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I am simultaneously impressed and depressed by data centers. I still get the same frisson I used to get when I was 20, when I enter the space, with all the secu

I am simultaneously impressed and depressed by data centers. I still get the same frisson I used to get when I was 20, when I enter the space, with all the security theater, and the noise, and the blinkenlights. What depresses me now though is thinking of all the energy that it takes to power and cool a DC, and for what? So some sloppy code can hog the CPU 100x more than it needs to? So we can train AI models because everyone else is doing so? I feel its high time we had a green software revolution, where we strive for code efficiency not just as an intellectual exercise but because it might help save the planet. And save the bottom line of companies that are paying to run their stuff in these environments.

theideaofcoffee 2y ago
I'm glad someone else feels the same way, it can be kind of isolating to want to be efficient at the expense of speed. There are important features to be shitting out, dont-cha-know. It feels the same way a neglected pothole does: the city doesn't want to send a crew out for half a day (uh oh it might cost a couple thousand bucks!) to fix a pothole that five thousand cars each and every day are running over, accumulating wear and tear, discomfort to drivers and riders, day after day, week after week. No itty-bitty investment to fix the problem that might benefit so many others, similar to how we could invest a little bit of time (city money) to fix a little inefficiency here and there (that dastardly pothole). It just makes too much sense.