Mastodawn

"I used AI. It worked. I hated it." by @mttaggart https://taggart-tech.com/reckoning/

This is a really good blogpost. And I"m sure it'll make some people unhappy to read whether they're pro or anti genAI. What's good about @mttaggart's blogpost is he talks honestly about how using Claude Code did actually solve the problem he set out to do. It needed various guardrails, but they were possible to set up, and the project worked. But the post is also completely clear and honest about how miserable it was:

- It removed the joy from the process
- If you aim to do the right thing and carefully evaluate the output, your job ends up eventually becoming "tapping the Y key"
- Ramifications on people learning things
- Plenty of other ethical analysis
- And the nagging wonder whether to use it next time, despite it being miserable.

I think this is important, because it *is* true that these tools are getting to the point where they can accomplish a lot of tasks, but the caveat space is very large (cotd)

I used AI. It worked. I hated it.

I used Claude Code to build a tool I needed. It worked great, but I was miserable. I need to reckon with what it means.

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Marten 6d ago

@schmerg @mcmullin @jrp those studies usually focussed on surgical masks. These days most covid-conscious people tend to be talking about masking with respirators (N95, FFP2, etc) which - once you find a model that conforms to your face without leakage - are able to filter the air. Also great for going out into nature with hayfever, or trapping dust from DIY projects!

Marten Mar 30

Dare Obasanjo Mar 30

Responses from AI chatbots when prompted with posts from Reddit’s Am I The Asshole (AITA) subreddit show they are 49% more likely to side with the author than the consensus of comments from other users.

AI sycophancy will be an insidious problem over time as people get life advice that validates their terrible behavior.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/03/study-sycophantic-ai-can-undermine-human-judgment/

Study: Sycophantic AI can undermine human judgment

Subjects who interacted with AI tools were more likely to think they were right, less likely to resolve conflicts.

Ars Technica

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Marten Mar 28

@thomasfuchs i still remember the alt codes for ë etc, even though I switched to mac over 20 years ago... probably everyone outside of English speaking countries has some subset of them burned into their memory.

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Marten Mar 24

@marlies and it'd help if they didnt make new versions that utterly suck

Marten Mar 24

cate Mar 23

"Relieved, and then immediately guilty about the relief, and then annoyed at myself for feeling guilty about something that is, by any rational measure, a completely reasonable thing to do."

Honest piece on the ethics of AI code tools now that they're actually good. It's easy to opt out of something that doesn't work. It's a lot harder when your industry is making it a requirement and you still need to pay rent.
https://matduggan.com/i-sold-out-for-200-a-month-and-all-i-got-was-this-perfectly-generated-terraform/

matduggan.com

It's JSON all the way down

matduggan.com

Marten Mar 23

Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦Mar 22

Politiek Den Haag vertelt ons dat de aanstormende energiecrisis geen reden is tot maatregelen in Nederland. "COVID blijft in Brabant". Hier waarom we absoluut wel aan de bak moeten want anders lopen we deze winter een enorm risico. En het is duidelijk genoeg wat we moeten doen: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/waarom-we-nu-wel-zuinig-moeten-doen-en-meer-groene-energie/

Waarom we nu WEL zuinig moeten doen, en door moeten met groene energie - Bert Hubert's writings

Het Internationaal Energie Agentschap zegt dat we zuinig aan moeten doen vanwege de oorlogen in het Midden Oosten. Ministers in Den Haag zeggen dat het niet hoeft, want er zijn hier geen tekorten (!). Doet wel erg denken aan ‘COVID blijft in Brabant’. Kennelijk een Nederlandse traditie! Maar, natuurlijk komen die tekorten ook naar ons toe, de benzine is nu al stervensduur. Maar heeft het zin om nu in de zomer slim met energie te doen?

Bert Hubert's writings

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Marten Mar 19

@babe i looked over the details and compared them with the design specs from the local hedgie foundation and the only thing i can wonder is if there's sufficient ventilation but then your climate is not my climate so who am i to judge. You even accounted for protecting the entrance from young ones getting stuck underneath

Marten Mar 16

Randahl Fink Mar 16

The man who did not care about the war in Ukraine because this was Europe's war, now wants Europe to join the war he started with Iran, while he is lifting sanctions on Russia, so Putin can scale up the Ukraine war.

Trump is not playing chess. He is just eating the pieces.

Marten Mar 10

Pim Joosten 🍉Mar 10

RE: https://forall.social/@ABScientist/116204461857224133

F*ck de Gezondheidsraad, f*ck de Nederlandse zorgpolitiek! Nederland, het land waar uw gezondheid ALTIJD eerst in geld wordt afgemeten.

Zie ook de zeer beperkte beschikbaarheid van gordelroosvaccinaties vanaf 2027 (alleen de mensen die in 2027 60 worden, ik ben op 1 januari 2027 3½ maand te oud...).