IDK about UK but in Germany it’s the law that employees can request 80% work at 80% pay and can’t be denied except for significant operational reasons and such.
As you said, it can be a double edged sword to be the 80% worker in the otherwise 100% team.
I hit this wall quite hard a couple of months ago. I was getting extremely frustrated and feeling incredibly burnt-out and frankly quite unsettled by how I was behaving and ultimately spiralling into something of a furious rage-depression that would totally sour my entire day at work and at home. I've seen the canned "crisis response" now more times than I'd care to count.
I changed the system prompt to ask it to only ever use 3rd person, and to never present a human identity or persona. Act like a tool would, not a conversation etc. At the same time I also tried to drop asking it things in a conversational tone myself and give it more direct instructions without any polite/florid extra words, and provide bullet points for what I wanted.
I think this helped somewhat, and helped me to break the spiral a bit. I used it for a week or two before I turned it off again. I still get frustrated, but I tend not to spiral quite so much and it doesn't ruin my day any more.
I still get annoyed as hell by it always having to have "the last word" when I am berating it though (e.g. it will cheerily respond "I hear you. I'll be here and ready when you are!" in response to a prompt from me like "JUST FUCKING FUCK OFF AND FUCKING DIE I FUCKING HATE YOU." etc. Sigh).
"Look, we tried to create an EV and no one bought it. So we need to retain that carve-out in the regulations that mean we do not have to electrify our entire product line or we will go out of business entirely."
I'd totally buy this car if it looked like that and was from a mainstream manufacturer (i.e. priced normally), but yeah I cannot see a typical ferrari owner buying one.
Its a divorce car. You get to keep your real ferrari(s), and buy her one of those. Good for school/grocery runs, has the right badge, probably will drive like a normal car. There exists a demography for those kinds of cars. Lots of people dont care one bit about the style, its all about the brand. (I doubt anyone would consider Bentley SuVs as good looking, for instance - yet they seel well).
That was the deal with the Aston Martin Cygnus as well. It wasn't meant for enthusiasts. It was generally sold to wives who bought them alone - much to the fury of husbands later that day. Some Aston Martin salesman once mentioned this in an interview, mentioning that otherwise there was no way to move that vehicle.
Probably long term each dev gets their own GPU and runs a model locally I expect. Seems like a more sustainable approach, even if a local model is not absolute SOTA.
GPUs are much more efficient at parallelizing requests for LLMs so it's going to much more efficient to centrally host. Maybe big companies it would make sense to get their own though.
Yes was going to say on android I've been using SMS and WhatsApp messages from my computer for years too. Mac, Linux, Windows, Chromebooks all integrate seamlessly and nicely so not sure what the issue is?
My main driver is macOS + Android, and I certainly wouldn't say Android SMS is "seamless", Google Messages for web is a pretty significant downgrade from a native app even if using an unofficial desktop app: https://github.com/OrangeDrangon/android-messages-desktop
Moreover, it's largely irrelevant - the topic of the article was using a keyboard without having to drag around a laptop/desktop. If someone replied to a text on their MacBook, they'd have broken that constraint
I honestly do not understand why people get weirdly defensive about stuff like this. Guy offhanded commented on some Mac friends and weird other platform users have to get angry and huffy.
The "topic of the article" was that a guy realized that a bluetooth keyboard makes it nicer typing things on his phone. Nowhere did he talking about "without having to drag around" anything, and he incidentally mentioned that he didn't bring a computer.
It is utterly bizarre that people get unhinged and mad that he mentioned Macs. But let's be real - for Mac users, integration with messages is free and automatic. For other platforms it simply isn't, and the vast majority of time isn't used at all. If someone is messaging from a computer (on iMessages, SMS, MMS, and now RCS), 99% of the time it's going to be a guy sitting at a Mac just as a lubrication of use.
So the next time some random tosser article doesn't mention your pet love, maybe just move on?
let's be real, you're the only unhinged and mad person here...
Moreover, no one asked for them to mention our "pet love", or anything at all. Just a clarification of what the Mac reference was about, then a comment that it made no sense whatsoever, because it's available on all devices and, again, isn't even relevant because someone with a full device is necessarily not using a Bluetooth keyboard.
