zephyrthenoble's comments

It was weird to read this. I know antirez is on HN, so it's strange to say this, but here goes...

I always looked up to antirez. Redis was really taking off after I graduated and I was impressed by the whole system and the person behind it. I was impressed to see them walk away to do something different after being so successful. I was impressed to read their blog about tackling difficult problems and how they solved them.

I'm not a 10x programmer. I don't chase MVPs or shipping features. I like when my manager isn't paying attention and I can dig into a problem and just try things out. Our database queries have issues? Maybe I can write my own AST by parsing just part of the code. Things like that.

I love BUILDING, not SHIPPING. I learn and grow when I code. Maybe my job will require me to vibe code everything some day just to keep up with the juniors, but in my free time I will use AI only enough to help speed up my typing. Every vibe coded app I've made has been unmaintainable spaghetti and it takes the joy out of it. What's the point of that?

To bring it all together, I guess some part of me was disappointed to see a person that I considered a really good programmer, seem to indicate that they didn't care about doing the actual programming?

> Writing code is no longer needed for the most part

> As a programmer, I want to write more open source than ever, now.

This is the mentality of the big companies pushing AI. Write more code faster. Make more things faster. Get paid the same, understand less, get woken up in the middle of the night when your brittle AI code breaks.

Maybe that's why antirez is so prolific and I'm not.

Sometimes I wish I was a computer scientist, instead of a programmer...

On the other side of the test, I don't know a non-tech person who uses ChatGPT at all.

Interesting, I haven't tried tests outside of the code base the LLM is working on.

I could see other elements of isolation being useful, but this kind of feels like a lot of extra work and complexity which is part of the issue...

I've felt this too as a person with ADHD, specifically difficulty processing information. Caveat: I don't vibe code much, partially because of the mental fatigue symptoms.

I've found that if an LLM writes too much code, even if I specified what it should be doing, I still have to do a lot of validation myself that would have been done while writing the code by hand. This turns the process from "generative" (haha) to "processing", which I struggle a lot more with.

Unfortunately, the reason I have to do so much processing on vibe code or large generated chunks of code is simply because it doesn't work. There is almost always an issue that is either immediately obvious, like the code not working, or becomes obvious later, like poorly structured code that the LLM then jams into future code generation, creating a house of cards that easily falls apart.

Many people will tell me that I'm not using the right model or tools or whatever but it's clear to me that the problem is that AI doesn't have any vision of where your code will need to organically head towards. It's great for one shots and rewrites, but it always always always chokes on larger/complicated projects, ESPECIALLY ones that are not written in common languages (like JavaScript) or common packages/patterns eventually, and then I have to go spelunking to find why things aren't working or why it can't generate code to do something I know is possible. It's almost always because the input for new code is my ask AND the poorly structured code, so the LLM will rarely clean up it's own crap as it goes. If anything, it keeps writing shoddy wrapper around shoddy wrappers.

Anyways, still helpful for writing boilerplate and segments of code, but I like to know what is happening and have control over how my code is structured. I can't trust the LLMs right now.

Always interesting (in an informative way) to see people "defending" em-dashes from my personal perspective. Before you get mad, let me explain: before ChatGPT, I only ever saw em-dashes when MS Word would sometimes turn a dash into a "longer dash" as I always thought of it. I have NEVER typed an em-dash, and I don't know how to do it on Windows or Android. I actually remember having issues with running a program that had em-dashes where I needed to subtract numbers and got errors, probably from younger me writing code in something other than an IDE. Em-dashes always seem very out of place to me.

Some things I've learned/realized from this thread:

1. You can make an em-dash on Macs using -- or a keyboard shortcut

2. On Windows you can do something like Alt + 0151 which shows why I have never done it on purpose... (my first ever —)

3. Other people might have em-dashes on their keyboard?

I still think it's a relatively good marker for ChatGPT-generated-text iff you are looking at text that probably doesn't apply to the above situations (give me more if you think of them), but I will keep in mind in the future that it's not a guarantee and that people do not have the exact same computer setup as me. Always good to remember that. I still do the double space after the end of a sentence after all.

