.

I have a coworker two half-height cube walls away who will stare pointedly at me seconds before he calls out my name to molest my concentration.

I have come to find these events blood-curdling. It is simply unacceptable to me that a turned head cuts through my peripheral vision to warn me of what amounts to an assault on the mind.

The open office enshrines interruption and creates an environment whereby no moment of reflection is sacred. The neediest, most disruptive, and least productive employees are rewarded for behaving in the most antisocial ways thinkable.

I recommend you just don't alter the user's scrollbar for your own taste preferences.

Why does horizontal space matter on desktop anyway?

> because I like my Macbook Pro, have never had a keyboard issue, I LIKE TYPING on the keyboard, and would buy another one.

In general I've found that slow typers are the people saying things like this. Nobody with a history of speed at a keyboard can be satisfied with a tablet-like KB, let alone one with the gigantic palm-magnet touchpad.

When people profess their love for the butterflies, I carefully observe their typing style. Palms held high, fingers pecking like bird beaks. And always, always very slowly.