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Some of the titles aren't translated - a cursory search did not turn up a downloadable version of the Bull's Hour, but search flibusta - titles are in russian but thanks to AI ...

Since we are on the topic of russian literature I'd definitely recommend reading something other than the usual suspects Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

One of my personal favourites is Bulgakov'с Master and Margarita and The Bull's Hour by Ivan Efremov.

Bull's Hour is actually amazing as it explores societies built on different principles using a form of a novel.

Russians consider their profession a calling and try to be the best at it. Makes big difference when it's calling and not just-a-job.

I dunno what attitude russia's gen-z holds towards profession but in my time it was definitely considered a calling.

Not only that. Corporations are filled with excellent software developers from Russia who did not go to any specialized schools or graduated from prestigious universities.

>Giant trees have no trouble pumping water to top branches

Hm, may be because they are not really "pumping" the water?

I spent nothing on US election this year and nothing in all previous years.

Partly, because I am not from US, but largely because I have no interests to lobby!

Are elections that run on donations can be considered truly democratic?

It could lead to amazing advances in the distant future but in the near future it just means finding unwilling donors fast! Our society once again is not mature for such technology

I feel we are there already.

The weather is a bit rainy now but there is sun in the forecast for afternoon.

^^^ that is all we have left to discuss already in personal conversations at work anyways.

If we agree that politicians are removed from democratic process then there is really no democratic process at all.

Your risk conclusion elite club this way. So I think this makes the idea less interesting.

No, you just need to be on a regular good maintenance schedule!

yeah, definitely an organic think-tank behind this and other initiatives.

You mentioned NY - logical to look at NY then no?

I'd say at least 2K. But the poster above says it's over 3K.

well, if one bedroom now goes for 2000$ that's x4 increase

where as the 72K vs 35K is only x2 increase

So, no, your math doesn't work.

Not true.

Rent for one bedroom apartment was 500$ in 1998, cold / hot water included other utilities are extra.

I was making 35K back then and it was enough to afford relatively good living - car, groceries, gas, occasional meal for 2 at a restaurant.

And gas was 35cents on the Wet Coast of Canada.

But the governments had been this way for decades now. It's just that things are accelerating and people notice it more.

>AI demands more engineering discipline.

Well, that's a loaded statement. I'am yet to see a Claude session where Claude would tell me to hold off and make my prompts more disciplined.

So it does not demand more discipline.

It can, otoh, build better from disciplined prompts but people too, build better software from better specs.

Most of the west is going to be fucked. We, in the west, are optimizing towards more profit. Poor get poorer every year and rich get richer. We lead multiple wars which we finance with public money. The profits go to the rich again.

China is confucian, and, unlike the west, they value a different thing.

The rich seem to forget that one can not take the riches to the grave. All the great art that explains it is forgotten and never looked at.

If in the past the rich subsidized building churches and schools and housing for the poor, nowadays rich just rake more money. They never have enough.

The outlook is bleak.

Exactly!

I honestly don't know how uber drivers can even make a living with the price of gas and upkeep for the car [being as hight as it is]. How many hours a day do they work? I know there is a 12 hour limit at Uber but you could continue to Lift until the next day. Then what?

So they drivers spend their life Ubering, not learning new skills or anything and next thing you know - AI takes their jobs.

Then what? That's how you get revolutions.

All the great art should teach us that we can't take riches to the grave, it's too bad that this is being forgotten.

Then again, may be they already figured out how to make their lives meaningfully longer. I often think what drives 80 year old Bidens and Trumps to live the stressful POTUS life.

And I can think of only one incentive. Weird thoughts, but otherwise the dots just don't connect.

You can be sure they are getting paid off. It's sickening.

In the past the wealthy families would fund building churches, hospitals, housing for poor.

Nowadays' oligarchs aren't that kind.

Any incremental improvement and simplification had higher value in the past. Nowadays, the improvements need to be grandeur to justify introducing another way to achieve the same thing. I expect that LLMs will be great at writing standard XSL.

No :) but that's on the list. I refer to store items starting with basic ones - bread and butter.

Sovereignty erodes with giving control to outside entities.

I just came to Netherlands for a short visit and oh my god how much better the food is (comparing to Canada mostly).

Please, please stay sovereign.

I think this is such an opportunity for JetBrains. I talked to them about this at AWS Re-Invent, strangely, they could really see how strong of a position they are in if only they paid attention to the right thing!

About 25 years ago we had layoff at a company I worked for. One of the DBA's got fired along with others. Back in the day they didn't revoke access and you had your work computer available until the end of the day. Most, who were fired, just packed and went on their way.

The fired DBA however, stayed behind and finished backing up the databases he was assigned to backup.

Once the job was done, he packed and left.

True story!

What I found is that my willingness to communicate and share my expertise is usually not in demand with more junior developers. In general, I find developers uninterested in finding a mentor. They don't look at your linked in profile, they don't look at you as a possible source of knowledge and expertise.

So it's not like I have nothing to share after 30 years of experience in the industry, I just have nobody to share it with.

So we got smarter in the last 20+ years.

Stores still don't carry whole milk in canada.