kms_mdJan 13, 2023
Forrest Brazeal

Tech is the funniest industry and it always will be.

It's a bunch of people who think they are creatures of pure logic, but every problem they try to solve turns out to be a human problem that is inherently illogical.

The results are endlessly hysterical.

Jan 12, 2023 at 4:47pmWeb
Show threadZack GlickJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal if these attackers would just set the evil bit IP header this security thing would be so easy!!! 😆 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_bit
Evil bit - Wikipedia

Show thread@faktoiderJan 15, 2023
@z1g1 @forrestbrazeal News to me. Lovely.
Show threadstilescrisisJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal Come work in graphics! Our problems actually have interesting mathematical challenges.
Show threadAlexJan 12, 2023
@stilescrisis @forrestbrazeal is graphics a good place to make a living?
Show threadstilescrisisJan 12, 2023
@alexthepres @forrestbrazeal Absolutely! Every FAANG is hiring in graphics roles, and so is every game company. Every phone, computer and video game console requires high performance graphics.
Show threadAlexJan 13, 2023
@stilescrisis @forrestbrazeal what are some good college programs to get into the field? Sorry for so many questions
Show threadstilescrisisJan 13, 2023
@alexthepres @forrestbrazeal Well, every college is different. UNC has had an "intro to computer graphics" course which does a great job of teaching the fundamentals, and the material is all online: http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/Courses/comp475-f18/
COMP 475: Fall 2018

Show threadMatt McIrvinJan 13, 2023
@stilescrisis And a bit of neuropsychology!
Show threadLaurentBourrellyJan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal Since it’s hard to come up with what’s next, they use science fiction books to invent the future.

It’s funny and scary at the same time.

Show threadAlexJan 12, 2023
@laurentbourrelly @forrestbrazeal dystopian science fiction especially
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseJan 12, 2023
@laurentbourrelly @forrestbrazeal @alexthepres techbros love to create the torment nexus
Show threadMax Leibman has moved!Jan 13, 2023
@laurentbourrelly @forrestbrazeal I think science fiction can be a great tool to invent and wrestle with the future (that has been a theme of several episodes of ‘Tech Won’t Save Us,’ the excellent podcast by @parismarx). The problem is these chodes don’t known utopia from dystopia, and identify with exactly the wrong themes and characters. That torment nexus joke keeps circulating for a reason.
Show threadLaurentBourrellyJan 16, 2023
@maxleibman @forrestbrazeal @parismarx I don’t disagree. We take inspiration from what we know and are familiar with.
Are they the best we got to build a better world? That’s where I have doubts.
Show threadAlex CoventryJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal The funniest part is "I AM a creature of pure logic, and you're being mean!"
Show threadComputeforloot Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal exactly
Show threadNick AliJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal Soooo. True. Wasn't it Paul Graham who thought Twitter would be fine because Musk knew how to build rockets and self-driving cars? lolz.
Show threadhramrachJan 13, 2023
@nick @forrestbrazeal Not self-driving cars. Drive-assist cars. The worst kind because when assistance is doing it's thing the driver is not paying attention, and when it fails the driver is still not paying attention.
Show threadOpenDNA⚙️Jan 13, 2023
@nick @forrestbrazeal PayPal dude with a cryptocurrency hobby bought a social network with hundreds of millions of users worldwide and didn't turn it into a p2p payment system. 👍
Show threadFennix Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal this is also the foundational element of the tabletop RPG Paranoia.
Show threadMatt McIrvinJan 13, 2023
@fennix It's the foundational element of all the characters patterned after Spock on Star Trek. Of course with Spock part of the drama is that he is really not a creature of pure logic, and neither are they.
Show threadPirate BearJan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal

Yet we still try to fix things. It is the engineer in each of us.

#technology #agile #leadership

Show thread🅱🅻🆄🅴🅱️Jan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal that's because any system that people interface with will have all the problems people have.

I like to think that technology is supposed to be a interface for humans to reality. To work all of our biases and shortcomings backwards, abstract them away.

The problem seems to be that nature already did it's best to do that and it couldn't figure it out. So what does that mean for us?

Show threadLikely Jan LukasJan 12, 2023
@BlueBee @forrestbrazeal Well said. Even putting aside biases, etc, something as 'simple' as interpreting a single word consistently across all users is rife with problems. (See the old joke about what it means when various branches of the military 'secure' a building--all entirely different results from one another).
Show threadEhproque has movedJan 13, 2023
@BlueBee @forrestbrazeal nah, nature doesn't care if you overfit, as long as it doesn't cause you to be eaten by a lion
Show thread🏳️‍🌈 Lucy Wildboots Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal we never thought that in Community & Customer Service. It comes with being forced to talk to the customers. And in gaming, customers are delighted to tell you all the ways the devs effed up! 
Show threadDavid ChartierJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal @dajb You make a good point, but I think I’ve found the solution. In this Medium essay I will
Show thread404 Name Not FoundJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal
Show threadWrathofJan 🌞🌻🌎🖖Jan 13, 2023

@akallen404 @forrestbrazeal

Made me laugh. Thank you. 😃👊🖖

Show threadkeithJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal Oh how many times my customers (engineers internal to my company) came to me, an IT manager, for solutions where my answer was "Sorry, that's a social problem, not a technical issue. This will only paper over the problem - you really need to deal with root cause. Let me know if I can help."
Show threadAlexJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal the human side of technical problems will always be the more difficult of the two
Show threadGayDeceiverJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal are you saying tech is being run by a bunch of Sheldon Coopers?
Show threadWrathofJan 🌞🌻🌎🖖Jan 13, 2023

@GayDeceiver @forrestbrazeal

No.

