Mastodawn

I "uninstall" copilot from my teams sidebar every day, and the next day it's back.

If I'm also actually using it on purpose, however tentatively, surely it's just a matter of time before my resistance begins to crumble and I just give in to the need to rely on this bullshit for one reason or another, like I did with self service checkouts.

I feel like a frog being boiled.

Recently I've used a "AI" to generate mock data in a specific json schema, and it worked great.

I've also used it to produce an exhaustive list of handwavy arguments for a particular software architecture I want to critique.

In both cases I'm leaning into LLMs' specific ability to come up with convincing bullshit, but even still I'm troubled.

I am proud to consider myself a bloody-minded, socialist refusenik. So I'm obviously staunchly opposed to this ubiquitous commercial shoehorning of LLMs into every aspect of my experience as a web user and a frontend developer.

But I was bloody-mindedly opposed to self service checkouts for several years, until they became tolerably usable and the shops became intolerably understaffed, and now. I use them every single day.

Max Leibman Jun 25

Look, I know AI is controversial, but just for a moment, let's set aside our preconceived notions, our biases, the environmental impact, the massive cost to train and run models, the labor exploitation, the intellectual property theft, the inaccuracies, the mania it causes in users, the destruction of search, the deskilling of professionals, the devaluation of creative work, job losses, and lack of economic value from enterprise implementations.

Wait, what were we talking about?

spitchell Jun 24

Heather Cook🖖Autistic Coach Jun 20

mcc Jun 24

Wait I think I withdraw my above statement because "demand chain" / "software demand chain" is just too good

spitchell Jun 24

Fesshole 🧻Jun 24

At work we have started a new project called "Hot Chocolate Leather Queen" with sub projects like "transfemme" and "black justice". It has nothing to with any of that. We named it that to keep the prudish AI bots from stealing our work.

spitchell Jun 20

It takes a lot of energy to believe things that you know really aren’t true.

#ActuallyAutistic #EnergyManagement #AuDHD #BurnoutRecovery #AutisticBurnout

Kenney 4d ago

I changed the way I work a couple of months ago to follow this advice, it made a big difference and my productivity went up by miles.

Farooq | فاروق 4d ago

yeah I highly agree. For instance there is a saying in programming "first make it work, then make it fast"

me·ta·phil, der 4d ago

@farooqkz @kenney where would „writing the docs” be in this approach?

Adrian 4d ago

@metaphil @farooqkz @kenney you would be surprised...

Farooq | فاروق 4d ago

@uffke @metaphil @kenney

Some recommend writing docs before you write the program.

Yrrsinn@GPN DECT 6300 4d ago

@farooqkz @uffke it is surprisingly helpful to start with a little readme file describing the features and how to use them, in order to get meaningful answers form future users @metaphil @kenney

@farooqkz @uffke @metaphil @kenney

C++ Wage Slave 4d ago

I find that writing the docs helps me find both bugs and potential usability improvements, because it helps me step out of my own mind into an imaginary newcomer's, and that newcomer uses the code quite differently from the way I do. The newcomer is also less forgiving than I am. Thus careful documentation is important for the output it produces, but also for the effects it has on the developer and the code.

stilescrisis 4d ago

@CppGuy @farooqkz @uffke @metaphil @kenney Even doc comments help here. If you find yourself describing a lot of quirky edge cases, it's a good opportunity to reconsider whether the logic can be simplified or cleaned up.

Daniël Klabbers 4d ago

@metaphil @farooqkz @kenney or making it secure ✌️

me·ta·phil, der 4d ago

@luceos @farooqkz @kenney 𝗈̶𝗋̶ and accessible ✌️ 😇

me·ta·phil, der 4d ago

and yes, I'm well aware of the inaccessibility of unicode strikethrough „font“ generators, thanks for not pointing that out, unfunny-part of fedi ;-)

Daniël Klabbers 4d ago

@metaphil @farooqkz @kenney pick two

Fast, secure, documented, cheap, performant

😬

@luceos @metaphil @kenney

Farooq | فاروق 4d ago

I pick fun and joy. See you at the other end ;)

@metaphil @farooqkz @kenney

Danny Boling ☮️4d ago

@luceos

"Pick any two," right?

Matthias DL4MAT 4d ago

@metaphil @farooqkz @kenney what's "docs"? 😉

MidgePhoto 4d ago

@farooqkz @kenney
"Premature optimisation is the root of all evil."