Yes, it's essentially the Pareto principle [0]. The LLM community has conflated the 80% as difficult complicated work, when it was essentially boilerplate. Allegedly LLMs have saved us from that drudgery, but I personally have found that (without the complicated setups you mention) the 80% done project that gets one shot is in reality more like 50% done because it is built on an unstable foundation, and that final 20% involves a lot of complicated reworking of the code. There's still plenty of value but I think it is less than proponents would want you to believe.

Anecdotally, I have found that even if you type out paragraph after paragraph describing everything you need the agent to take care of, it eventually feels like you could have written a lot of the code yourself with the help of a good IDE by the time you can finally send your prompt off.

- [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

Reading the text of the article, and not just reacting to the title, I do think this article has a kernal of truth to it that resonates with me. It's not really talking about intelligence, but MEASURES, and how individuals contort themselves into what they believe is valuable.

But at the end of the day, we do not have an inherent value. I wonder if people that get hung up on these metrics and what value they seemingly hold either that a person is a whole person, not just some measurement about them. The world's tallest man also has a favorite food, favorite color, and hobbies. He has friends and family. The metric you assigned to him is not the totality of the man.

I say this because recently I've been struggling with work and I feel like I have to say to myself sometimes, I am more than just a source of income and health insurance to my family. To someone who isn't in my situation, it might seem silly, but it has been scary and stressful and in some ways I did say to myself, you have value because you provide. But we have money saved, and are in a stable situation, and I could always find a new job, but my ego assigned value to the job regardless despite my best efforts at pretending that I don't play games with corporations. The stress that keeping a 9 to 5 causes in my mind is entirely self-inflicted by me.

I guess what I'm saying is that I should value other things about myself more highly, or maybe even not value anything about myself if that makes sense. What value is there in in measuring my success, as long as I am honest about my efforts and happiness?

I will never conquer the entire world by 25, or have a billion dollars, so maybe I need to learn to measure less and focus on true personal accountability and happiness instead. Hopefully that's a simple task...

So vibe coders need to know how to write tests? I doubt that lowers the effective barrier of entry to coding very much.

I assume you can't trust the LLM to write these tests, since you are writing tests so the LLM will stop it's bug loop...

This is super interesting to me. A lot of threads about aphantasia devolve into both sides being mildly incredulous that the other exists, I think partially because it's _hard_ for us to imagine experiences outside of our own.

But here, I feel like we have a clear delineation of the differences between experiences, in a non-abstract way... and that feels more valuable to me, somehow.

Thank you for sharing!

I think an interesting different way to talk about aphantasia is not, "Can you see an apple when you close your eyes" but more along the linked of, "Can you mentally edit the visual reality you see?"

A common exercise while being in the back seat of a car while I was young was to imagine someone in a skateboard riding along the power lines on the side of the road, keeping pace with our car.

It's not literally overriding my vision, it's almost like a thin layer, less than transparent, over reality. But specifically, it's entirely in my mind. I would never confuse that imagery with reality...

Having said that, I think that is related to the way our brains process visual information. I've had an experience when I'm driving that, when I recognize where I am, coming from a new location in not familiar with, I feel like suddenly my vision expands in my peripheral vision. I think this is because my brain offloads processing to a faster mental model of the road because I'm familiar with it. I wonder if that extra "vision" is actually as ephemeral as my imagined skateboarder.

I've been trying to generate my own maps using Voronoi diagrams as well. I was using Lloyd's algorithm [0] to make strangely shaped regions "fit" better, but I like the insight of generating larger regions to define islands, and then smaller regions on top to define terrain.

One of the things I like about algorithms like this is the peculiarities created by the algorithm, and trying to remove that seems to take some of the interesting novelty away.

- [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_algorithm

I live in the DC area and whenever I hear people say "just crack a window" I think, that brings in all of the pollen I'm allergic to in all seasons except winter, plus humidity and 95 f degree heat if it's the summer... I' be been looking into getting an ERV for a while.

Looks like you invented telemetry

So many drugs that unequivocally improve people's health have minor negative side effects. I think this person needs to find a way to connect with their loved ones and understand how the medication they are taking is love changing. I know it is for me.

I feel like this one is a mixed bag. I would be very annoyed if my every day life was disrupted by tourists, especially like in the train stop example, and losing local businesses and attractions to outsiders is terrible. I don't want to minimize these issues at all, so to be clear, the rest of this post is just me wondering about the right thing to do while also still getting to visit interesting locations.

