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Debugreality

220 karma · joined November 28, 2009

Working on http://www.debugreality.com in my spare time and projects and products for it.

Interested in social change and making the world a better place.

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Debugreality··on Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles
I strongly agree. Humanity only benefits from having more smart ideas published.

Better is simply don't publish slop. If someone spends time refining and editing their idea with AI assistance and are happy with the quality of the finished product then I say go for it.

It's not like all human writers produce content that is worth reading.

Debugreality··on Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles
It's a tough one because some ideas may not exist without AI help.

Personally I recently published a white paper on an idea for democracy that has been bouncing around in my head for decades. AI helped flesh out the idea and write the pages of text and structure the whitepaper.

I'm not an academic so I probably would never have fleshed out this idea without AI but I think it's better to have the idea published so it can be seen than to have remained bouncing around in my head until I passed away.

I'd agree that an academic version of my idea written by hand would be better. But a mostly AI written version is better than the knowledge never being published and I still spent a good two days on it making sure I agreed with every paragraph and fixed every issue I could find.

Considering this in general I think the amount of human effort that goes into creating something is probably the right measure of it's quality over if AI was used to assist in it's creation.

Debugreality··on Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes
I think it's also important to point out the auditing and spying the government is asking the universities to comply with including the whistle blower section and things like - "report all requested immigration and related information to the United States Department of Homeland Security".

It appears that because it's easier to bully, punish and disappear individuals than an institution the Trump administration is doing everything it can to find out who these individuals are so they can be targeted.

Debugreality··on Bumble claims IP rights on employee's open-source libs
Generally these kinds of clauses should be viewed as red flags. I had one contract that was something like "We reserve the right to buy all IP from anything you work on while employed here for $1".

I got it removed before joining but looking back it was one of the most toxic placed I'd ever worked and this was just one of a number of red flags.

Debugreality··on Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday?
If I am tired and snap at my daughter then I feel guilty to hurt her feelings but that's because I love her and I'm grateful she is in my life it reminds me to focus on and share the love and gratitude. Guilt is the indication there is something I value that I am not appreciating or respecting enough. The idea being instead of the feeling dragging me down it moves me forward.
Debugreality··on Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday?
* At the root of jealousy is a goal that can inspire me

* Feeling guilt indicates something I can be grateful for

* Fear can also be a challenge to learn something new

Debugreality··on ProctorU is dystopian spyware
It seems to me they should send each student a device for the test with it's own mobile internet so they can use it and turn it off / send it back after.
Debugreality··on Ask HN: How do you tackle your own negativity?
One thing that might help is doing some personality tests around finding your strengths that might give you a starting direction in which to dig deeper:

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx

https://sparketype.com/sparketest/

Debugreality··on Ask HN: How do you tackle your own negativity?
c7DJTLrn - unfortunately this is totally normal for us human animals. Negative thinking is hardwired to be the dominant thought process. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0560-0 https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-bias-4589618

Luckily it is well studied and there are many old and new techniques that work for many of us with the most recommended seeming to be Mindfulness.

For me Visualization is also an amazing technique because if done right the brain remembers what we visualize so we can rewire our default thinking.

Try checking out Mel Robins her YouTube channel has a lot of great free stuff and her books are great as well. But if you don't gel with her style there are a ton of alternative people trying to explain more or less the same concept.

Debugreality··on BBC: The cost of speaking up against China (Uyghurs)
Stop buying things from China - look for alternatives. Next time you buy something major look into where it is sourced. If there is something you buy a lot of from China look for an alternative.
Debugreality··on Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable transparent wood
Leave one side of this transparent wood unpainted and termites would be easy to spot.
Debugreality··on I lost my boyfriend to cancer 'conspiracy theories’
Take a look into Chinese and Uighurs and Tabetains. Look into Scientology and other cults. Look into ISIS and radicalisation. Brainwashing is definitely a thing that works and a lot of energy is put into making it happen. It is indeed scary.
Debugreality··on Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
As a hiring manager the test that I believe works best is a code reading exercise. This helps reduce anxiety or the effects of anxiety (fear has a very big negative effect on creative thinking)

I take a small fairly self contained function from the existing code base. Give them 10 minutes to read the function.

You can also add a few actual bugs into the function if you like to see if they are picked up.

I then generally ask them a couple of questions. First to step through what the function is doing. Then what the larger context of the function might be and finally if they have any thoughts on improving the function.

It's a quick test usually under 20 minutes you can even hand it over to non technical interviewers if you describe what kind of answers they should be looking for.

Debugreality··on Young U.S. men having a lot less sex in the 21st century, study shows
Realise there is often a fine line between friends and friends with benefits. My advise would be let them know you find them attractive like offering compliments. Occasionally make a move to get closer, massage, touching etc. Spend time with them. It is likely they will be in the mood sooner or later and you will be the most convenient option.