TheShellyTea 4d ago

@farooqkz @kenney

first make it work* then make it fast

*with enough logging you can figure it out when it does break 😆

Maurizio 4d ago

@kenney my daily struggle 😅

scoopermem 4d ago

@kenney This is kaizen

J. David Eisenberg 4d ago

@kenney #AltText4You

A hastily-drawn circle that isn’t quite closed, titled “Just make it exist first”.

Beneath it, a perfectly closed circle, titled “You can make it good later”.

Kenney 4d ago

@jdeisenberg Thank you, I've added it

Will 🏳️‍🌈4d ago

@kenney Besides productivity, I'm sure you feel much more at peace now.

dasparadoxon 4d ago

@kenney this is also called "technical debt" btw. :)

Mikalai 4d ago

@tomtrottel @kenney
Yes and no.
Something existing gives more concrete details, and at that new point you see more and clearer.
It is debt only if you leave it there for a long time. But initially it was a step that supported you in your climb of unknown and complexity.

Those do no mistakes, who start nothing.

GinevraCat 4d ago

@kenney This is difficult to learn!

b ste 4d ago

@kenney beautiful wisdom. thanks for posting.

Live, Laugh, Punch Nazis 4d ago

@kenney This is definitely Lisa Murkowski’s philosophy. 😑

CrashLogger 4d ago

@kenney I was about to doomscroll and procrastinate, I'm going to give it a go right now

Mark Wyner Won’t Comply

4d ago

@kenney my ADHD perfectionism need this reminder on the daily.

Eugenia L 4d ago

@kenney good that this work for code, but not for governance. The system has deteriorated, not gotten better.

Nene La Beet 4d ago

@kenney That's a really good principle that I adopted years ago. Especially when I translate, which I do a lot. First: translation almost as stream of consciousness, superfast, then two or three correctional evaluations.

joe 4d ago

make a mockup

management decides it is good enough
now mockup is in production and never touched again

Danny Boling ☮️4d ago

@Joe_von_Saporski

I can't tell you how often this happened to me. I learned pretty quickly not to show my work until I was absolutely forced to. And when that finally happened, which it always did, I made sure to plaster warnings ("test system" or "WIP - output not verified" or "demo only") all over it and all its output. That still didn't stop them from trying to put unvetted systems that were still a WIP into production but at least I could say 'I told you so' later.

Local 3d ago

@Joe_von_Saporski @kenney Unfortunately, that's true. Not only management is the problem also marketing.
If marketing guys are in your area, cover your monitor or show boring stuff!

Hassmeister 4d ago

@kenney Most people forget "later". :/

Icono Clast 4d ago

@kenney
I didn't need to be told that. I figured it out when quite young, probably in my twenties when I started writing things, possibly a teen.

@iclast Okay then

looks like you got the first part down, could use some work on the second judging from your website 😹😹😹

Ludovic Archivist Lagouardette 4d ago

@kenney I have been yelling about it to my gamedev and gameart students for 5 years and a single one listened

John 4d ago

@kenney just as long as 'release it' is step 3, not between steps 1 and 2.

Bill, organizer of stuff 4d ago

@kenney I like the first one better.

Gamwise Samgee 4d ago

@wcbdata @kenney The first is far more expressive.

circuli 4d ago

@kenney mvp

small good first prototype

make it great ( give it enaugh space to breath )

scale it

minimum viable product

Fabian (Bocchi) 🏳️‍🌈4d ago

@kenney just make it work, then keep the temporary state forever.

@kenney - Absolutely

Sir R.A. Watson-Watt would be proud of you.

LFpete 4d ago

Distance from couch now exists.

Dragon 4d ago

@kenney Which can be OK as long as the "later" bit happens, and it does depend on what "IT" is so many companies do the first bit but release the thing too early in it's lifecycle.

Ei mikään suuronen 4d ago

This is the only way I know. Sometimes even the draft is good enough.

kate 4d ago

Very likely that the entire creation has been done that way. And we still wait that ends will meet. And that shit people become angels....

Dave W 4d ago

@kenney this is a) excellent advice and b) the advice I have the most trouble taking

The Penguin of Evil 4d ago

@kenney There is however a fine art to making it exist first without digging any enormous holes that will haunt you for the rest of the product lifetime. That's one of the signs of a really good systems architect

For open source it's also often the case that make it work will pull in "make it work nicely" and "I've written an install document" people.

Sometimes even "I can't stand the random formatting in your repository can I please fix it" people!