I feel like this article really lays it on thick to make tourists seem like vapid TikTokers. I think the reality is more nuanced. We can't pretend that every person in the world has the same upbringing, morals, and values. There are people in the US who park their grocery cart in the middle of the aisle, and I have had plenty of tourists from other countries who just stop as soon as they enter a room and gum up the whole business. But plenty of tourists DON'T do this, and plenty of locals ALSO DO THIS. 85% of tourists are not stopping the middle of roads for selfies constantly.

And the other parts feel like gatekeeping. Oh, you only get a few days off a year and can only afford cheap accommodations? You are contributing to the death of small business and the enshittification of our shining cities. If you can't afford to spend more time in fewer places, further off the beaten path (sometimes costing more/having fewer affordable options) then you are a bad traveler. Why do I have to visit locations I have never heard about in order to be considered good? How do I even find them if I can only be in a location for a short time?

It just feels like a lose lose situation as a traveler. I read about the Roman Empire, I've seen pictures of the Italian cathedrals, I've watched documentaries about Pompeii, and I've drank Tuscan wine, so I should... go visit some small town for 2 weeks with very little tourist presence, and no one speaks my language? I'm not allowed to enjoy the cultural monuments of these countries?

Feels like the only winning move is not to play.

Isn't the article about college towns in America? It's not theoretical there.

A more universal example is probably towns with large seasonal influxes, such as ski towns or beach towns, but unlike a college town, these locations attract people of all ages and incomes. College towns in the US have an influx of specifically 18-22 year olds who can afford college but might not have a lot of disposable income, and most leave during the summer.

I've seen several posts like this recently. The title is something that seems very insightful into something that I've recently been dealing with, and I'm intrigued. I open the web page, read the opening paragraph, and realize that there are only two or three paragraphs. It is the highest of high level content, with more content in the title than in the blog post.

There's nothing inherently wrong with short blog posts. This particular post might even say that it's virtue, except it doesn't bother to expand upon its points at all. What did the OP want out of such a post?

As someone who deals with ADHD, I have read a lot of advice on the internet about how to be more productive. A lot of times, people point out things that seem like very efficient and successful solutions to problems that I have. A common one I see is to become more disciplined, or create a schedule, and you will find a productivity follows. I love this magical thinking because it does not take into account how different individuals deal with modern life. Of course, if I was able to have the discipline to do tasks, I would be more productive. The point is that I have an issue with creating habits or breaking bad ones, and I have found it difficult to find advice specific to my need to get better at sticking to habits with my ADHD brain.

Everyone is very willing to engage at a very high level, giving helpful sound and advice that works for the broadest possible audience; but when you actually examine what they say, you see it is full of holes. Any real person you give this advice to is quickly going to fall through because of their own individual situation and issues. Reading blog posts like this feels more like a way to give our minds a dopamine hit for "successfully accomplishing" something when it has accomplished nothing, and the shorter the blog post and the more general the topic, the sooner you get that hit.

This isn't to denigrate the post itself, I just felt a familiar sense of disappointment when I was able to grasp the entirety of the post in 15 seconds. I guess this is why people like Twitter.

I'm in the same boat. I want to have a stake in what I'm working, on but the politics/meetings seem overwhelming. I want to do interesting work without the pressure of unrealistic management expectations hanging over my head

Aren't there plenty of examples of the kind of speech you talk about in your second paragraph already on Twitter? There are plenty of hot takes to pick from, with some being censored more or less based on the current owner.

I'd also be interested to have some examples of the current set of ideas that you believe we are stuck with. It's an interesting phrase, and it begs to be enumerated.

You are presenting opinion as objective fact for a subjective medium, which is surprising to hear from an artist.

This argument, and this article, are not about the "great masters" but about amateur and professional artists who find their efforts easily reproduced and outproduced by AI. These people are not protected by "This is a REAL Picasso" and some of them could lose their financial security because of it.

The article indicates that style can be copied in as few as 20 to 30 images. Could you imagine being an artist who is attempting to gain notoriety, publishing low quality pngs of 20 of their works for their Etsy store, and then someone trains a LoRa on that and profits off of your images? Hundreds of hours of time in an attempt to start your art career, to have it duplicated in seconds by computer. You have no time to grow as an artist, because your required contribution to the data set has already been made.