anon2020dot00

I don't agree that copilot will hurt junior hiring; Co-pilot is just a tool that even juniors can use to make them productive even quicker.

In fact, I think it will allow juniors to contribute faster and for high-school drop outs, code bootcamp grads or single moms to get hired more easily since instead of a steep learning curve, copilot allows them to quickly produce.

I'd agree with the argument if there was no such thing as entropy and senior developers were a static resource that didn't depreciate but every company is going to need new blood just because the seniors are eventually going to retire or move to different companies for their own growth.

The big appeal of juniors is usually low salary and willingness to work long hours and so juniors will often be attractive to companies.

For me, it's not smartphone addiction but video addiction which can consume hours of my time, just watching on sites like Twitch.

I was inspired by the recent Hacker News thread that talked about decreased attention span https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31874846 (My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span)

My hypothesis is using phone for reading books is much better since it can be done in chunks at a time and is less addictive than watching video so I'm using my smartphone for long-form book reading.

Do also find someone clicking an upvote hilarious? I don't get why upvote or downvote button would either be hilarious? Isn't that already normalized from Reddit, YouTube, etc.. ?

I think I must be living in a parallel reality where-in everything innovative is shutdown for one reason or the other.

From the short-time I've used it, it's clear that Github Co-Pilot is just a fancy Google Search in that it helps with remembering syntax and keywords which is already helpful, in speeding-up the boiler-plate writing and so is really a big help.

No one is supposed to mindlessly follow the Github Co-Pilot suggestions and of course if judged by that metric it won't help with code quality; but if used properly to quickly type-out boiler-plate code then that is when it becomes useful.

How many times does anyone want to write a for-loop or remember the syntax of how to declare something, especially when juggling multiple programming languages? It's these kinds of things that Co-pilot is good at.

I've recently returned to using pen and paper. Pen and paper has a physicality and presence that makes notes easier to find and to not lose. It also has an unmatched writing feel, which electronic drawing tablets and styluses try to emulate but still haven't matched. A notebook also has a simple linear chronological structure and so it reduces distraction in thinking about how to structure notes. Also, there is a finality to writing with pen since marks cannot just be edited or erased, so it captures thoughts authentically unlike with computer note-taking where-in a lot of edits typically occur.

Drawback of pen and paper is that it can be misplaced and the lack of digital search. I handle these drawbacks, by transcribing notes using Otter.AI (dictating the notes) which turn it into computerized text.

Same reason why Twitch chat is addictive because we are social creatures and it allows us to feel connected with other people.

But just like any addiction, there is diminishing returns to it and so it is likely best in small doses.

There is also the reward mechanism when finding a particular interesting tool or idea from the site such as recent launch of Github Co-pilot.

I agree about the social aspect and if I didn't have pre-existing relationships with my colleagues, WFH wouldn't be as smooth.

But with an idealization of the office experience, I disagree. I view it as a relic of the industrial age where-in output was from an assembly-line and so required everyone to be present physically.

In the knowledge era, a lot of work like programming can really be done effectively at home and asynchronously or just by using video and text communication.

For a lot of people, the office experience is almost a prison-like experience with very low freedom and control at the office. Also, there is even more time for socialization for those working at home and have family at home. Instead of just seeing family at night and on the weekends, at least can have lunch together and spend more time together so WFH is not synonymous with social isolation.

Who cares really. If a person doesn't find it useful, then just don't use it but if other people find it useful that those people will use it.

Most people have the attitude towards crypto that it is an over-hyped technology that is just sucking-up people's time and attention and so the best thing to do is to ignore it and hope it goes away as soon as possible so as to free-up people's time and attention towards more worthwhile things.

Maybe most people already have a job which they spend time and get money in return, so why would they spend even more of their free time in pursuit of a little bit more money? Life is more than money anyways

Maybe people don't want to play a zero-sum Greater fool game. There are better ways to spend one's time.

My sincere question is what if a developer looks at some GPL code, and then that developer encounters a situation in a corporate project where-in he uses the GPL code from memory, is that already a violation?

So to avoid a violation a developer needs to perform a mind-wipe?

The previous argument was that crypto will be a bane to authoritarian governments; I'm just pointing out that crypto can also assist authoritarian governments.