Show threadStephen FarrugiaJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal it is ze undeliberatable means with no particular ends
Show threadJeff FeckeJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal The ultimate ridiculousness was the "self-executing contract," which sounds great until you realize that's just a contract with guardrails for fraud prevention turned off.
Show threadAlanna 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal it's amusing how many people just think tech or logic will solve everything. The world is complicated, people are complicated, life is a complicated mess.
Show threadTim GentJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal Luckily the Metaverse is the solution that will finally bring human problems truly into the technical world, eliminating these issues forever.
Hang on.... sorry EXACERBATING these issues.
Show threadJames Gleave🚶🚲🚌🚄🚊🚇🤘⚽🎮Jan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal Tech bro: "Hey, this industry has a real challenge. The tech I've worked on for years will tackle this."

Professionals who know about this: "We've been trying to solve this for decades. It's more complicated than..."

Tech bro: "Here's the article I wrote for TechCrunch on this issue..."

*5 years and billions in VC funding later*

Tech bro: "We've learned loads, and we've found out the problem is a hard one to solve."

Professionals: *Hits head on desk*

Show threadregphuntJan 13, 2023
@james_gleave2 @forrestbrazeal This holds true in art as well. We love the idea that ignorance is an escape from preconception and a key to originality, when some education can show why certain things are done the way they are.
Show threadgrng3rJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal
Well humans are inherently non logical non deterministic creatures however without a random generator 😂
Show threadMack ReedJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal But doctor, *I* am Pagliacci!
Show threadnaught101Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal any enjoyable examples that don't involve Musk?
Show threadHTPC NZJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal and my observation from being in the industry is most have a superiority complex looking down on others - like we can make technology to eliminate your job, you should be smart enough to retrain and get a different job, if your ability or circumstances won't allow that, just too bad. also while on the nteenth paid coffee break crapping on other unionized industries with no bargaining power who don't even get meal break saying they should be able to negotiate it themselves.
Show threadWrathofJan 🌞🌻🌎🖖Jan 13, 2023

@htpcnz @forrestbrazeal

Ah, the perpetual tech v client skirmishes. Still there after all these years.

Show threadhapaxJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal and they're _convinced_ that if they just try a _little_ harder their "pure logic" will triumph 😭🤦‍♂️the fallacy that because we understand one complex topic (programming computers) all other complex topics can be understood in their entirety and solved with our skill set is rampant and tragic.
Show threadDoctorBobJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal
Show threadmacdarabutlerJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal I was having this exact thought today, thanks for tooting it
Show threadThomas H Jones IIJan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal

Frustrating. Endlessly frustrating.

Whenever a recruiter asks "what's the hardest part about your job" I always answer with some permutation of "solving people problems".

Show threadAlexJan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal @rosstulloch Not to mention that we think everything we don’t immediately understand (and half the stuff we do) is some sort of dark sorcery.
Show threadRoss TullochJan 13, 2023
@alesplin @forrestbrazeal It's a good reminder to always question our beliefs about the things we're positive about too. I know I don't do this enough.
Show threadAlexJan 13, 2023
@rosstulloch @forrestbrazeal I also think it’s funny that we think we’ve invented these “unambiguous” ways to instruct computers to do things when literally every line of code we write reflects our own bias. Granted, a lot of the time that bias is completely harmless: I order function parameters a certain way, etc. But how many times does our bias affect finding a bug? I intended to write `i = 1` therefore I couldn’t possibly have written `i = 1`, that kind of thing.
Show threadDušan MitrovićJan 12, 2023

@forrestbrazeal This is a bit of a tangent, but those same people (We? I'm a part of the industry as well so?) are convinced that rationality is the cure for all of humanity's ills. Like, if people were just a bit less emotional this whole thing would be a lot easier.

Yeah right, you dense bastard, that's kinda the problem, you're dealing with emotional beings, not your cold machine.

We lose sight of the people we supposedly build things for.

Show threadMax Leibman has moved!Jan 13, 2023
@dusnm @forrestbrazeal I was about to reply with something related to this—this discussion reminds me of the so-called “Rationalist” community, whose primary occupation, contra their descriptions, seems to be to rationalize every preexisting feeling and bias they have.
Show threadMichael Jan 12, 2023
@forrestbrazeal it's fine as long as we have someone impulsive and headstrong from marketing who's able to punch or romance this week's aliens (and intuitive enough to know which ones require which response).
Show threadPCJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal You just described my whole career. The non-techies called my shop Industrial Light and Magic. :)
Show threaddavidnewmanJan 13, 2023

@forrestbrazeal Tech also has spawned that most hilarious of creatures, the Entitled Libertarian Tech Bro, who:

- works in an industry that would not exist were it not for massive US federal investment in the mid-20th century, and

- endlessly engages in dogmatic gubmint-bashing on the Internet – the basic technology of which was developed in a government research program.

Show threadJames CragleJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal and this is how we feel when reality crashes down https://youtu.be/Nz8ssH7LiB0
Everything goes in the square hole

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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Show threadOldPappyThomasJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal The constant "huh, who could've predicted..." "literally anyone with a knowledge of psychology or history" "lol learn to code"
Show threadMr. CompletelyJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal and the methods used are utterly dependent on the characteristics and moods of the specific humans doing the attempted solving
Show threadCat HicksJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal although by casting human problems as entirely illogical, you are portraying a pretty quintessential tech mental model :)
Show threadJason KempJan 13, 2023
@forrestbrazeal Agreed. Humans of tech land are myopic and don't see this but its is very true.