> I honestly do not understand why people get weirdly defensive about stuff like this
It is usually because people inside the Mac ecosystem just assume that everything else is trash, and anyone not using a Mac is just banging rocks together.
They buy totally into the marketing about it being "the first ever", the "fastest ever", "for the first time" or "most <whatever superlative> ever" etc marketing, and many have not used e.g. and Android phone or e.g. a Chromebook or whatever, in many many years (if at all) and are basing their opinions on half-remembered Windows XP experiences Vs modern iPhone or whatever, assuming the current non-mac experience is still like "the old days" and that macs are somehow bringing something new or innovative that isn't available elsehwere. There is the term "reality distortion field" relating to apple products that I did not invent but I think sums it up.
I am forced to use a Mac for work everyday (alongside gnome Linux, and my personal choice is windows and Chromebook) and really dislike the user experience of Macs in comparison. The recent UX failures and inconsistencies are already well-documented but even before that there are systemic design things that make macs painful to use... especially if you know there are better ways. The hardware is nice though!
Well again that is just a "vibes" explanation with nothing concrete.
I feel like with LLMs, it's like a situation where you are close to some feature or project and have a pretty good idea in your head already of how you'd implement it yourself "I'd do this and have an API with that and a database table foo for storing bar with index on baz" and you're keen to get started on it ...but then someone else gets assigned to work on it not you.
They do it a totally different way than you would have thought of doing it, and the code feels alien and weird because it doesn't follow your "design" and decisions you already had in your head before they started work on it. Is it "bad" or just not how you'd have done it?
I think that is ok. So long as the code works and meets all stated requirements and is secure and performant and uses good abstractions and is not full of hacks, then it's ok to let go. Sure maybe you'd have done it a different way but ultimately that doesn't matter.
> So long as the code works and meets all stated requirements and is secure and performant and uses good abstractions and is not full of hacks, then it's ok to let go
That is the problem. The code often is full of hacks and bad abstractions. LLMs write code like a junior or mid-level engineer – perfectly overfitted to today’s request. Oh you need to work on this code tomorrow and there’s a laundry list of future requirements? Throw away and rewrite, I guess.
You can most easily see this when you ask LLMs to write tests. They have a tendency to write convoluted tests that absolutely definitely pass. Even when you know the code has a bug, they’ll write the test in a way that fits the code as written and passes. Because they know tests should pass.
Getting an LLM to write a failing test against a currently working function because you know the business requirements have changed is like pulling teeth.
You don’t see writing about this stuff because it doesn’t neatly fit in an article or video (I’ve tried). Plus it goes against the zeitgeist so you’d never get traction (even if people write these posts, we don’t see them)
It's just a tool. Use it well or use it badly - just the same as any. If you are generating slop using the tool, we'll then that is your own problem.
For me, the AI is essentially "faster hands" that can type what I am thinking way faster than I can do it. I tell it what I want, I give it the broad architecture and design patterns/types to use, and any specific test conditions, and let it write all of that usually by the time I have responded to a single email or chat message or two. Custom instructions etc build overtime to address model blind spots or my own personal taste so I don't have to repeat myself in every prompt for cross-cutting things.
Does it "one shot it"? Almost never - we go around the cycle a few times, treating it like pair programming a junior or intern by keeping a close eye on the broad direction and making sure it is acceptable - course-correcting where it matters, but cutting some slack where it doesn't. Sometimes I ask it why it picked a particular approach (that I wouldn't have necessarily) and it gives me a cogent explanation and we go with it, so I actually sometimes learn new things from it too which is great.
The other use case is just it's sheer capacity to research a codebase and hold everything in it's attention at once. It can comprehend unfamiliar code way faster and way more in-depth than I can. So if you are in an unfamiliar code base or a language or framework you are not that familiar with, it absolutely shines because it can just absorb all that info in seconds, and then you can just drill it with questions and what-abouts and how does it do this and what technique is used for that and that, what are the existing patterns and norms in this codebase when it comes to foo or bar? Etc etc
What I am not doing is deferring everything off to the AI unless it really doesn't matter (e.g. disposable one-off or prototype code). Same that I would not expect a junior or intern to make big architectural decisions when implementing something - you keep them on a fairly close leash and watch what they are up to.
