Don’t believe me when I say “Engineering is art”?
Have you ever looked at a design and thought “That is not just functional, that’s *elegant*”.
*That* is what I mean. Engineering is art. Any idiot can knock together bits of wood so someone can sit on it, but a nice looking chair? That’s art. Same with software. Software can be beautiful, functional and easy to work with.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/117409820841473858
This hits the nail on the head. Programming is an art. *Engineering* is art. And AI is bad for art.
Hey TDD Pythonistas - what’s the best convention for splitting files/classes and tests? I am leaning heavily on Java TDD convention and splitting things out one class, one file, and one test file, but that means I need to explicitly import everything which seems excessive.
Any tips?
Totally forgot to mention Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries)
I have just been reminded of a conversation I had at #SocRaTesUK this year about the lack of female sci-fi authors. I mentioned Becky Chambers (The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - great book), but struggled for others apart from two classics - Andre Norton, Ursula le Guin.
Who have I missed?
Dear recruiters. “Agile Coach” != “Technical Project Manager with Prince2 & DSDM experience”
Quite the opposite…
Paging @Thayer and other psychologists - have you come across this research about FPS games and ageing recall? 👆
Oh this is so cool! In Dave Thomas’ latest PragProg newsletter he summarises Barbera Oakley’s keynote on neuroscience and AIs (not online yet). And this caught my eye (context: theta waves help recall)
“Research has found a practice that dramatically improves theta waves in people over 60: play first-person shooters. In fact, the FDA is currently investigating recommending a FPS as a clinical fix for this kind of brain aging.”
When’s the next Half Life out? 😁
The accuracy of searches seems to be inversely correlated to how loudly the site proclaims to use AI. Coincidence? 🤔
Me, to job sites: “I’m looking for a new client. Contract. Outside IR35. This is what I do, and these are my rates”
Linked In and every other job site: “OK, thank you.”
<The next day…>
Job site: “I have found these opportunities that really suit your skills!! Permanent (or inside IR35)! Lower pay! And for something completely different to your skills!”
Every. Single. Time.
<sigh>
We all have slow days. Days when we have low energy, and our brain simply slides off things, but we cannot just walk away and come back tomorrow. So we trick ourselves into productivity.
What are your tricks?
I’ll start (yes, I use these):
‘Just 5 minutes’. Pick something and tell yourself “If I am not enjoying it after 5 minutes I’ll stop”
‘Easiest thing on the list’. Like the ‘just 5 minutes’ a quick easy win can kickstart you.
Your turn…
RE: https://mastodon.social/@Carl_Zimmer/117345065655681591
“The Anthropic scientists [..] said that their A.I. had taken “the first steps of a biological discovery on its own.””
[Mario Rodríguez Mestre, a computational biologist] “disputed that claim. “They are the same systems we have been studying for years,” he said. And they are the same enzymes, he said, that he had described to Anthropic’s A.I.”
—
AI companies stealing people’s work and claiming that their AI is making new discoveries. How long before humanity stands up to these companies?
🤔 (spotted on a Discord server, in a galaxy far, far away…)
Quite possibly the most annoying thing any team can do is to hijack standard terminology to mean something totally different. Or worse, something totally incoherent.
The cognitive dissonance when this happens is huge. Doubly so when the meanings are not even documented, and people just “know” 🤯
Software is a *team game*, which means clear communication is key. And never forget the customer is a critical part of the team.
Swiss water makes a surprisingly good cup of tea, too. Closest I’ve come to my favourite brew here in Blighty.
So that’s good tea *and* good beer - the two essentials of life. I could definitely live in Switzerland.
London -> Grindelwald, Switzerland by train. Recommended but an exhausting 12-14 hour trip e/w.
Clean, mostly punctual, quick (when you consider the distance involved). Why can’t the UK operate public transport like Europe? Answers on a postcard….
One for the collection @kevlin 😁
Grindelwald Terminal, Switzerland
I am looking to retire n the foreseeable event horizon, so help me out with my dotage here 😁 - looking for paying clients who 1. want to improve and 2. who want to engage my skills on a fractional basis. 2-4 days/week.
Anyone?
🤦 As someone who enjoys the outdoors, motorcycles, used to scuba dive a helluvalot in the UK, and so knows the dangers of letting your guard down with Mother Nature and her elements, I cannot stress enough how unbelievably stupid this behaviour is.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/hikers-rescued-google-ai-plan
@samir about that password manager you were talking about writing… 🤔