bambataa

I also got a SO-101 and mucked about a bit. I stopped partly because I realised my idea of putting a laser on the end of it had potential risks but also when you’re just prompting an agent to do things it’s hard to feel that you’re really “learning robotics”.

This post has given me some inspiration though!

I did cover it and had a toggle for it in the visualisations but decided to cut it out because the article was long enough already. There's maybe still a reference to the "vrio system" lurking in it.

My understanding -- correct me if wrong -- is that this hugely complicates things because the search space expands so much. If you imagine three straight pieces in a row, with vrio they now form a fan of possible positions. Then with corners and so on you have a near infinite amount of wiggle room. To do it accurately you probably need to map out the physical space a given connector can move within, but for the visualisation I just loosened the "connectors must align" rule to be "connectors must be within 6mm of each other", which is wrong but fairly close.

Extremely well-written and honest post.

The struggle with being self-taught is that you don’t know what you don’t know. This is probably even worse in areas like Unity, where the coding part is sort of a sideshow to the main event. Nowadays the problem is you lack the discernment to evaluate AI output.

I wrote The Conputer Science Book (https://a.co/d/01e62STx) to act as that basic building block and help orient self-taught developers.

What did come out from the blog post though:

- OP writes really well

- OP has learned to be very honest with themselves (and I hope not too self-critical now)

- OP seems really good at delivering things people like, even if they’re a bit cobbled together

All of which are very valuable and harder to learn than programming fundamentals tbh.

I have a rough list of companies here https://tmjohnson.co.uk/posts/every-tech-it-company-sheffiel... but missed Amodo so need to add.

Super interesting company and I like the ambition. Sheffield does have a growing number of “deep tech” startups and university spin outs but not so many HN-style startups. This is probably a good thing long term but it does mean companies fly under the radar somewhat. Sadly salaries still lag too.

I’ve heard this a few times. Could you elaborate why? Surely at that point, less you are hired to a very senior role, you are going to get a very small equity % and a lot of the capitalisation growth has already been priced in? In exchange it is far less risky.

Do you just go for the market salary and treat the equity as a minor plus?

Perrin the guy on YouTube? What’s wrong with him?

I kinda feel sorry for Gary Marcus. He’s carved this niche as an LLM critic and must have been delighted to have this bug to post about.

I stopped reading his Substack because he was always trying to find a negative. Meanwhile I use LLMs most days and find them very useful.

That’s interesting, thank you.

Does it not leave inaccessible vast swathes of philosophy where, almost by definition, science cannot contribute answers? Such as the nature of numbers and other metaphysical things.

I haven’t heard of the areas you mention in a sibling comment, so I’ll look them up. Do you find that you need to refocus attention to areas where scientific premises are useful as axioms so that progress can be made?

I’ve read the book under review and would recommend it.

Philosophy has always appealed to me but disappointed because it never seems to settle on answers. There’s a bit in the book where Kleene (I think?) is advising young academic philosophers to go into logic instead as at least there they’ll get answers.

Someone in the book describes philosophy’s truth value as less like scientific inquiry and more like poetry done in logical argument. That seemed like a potentially valuable way of looking at it.

I have been doing the Math for ML course and would recommend.

I have UK A level math but not Further Math, so up to basic calculus. But I forgot most of it and so Math Academy has me going through a lot of the Math Foundation units along the way.

I was initially put off by the monthly price, as it is quite steep. The clincher is that about a year before starting Math Academy I had gone through the Open University’s MST124/125 textbooks (covering the same stuff as Foundations). Except even after a year I’d already forgotten most of it.

Math Academy learning feels much more robust, since it includes spaced reviews and regular tests. I record things in Anki but it’s useful to have regular practice questions too. I also use ChatGPT to spell out things and find it works well at this level.

Some things I’d like Math Academy to have:

- ability to skip lessons (I don’t want to spend ages going over symbolic integration again)

- a reference page to track unlocked material, maybe with Anki integration

- fewer multiple choice questions and more in depth problems

- proof-based math. I’m told this is coming but the degree-level courses have missed their estimated due dates.

I will definitely finish Math for ML and then do linear algebra and multivariate calculus. You’d still need a good textbook to do them rigorously, but I think Math Academy sets you up well.

Peak HN.

Where do you find this shared view of what is considered the least valuable part of the curriculum?

Aren’t dress shoes without socks very sweaty and painful to wear?

“Defund the police” is a terrible slogan.

“Oh what we mean by that is actually the opposite where we want to redistribute funding in different ways blah blah blah”.

And all a critic has to do is “left wing radicals say they want to defund the police”.

If you are concerned by the ethics of Amazon I don’t see how Argos is a step up:

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/argos-buzz-bingo-a...

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/business/union-takes-l...

To account for people who die before reproducing.

That’s $5m/y.

Nick Clegg makes not much more for being Facebook’s global punching bag.

Not doubting your sources but why are they so generous?

I do French conversation practice with ChatGPT and just tell it to correct my messages.

What does this offer over that?

Why are you amazed? There are many complex front ends out there.

Why should I pay to maintain a road I’m not using now, or a fire service I haven’t used yet?

When I studied Russian we were taught (by native speakers) that щ was pronounced “shch”. But then when we went to Russia literally everyone pronounced it like a longer and softer ш. I still don’t really understand what happened there.

To sort of add to this, I’ve found that meditation has had far more profound effects than psychedelics ever did. Maybe they help to kick start things or show how much of yourself you don’t know.

My favourite is that giving in and clicking the “open in app” banners on Reddit etc just take me to the App Store page for Reddit, even though I have the actual app installed already.

The best thing you can do as a British tech worker is not work for a British tech company.

Is this the same CEO who decided to double the engineering team in a single year?

https://techcouver.com/2021/01/06/shopify-to-double-engineer...

Aren’t CEOs paid ludicrously well to make long term decisions, rather than just flail around?

I’d go further and say that most mainstream print journalism is in a competence crisis.

I simply no longer trust journalist in places like the Guardian to have sufficient background knowledge, networks or expertise to surface dramatic stories or assess sources.

Most of what they have online are “live blogs” just repeating whatever some rando tweeted (with no context or analysis) or some clickbait-y opinion pieces that are demonstrably incorrect.

Substack is much better but then the whole task of filtering and assessing sources is put back on to the reader.

> Besides, intelligence doesn't mean all your thoughts are automatically correct!)

This is the true bitter lesson for HN.

Do you read anything by Dominic Cummings? He writes a lot (like, a lot) about this from the UK perspective.

> Why everyone isn't leaving Adobe, Meta, and Google to found their own AI / generative media startups astounds me.

Mostly because I think the main value is captured by embedding these things into existing programs and workflows. “AI-powered” won’t really attract anyone to a new app when it’s so easy to add AI to existing ones. Also basing an idea around an OpenAI API seems fragile.

But it could totally just be that I lack innovative ideas.

> Requiring people to join your cult seems a bit much imho.

Idk, GP has maybe been… over-expressive about their opportunity, but it’s still good advice that showing an interest is going to make you stand out more. Saying “do you need code written because I can write code” says nothing.

I’m getting work done on my house and the guy who’s getting the work is the one who spent a bit more time looking at my house and assessing what needs done rather than a cursory glance. Isn’t it understandable that employers want at least some engagement?

I’m going to go out on a limb and claim that the large majority of big tech workers would be perfectly happy with a few promotions over a career and annual inflation-matching pay rises.

Except you rarely get inflation-matching pay rises, so the only way to prevent the annual erosion of your situation is the constant team growth and never-ending promotions.