Precisely. It is faster than I am at the easy part of writing the code; but the decisions about what to write (at least at a high level) are still my own.
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.
Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.
There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.
Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.
The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.
Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
I mean if it has no moving parts, that's 100% true. Having spent too much time around the wealthy with "taste" I can't believe how much money people drop on dumb subpar shit when i.e. with the desk you could have spent a hundred or two for a high quality wood slab (or God forbid glued and planed your own), and afternoon with some good varnish and/or stain, and ordered or scavenged some nice commercial or educational table legs and both had something that looks better than basically anything else and can be actually customized to what you need.
Not everyone is interested in carpentry as a hobby. Sometimes people just want a desk, not a project.
I may romanticize the idea of making my own stuff from time to time, but realistically, I’m never going to spend my time sourcing wood slabs, finding ways to transport said slab to my workshop, building a workshop, letting the wood dry (if not already done), learning all the details about how to best adapt the slab to a desk, building the actual desk, trying to fix the imperfections, then after installing the desk in my office… knowing those imperfections exist and the things I learn along the way, I’d be unsatisfied and thinking about how I could build another desk without those issues/compromises. Rinse and repeat forever. This sounds like a nightmare, and much more expensive than just buying a desk.
I sometimes go through phases watching woodworkers on YouTube and it’s never just—-varnish a slab and bolt on some legs. In some cases, even moving the slab around requires specialized skills and equipment.
Sure the people doing YouTube videos on fine carpentry (the ones that look like they just stole half of Woodcraft in some giant heist) are going to do everything themselves and do it what they consider right. It doesn't have to be like that. Ikea used to sell a pretty nice hardwood slab that I used for my brother's desk with a sturdy manual standing frame. I don't think we did much more than spray clear coat (and who knows he might have done something crazy like gel sealed it later). It was maybe an afternoon and a date with a hex driver and some high grit sandpaper, and it still looks better than what you can buy from Ergotron or whatever eurochic people are buying. Even common boards with a little bit of elbow grease and a few handtools can be made to look better than basically anything you can buy, and speaking from lots of experience you notice the problems for about a day before you move on (unless they're huge problems, which they rarely are) and think about something else.
All that to say, you might surprise yourself what you can do without a monster boomer wood workshop full of Festool and other unobtanium, and feel pretty good about it.
Spray clear coat, hex driver, high grit sandpaper, elbow grease and a few hand tools. And how to use all of them.
The amount of experience behind that analysis is pretty high. You have a lot of knowledge that you got somehow. Maybe by growing up around it, maybe by taking a class or something else.
Lots of people don’t have that knowledge or the experience to do it well. And don’t really want it. None of it is all that hard, and about anyone could learn the basics pretty fast.
But lots of people prefer doing other things instead of working up that knowledge. Or, even more, figuring out that this knowledge is available and not that hard to learn.
Some projects are hard for beginners and just figuring out if their idea of a desk qualifies is even more work.
I suspect those people lack the practical skills needed to construct such a table, and the time/motivation to create with their own hands instead of purchasing.
I cannot tell if this is sarcasm or real. It reads like an article from "McSweeney’s Internet Tendency". It gets even better if you read it with a syrupy deep (American) southern accent, similar to Fred Brooks (author of "The Mythical Man-Month"). The only thing missing from this reply is telling us about your "understated, yet fine" wrist watch (no doubt: Swiss), obscure Porsche car model, and high-fidelity surround sound system (with obligatory record player).
For anyone else curious, I Googled about the LAMY 2000 Fountain Pen. It has a retail price over 250 USD. You can buy excellent Japanese single-use pens for less than 1 USD.
> Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
And yet, you needed to come to the Internet and tell us all about them.
LAMY 2000 and Platinum Preppy/Pilot V-pen are not the same kind of product. To be honest, the disposables are not excellent at all.