I never said to outlaw crypto or paper currency but I just brought-up that crypto is just a tool that can be used against and for such governments.

Interesting so how deep does the conspiracy go? Is a big portion of Reddit mods trying to cover-up "Epstein" crimes?

Aren't North Korean Hackers using crypto for ransomware? So actually, crypto is used to finance and prop-up such dictatorial governments.

Also, Russia is being sanctioned through freezing their USD accounts and imposing financial sanctions such as suspension from using SWIFT.

If crypto is more wide-spread, then it will become more difficult to impose such financial restrictions to Russia and other international pariahs.

Nothing wrong with Bitcoin itself but the rampant speculation is what draws the proponents and critics alike.

If Bitcoin just worked like a peer-to-peer neutral currency and had no speculative element, most people would have no issue with it.

The annoying element is when it is used as a get-rich quick pyramid scheme.

It's not about the money, it's about a scam finally unravelling and preventing a scam from doing future harm.

Even if someone missed the Bitcoin bull-run, they could have easily joined the stock market bull-run.

Difference is that, from the outside perspective, majority of the activity around crypto are just scams while at least other companies try to solve a real-world problem.

Even in a third-world country like the Philippines, Bitcoin is already well-known with a local exchange (Coins.ph) operating locally.

Majority of people who would want to invest in Bitcoin has already done so.

Hacker News is backed by YC so expected that Hacker News community will be more biased towards start-up culture while your initial posts and subsequent comment just seems unbalanced towards negativity.

Not all start-ups are made equally; some probably have the abusive culture that you describe while others are more fair to their employees and have a more win-win outcome.

It's more like scheduling hobbies like how we schedule work to be done in 9 to 5 block.

I guess it can help but normally we already have a natural time-block as the left-over from our work schedule but this is just a bit more deliberate.

Boredom is one tool to help with work; like at my previous company we're not allowed to watch videos during work hours and this boredom helps a bit to not lose track of time doing non-work related stuff.

Not really related to the article but just a musing on crypto is that I personally find the good thing about crypto to be the hope that people believe in being able to change their financial fate through it.

But the annoying thing about crypto is the mass delusion that seems to take place with people making non-sensical claims and being stuck on past performance of a coin as if past performance is a predictor of future returns.

I think links are helpful to navigate in Google Drive. The normal navigation via Folders and clicking is slow and so I prefer to just use links as well as reducing the number of folders to a minimum.

It is a strawman because he brought in the personal by saying "why don't you start your own company if you think pay is too high?" Exactly the same as film maker just saying "why don't you make your own movie if you want to criticize mine?"

Same as crypto defenders "why don't you short crypto if you think it is a scam?"

Anyway, I'm repeating myself already, good conversation, Thanks.

So I guess no one can criticize anymore? If my car is broken, then I have to make my own car?

It's a strawman and a diversion to just be talking about the general concept of fair compensation to CEOs and founders and then to just reply with "why don't you make your own company if you think the pay is too high"?

The parent was making no point but was making an unreasonable argument in line of "No one can criticize, but if you believe that then why don't you make a profit?".

Similar to people who say "if crypto is a scam, why don't you short it?"

There are various reasons why people choose to or not choose to become an entrepreneur or why people choose to or not to short something. It doesn't mean just because a person doesn't want to be an entrepreneur, then capitalism is perfect.

The argument is a strawman where-in the original discussion was about billionaire entrepreneurs and how much is a fair reward to them.

We understand the entrepreneur deserve to be rewarded but the original question is up to what extent. Like how in some EU countries, CEO pay is capped.

This logic is nonsense; no one is allowed to criticize capitalism's flaws?

It's like a movie critic cannot criticize a movie, since the film-maker can just state "why don't you just make a better movie?"; A diner cannot criticize the chef because chef can say "why don't just prepare a better meal?", etc..

Bringing the personal into it is unrealistic since not everyone is equipped to be a movie maker, chef or entrepreneur but that doesn't mean those jobs are immune from criticism.

Even Warren Buffet has spoken about the excesses of capitalism and pointed-out that the rich are taxed too little as just one example of capitalism's flaws.

Capitalism is still the best system but that doesn't mean it's perfect or can no longer be improved.

Microsoft Immersive Reader

Great quote and it speaks to how we need to curate on where we spend our attention on since there is an over-abundance of information in the internet.