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baddash

330 karma · joined April 13, 2018

mclaren212@gmail.com
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baddash··on I'm going back to writing code by hand
I've set a few rules for working with coding agents:

1. If I use a coding agent to generate code, it should be something I am absolutely confident I can code correctly myself given the time (gun to my head test).

2. If it isn't, I can't move on until I completely understand what it is that has been generated, such that I would be able to recreate it myself.

3. I can create debt (I believe this is being called Cognitive Debt) by breaking rule 2, but it must be paid in full for me to declare a project complete.

Accumulating debt increases the chances that code I generate afterwards is of lower quality, and it also feels like the debt is compounding.

I'm also not really sure how these rules scale to serious projects. So far I've only been applying these to my personal projects. It's been a real joy to use agents this way though. I've been learning a lot, and I end up with a codebase that I understand to a comfortable level.

baddash··on What's a Mathematician to Do?
this guy is resigned to feel worthless compared to other mathematicians (suggesting he become cannon fodder in some type of mathematical sacrifice. i wonder if that analogy even makes sense in the field xD).

but, he desperately wants to become a great mathematician who creates completely original work.

from my experience, people tend to or even want to limit themselves. they think they know the ceiling of their capabilities and it becomes some self fulfilling prophecy.

if you really care about doing something great like this guy does, don't limit yourself. push until you achieve the greatness you want to achieve.

it's like that one saying, aim for the stars and you might land on a cloud. you will be surprised at how capable you actually are

baddash··on A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
pretty interesting but why's this website so dramatic, like it thinks it's making me uneasy and paranoid or something
baddash··on Show HN: Hallucinopedia
these read like they're from Discworld
baddash··on "People who don't use AI will be left behind"
this discussion is so stupid. no one who isn't a moron is offloading all work and thought to LLMs. no one who isn't a moron is seriously afraid of their thinking and learning skill "atrophying", whatever tf that means.

it's clear that LLMs are unique in that you actually do have the capability to turn your brain off and blindly trust whatever it does for you. but it should be equally clear that that's a stupid approach. people will still use their minds, and this use gets empowered with proper use of LLMs. it's that simple. ffs, we take the fact that they pass the Turing Test routinely for granted now. let's not forget that this technology is legitimately incredible. it stands to reason that you are seriously handicapping yourself by not trying to use it.

baddash··on Show HN: Atomic – Local-first, AI-augmented personal knowledge base
but there are a lot of them
baddash··on Filing the corners off my MacBooks
Now I gotta hear these four coworkers' opinions on other things
baddash··on Ads in ChatGPT
It's only a matter of time before ChatGPT starts recommending penis enhancement pills or tells me hot MILFs are in my area.
baddash··on Project Glasswing: Securing critical software for the AI era
> security product

> glass in the name

baddash··on Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Mercury
my skepticism is really strong but I'm not knowledgeable enough to really be able to do anything about it... have you seen any valid critique or analysis of your project?
baddash··on Intelligent people are better judges of the intelligence of others
game recognize game
baddash··on Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Mercury
1-6 years can't be realistic can it? does someone have a better estimate of how long this would take?
baddash··on Desk for people who work at home with a cat
my cat personally wants to be between me and the monitor right in front of my face. so maybe designing a desk with like, a dip or hole or something where the cat can go into would be good
baddash··on Tons of new LLM bot accounts here
My take is that at some point, we will need ID verification online in general to prove you are human. Otherwise it's just chaos out here identity-wise and will get worse like you point out.
baddash··on OpenAI, the US government and Persona built an identity surveillance machine
thank god there's an annoying fucking cat in the way of what i'm trying to read
baddash··on Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant
I've had the same type of experience where I feel like the knowledge barrier for a lot of projects has been made much smaller than it used to be :D

btw, I have a couple of questions just out of curiosity: What tools do you use besides Claude? Do you have a local or preferred setup? and do you know of any communities where discussion about LLM/general AI tool use is the focus, amongst programmers/ML engineers? Been trying to be more informed as to what tools are out there and more up to date on this field that is progressing very quickly.

baddash··on We Induced Smells With Ultrasound
I'm also extremely intrigued by the second quote. Definitely worth it to experiment in that area.
baddash··on Humanity's Endgame
ah the telltale em dash — you know what it means
baddash··on First recording of a dying human brain shows waves similar to memory flashbacks (2022)
what was it like for you
baddash··on Why our website looks like an operating system
How come you're asking that? Just curious
baddash··on Why our website looks like an operating system
That's how most company websites are XD
baddash··on My website is ugly because I made it
i'm actually fascinated because the website made me slightly nauseous
baddash··on A new proposal for how mind emerges from matter
mind = container of values

consciousness = meta-attention

baddash··on Unexpected responses from ChatGPT: Incident Report
sounds schizophrenic
baddash··on Tech salaries have been cut in half
one person posts about one position paying half

"tech salaries have been cut in half"

baddash··on Stable Diffusion WebGPU demo
Out of curiosity, what are use cases/applications of this?

So what I know is that this generates images via browser rather than server. The only thing I can think of is not having to refresh the page in order to change an image or generate a new image. Which... hmm, well, that could mean websites whose visual design changes in real-time? And maybe changes in a way that would be functionally relevant/useful? That does seem pretty cool, although I'm not sure how useful Stable Diffusion is for generating UI components/visual aspects of a site.

baddash··on Silicon Valley is wrong about the future of transportation
Silicon Valley is just straight up wrong apparently. What a blanket-ass statement. How about a little more resolution in that statement so my mind doesn't fog trying to parse it.
baddash··on We need a middle class for startups
If someone has been massively successful, that means they know how to be successful. It must be the case they have something of value to say. How can you make the argument they have nothing of value to say?
baddash··on Heaps: A free, open-source and cross-platform game engine
is there some news/development recently regarding Heaps? or is this just a general awareness post?
baddash··on Joke written by an AI: “A basic program walked into a bar ”
I don't get the punchline, does anyone want to explain?
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