Basically let them know your interested and ask. If you don't ask you won't get anything. But keep it light and occasional. And remember people can change their mind - so its ok to ask more than once.

Debugreality··on Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers
This article keeps describing how much password sharing and piracy cost but is only proposing a solution for password sharing without talking about which issue is bigger. For all we know piracy might be 99% of the problem.
Debugreality··on Rethinking Encryption
tl;dr: First 5 pages to show he understands why law enforcement wants to weaken security, last 2 disagreeing because cybersecurity and nation state threats are the bigger risk.
Debugreality··on Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this year's Blizzcon
I love they can just use google docs and publish a "site" like this so easily to share. No html required. I hope Google doesn't start getting political and pulling these kinds of docs.
Debugreality··on Blizzard bans player from Hearthstone following on-stream Hong Kong protest
Very brave @blitzchungHS hope your message is heard.
Debugreality··on Greta Thunberg: 'How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood'
Nobody coerced her. She is autistic in a way that makes her unable to ignore the truth. Without the same filters of ignorance and denial that most of us have she is suffering more than most people.

I think we are all suffering somewhat trying to deal with this truth and work out how to find our place in the solution.

Debugreality··on Ask HN: Fired from my first job – how do I talk about it during interviews?
In Australia I have always respectfully told the truth. It is no secret some companies have terrible management and IMO It can come across well to the type of employers you might want to work for. In this situation I might say something like - "Well I had some great ideas on ways that we might improve our technology stack but unfortunately the manager there seemed threatened by my ideas and shot them down without further discussion. In the end this friction seems to have lead to them deciding to let me go. I learnt a lot from my time there and look forward thriving in a more constructive environment!"
Debugreality··on A Pissed-Off Tutorial for Google Wave (2010) [video]
Just make it an option duh!
Debugreality··on Bill to put health warnings on soda and sugary drinks advances in California
Does advertising do anything - if it doesn't why do companies spend so much money on it?

This is basically a type of pro health advertising. We have anti smoking advertising which has shown to be effective (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-19/australias-plain-pack...).

I think with a good advertisement strategy it can be very effective.

Debugreality··on Ask HN: I lost my ability to focus for hours on coding. How to regain?
I wrote a blog about this a long time ago here: http://debugreality.blogspot.com/2010/03/hidden-dangers-of-w...

It basically boils down to understanding the negative effects of your work and taking responsibility for your mental well being by countering them which is where work life balance come from.

Previous HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1203696

Debugreality··on Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?
If you look at America like a giant company then the American dream was somewhat alike to company vision statement. Having a vision statement like that seems to have helped a lot in the past, perhaps better than companies with no vision. One of the biggest issues with these kind of top level visions is they are pretty much set forever and even if they are not working anymore it is extremely hard to replace them with something else.

But perhaps it's time to start trying?

Debugreality··on The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs
I think you forgot to talk about the other option - it can be situational or chemical as happened to my wife who became depressed as a side effect of another hormone drug. Once chemically unbalanced there is no firm finish line, she may be on anti depressants for life or her chemical base line may tip back to normal and she can get off them...
Debugreality··on Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
In one state in Australia they used to have a pay per container returned so for example 5c per bottle.

If this buyback was paid for by the manufacturer it could incentivize recycling, create jobs and help pay for recycling and sorting.

Debugreality··on TDD did not live up to expectations
I've seen TDD used once really well in a university setting where it was used only for shared libraries/services that could be used by multiple other teams or departments but not on individual (front facing) projects.

Probably because only the best developers on the team worked on the shared services it eliminated the refactoring issue as well as ensuring shared services could be a lot more reliably and safely updated.

Debugreality··on Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
If you haven't already streamline your learning skills usually developers with kids are more a bit older and have a lot of practice learning.

Kids do require a lot of energy/time but it is often shared with other family/friends who are parents so it helps to have a good network.

Get resourceful in finding time like early in the morning or on the train.

Don't be afraid to use your "working" hours, good companies understand the value of skills development so your learning is really a win win for them and you assuming you are planning to stay there in the immediate future.

Debugreality··on Qualities that I believe make the most difference in programmers’ productivity
No nothing like that at least the couple I've worked with. I think you are confusing these people with "coding minds" with people that can churn out working code quickly (they are a different beast). The code produced by the 4x people is very elegant structurally because they can see how it fits together, this is the strength but it may be missing some edge cases / functionality and or validation in the first pass.
Debugreality··on Qualities that I believe make the most difference in programmers’ productivity
It's true the resulting code isn't perfect. But there are design advantages to holding the code in your head that make up for sloppiness at least that was my observation. A code review for error checking is certainly advisable and good practice to boot!
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