jleyank

There comes a time in life when there's "just too much stuff". Whenever that happens, things like e-books and other digital media become more important. And today, unfortunately, books might not be items that have any resale value.

I assume it's "you can see all the source, but I won't accept your changes"?

Perhaps get a PhD in something that (heavily) uses math, such as Physics or some aspects of Chemistry? Similar to CS, it might be better professionally to work in areas where CS is a tool rather than the product. If you can make math (or code) appear, than these associated areas should advance a bit more quickly.

Gresham's Law applies here too. Bad code drives out good. And if it costs money to maintain good code, it's going to hasten its departure. I really hope Linus and others at that level filter out all the slop that's being produced.

The main side effect was, as indicated, weight loss. They’re trying to identify and understand others and once they can make a biological model for them they’ll start drug design. Ideally something smaller and tailored to the specific model. But they’ll take anything safe and effective given the piles of money from a blockbuster.

Still gone of biological mechanisms that are unknown, even unsuspected. Meatbags ain’t quite engineering yet.

Remember, one of the best tools for decoding something is a screwdriver…. Math helps, too.

Err, pix? Unless she also played the Wicked Witch…

Automation of a task drains the joy out of it. And now, automation is coming to programming. One can now discuss hand-crafter software like they discuss handcrafted instruments or artwork…. Perhaps it’s curious why it took so long to do to itself what it did to other fields. Or will writing code become like doing crosswords, for amusement?

They called secretaries pink-collar workers after computers destroyed their field. Guess developers are t-shirt workers headed out the door?

If they don’t have a property or wage tax, how are they going to pay for any state or local services? Their sales tax isn’t particularly high… Are they going to try and do it on the backs of tourists and non residents? Risky, as there’s lots of places to go that are warm on the ocean.

Short duration and room for luggage both wins for tourists. Trying to wedge lots of luggage on the tube isn’t fun. Does the Elizabeth line have more room for bags? Or do they just more taxi and uber going to/from the airport?

Maybe handmade code will become like handmade watches, a luxury item or a hobby activity. But I fear that the loss of understanding will lease to worse software and more frustrated users. We all have to see how easy it is to maintain auto-generated code.

Two (echoed) thoughts: if you identify with your job too much, you have no “you” left. This causes a vacuum in retirement. Perhaps it’s best to step back somewhat slowly to make sure you’re decompressing and getting ready for the next step.

Somebody who has chronicled and commented on the business for a long time. I enjoyed his work, and chuckled at some of the for-and-against it caused. Sorry to hear and I hope his family is ok. There’s a whole lotta water that’s passed under the bridge that we’ve not really noticed.

I think there might be a problem with the muskeg up north - trying to get a firm spot of ground that can withstand the weight of the pipeline. At least the mountains bear weight.

The risk, of course, is that the world oil market in 3-5 years will be sane. Might not provide enough economic return to pay for the buildout. But there’s a lot of crazies out there. Anybody actually building refineries?

I would think it’s important as a status marker/checkoff, a place to establish networks, a place to get initial training for an advanced degree or a place to kick back and enjoy 4 years in a rich environment. Are those things worth their money? Probably if done well, but not if done without thinking (ie, don’t pay for a checkoff at Harvard).

It’s about the only time in life where you will be in a huge crowd of peers without too much demands on your time. That should be enjoyed.

SoCal has water?

Us alcohol products unavailable in most of Canada. So there’s a fair bit of export gone missing. And European response is probably reducing demand for us product in favour of their own.

Bit short of water, though…

It’s not a democracy, at best it’s a monarchy but more likely it’s a kleptocracy. There’s far too much of a chance that the American experiment has failed, killed off by its own judicial and legislative organs.

Great! Rather than mucking about with meatbags, companies can hire AI to do all the work with no health insurance costs or overtime concerns. The meatbags can go do whatever they do somewhere else.

If AI works, there’s going to be a real die-off amongst developers. And the commercial software business will be slaughtered. Unfortunately, if management THINKS AI works, they’ll kill off their staff. Going to be a sucky time to be a hacker and user. Reduced opportunity and bloated crappy software that has consistency problems.

And we’re living in a consumer economy. Kill off mid to high salaries and you kill off demand. Unless AI buys the toys.

This might be sensible, indicating a shift from "pure" CS into fields that profit from strong CS/Computer interaction? If generating-software is going to be automated, that should facilitate fields that use software. Similarly, and perhaps worryingly for the EE's, generating-hardware automation might follow as it's better defined than, say, biology.

They're not seeing a loss of students, so there's interest in studies, but perhaps a shift in what's considered employable. Interesting that there's no mention of science or PhD - I assume ETH offers the former and I've been in groups in ancient times that offer the latter.

Similar arguments from Alberta re funding and assisting separatist movements to peel the province away from Canada. Small things are easier to digest.

I assume this discussion is in cs or maybe math? In chemistry, a thesis can be viewed as one’s papers stapled together with connecting exposition. Each paper/chapter is some kind of experimental or experimental/theoretical work that’s novel. And release from the PhD program occurs when there’s a sufficient body of work.

While ai might or will get involved in the theory or descriptive portions, there’s a whole lot of lab work that isn’t easily automated and which doesn’t lie in the current body of knowledge. New ways to make stuff at the bench, or new stuff made at the bench. These are what gets people their organic phd’s. Some schools are sufficiently complex and endowed to include medchem work which proposes and makes new drug matter. In these cases, theses will be large and representative of pushing the state of the art forward.

Without some kind of testing you have no way of catching errors or problems that arise without any effort on your part. Things like compiler or os changes, network or other environmental issues or platform changes. Gotta have checking before the user clicks…

There’s a difference between “able to receive” vs. “receive a useful amount”. As I recall they tally one’s contributions when determining payment. But like all government systems it can probably be gamed.

FWIW, social security and Medicare taxes are noticeably higher in the US than Canada. Pay more get more.

Just a reminder... Social Security requires 40 quarters (ie, 10 years) of income to even qualify for a pension. And the pension is based on what you earn, which is what you pay into the system.

I've written it elsewhere but I'm going to write it again. Somehow, work to enjoy today as well as to save for tomorrow. If you wait for things, you might not be able to physically able to do what you want to do, or the people you want to do it with might not be there. If you don't save you might not have the resources.

Enjoy every sandwich is a nice, mildly flippant way of saying that one should enjoy every moment. You only get so many and you don't know how many that is. Jackson Browne's For A Dancer also addresses this.

And in the end, it's never enough.

Last time I checked, country xxx laws tended to have priority in country xxx as compared to those from country yyy. Treaties, I think, end up being integrated into country law in some fashion.

Gotta be some personal gain here as Canadian potash isn’t tariffed into the us. It’s going to come out of Russia and I hope the holds are waterproof.