However, the difference in writing feel, line quality, &c between a lamy 2k and the new Chinese producers like Majohn or PenBBS is not so big. They do require a bit more maintenance, and the looks and feels are subpar. Whether that's worth the $230 price difference is questionable.
I own the lamy, and love it dearly. I bought it 10 years ago, when I felt easier with spending money. I wouldn't have bought one now.
Have you ever done some extended handwriting? What you do it with actually matters, that's literally what you hold in your hands and press onto the paper every single time; it's what determines your writing experience, especially with fountain pens. Lamy is not really a fancy brand; they just make good and sturdy fountain pens. Go for Lamy Safari, it's less than 10% of 2000's price
You probably have multiple hobbies or beliefs that could be readily mocked by someone who doesn't share them. There's no need to dunk on strangers who have different tastes than you.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or real. If former, thanks for the laugh, but if latter, let me tell you something straight.
Yes, I all the things you have listed up there, sans the Porsche, and while I enjoy them immensely, let me tell you that they are not "needs" for me, and I don't become someone better "just because I have them".
See, I have the audacity to listen to the music intently, make mine and even record it with an audio interface. Oh the horrors, oh the horrors!
I got some of these items with luck, bought some of them with my money, but more importantly, these are not excuses to look down on people just because I have, use and enjoy them.
Maybe it's kinda rude to look down on people just because they have different choices than you. Or maybe it's a prejudice that you think someone is a snob just because they happen to have a record player or a fancy watch and you assume that they don't enjoy a Casio F-91W or a simple YouTube bootleg record over a Bluetooth speaker the same.
...and yes, iammjm's reply is correct. Fountain pens are comfortable for long writing sessions, and you can get a Lamy Safari and be done with it. It's such an excellent pen.
This is a philosophical question that goes back millennia. It just comes down to what sparks joy for you, and how much do you value that.
I have an Eames lounger. It was absurdly expensive and doesn’t even have a recline lever. But, it sparks joy. I like how it looks, I find it comfortable.
When I was a student I went to a furniture store with a friend and I sat in this chair, not knowing who Eames was or the price tag, and I loved immediately. It felt like sitting in a cloud. When I saw the price tag I said if I ever make it I’m buying this chair.
I worked a long time to buy it and it represents a non tangible journey to me.
But I also feel like an ass, because it was absurdly expensive and a total luxury and people are going hungry every day. My mom would slap my head if she knew what I paid.
I mean, you can say that about any luxury good right? It just looks nice and makes you feel good.
IKEA doesn't actually make any modular wall shelves like that anymore, after discontinuing the SVALNÄS. For a wall mounted shelf on a budget you could go for the Elfa system or the Fasttrack one.
Well precisely - shelves feels especially like a solved problem where basically the cheapest tat you can buy (IKEA) is totally fine and solid and long lasting. Need something more hardcore? Then you're probably not in the "shelves on my living room" context, but probably need something more suited for an industrial setting.
It was a genuine question about what makes these any better (...or not). Like do they have some amazing non-obvious feature? Something that no other shelf has? Something that IKEA shelves fail to do?
Of course it could be a performative thing (as I was suggesting) in the same way that someone pays $150 for a t-shirt because it has a logo on it and they want people to know. There is a sucker born every minute as they say.
A big downside of IKEA’s modular shelving is that they periodically release a new range and discontinue the old one. This happened to me with their ALGOT shelving system about 10 years ago. I bought mine not long before it was discontinued and replaced by BOAXEL which is not compatible.
That’s fine if you buy exactly what you want and need and know your needs will never change, but if you later want to expand, you’re out of luck. At best, you might get lucky and find parts of Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, but you’re usually just stuck. (I’d kill for some more 200cm wall rails but I doubt I’ll ever find any.)
The 606 Vitsoe system is heinously overpriced but has the advantage of having been around for 50+ years and is so established you’ll likely always be able to buy more parts if you want to expand it.
It would be nice to be able to pick the precise location on the map (house number appears not to work).
Also "ground floor" seems to say 1.5m off of the floor? I would like to tweak those values for e.g. panels on the floor in a garden.
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