3 ms·

I love this so much. It's hacky, janky, and absolutely phenomenal and life changing. This is like perfectly in the spirit of the hacker ethos. This dude scraped

I love this so much. It's hacky, janky, and absolutely phenomenal and life changing. This is like perfectly in the spirit of the hacker ethos. This dude scraped together pieces around him and made a useful product that solves the problems he wants to solve, the way he wants to solve them. The code is probably garbage. You can tell the UI is weird and jumpy. He's using timed delays to manipulate the browser with keyboard keys. The whole thing would be absolutely shredded here. But it's beautiful. It's crafted for function over form with duct tape and bubble gum but it's the difference between his brother being locked helplessly alone in his body, or being able to express himself and have some level of autonomy. It's just awesome. LLMs rule for this kind of stuff. Solve your problems and move on. The code is not so precious. You'll learn many things along the way and will be able to iterate quickly with a tireless and semi competent but world knowledgeable assistant.

int_19h 2y ago
> perfectly in the spirit of the hacker ethos I would strongly disagree on this count. Hacker ethos, at least as traditionally understood, emphasizes grokking and elegance.
- cco 2y ago
  I couldn't think of any two concepts less associated with "hacking". I think you may have an understanding of that word that is not very common.
  - int_19h 2y ago
    It sounds like you're thinking about a "hack", as in quick and dirty solution. But that does not relate to "hacking", and most certainly does not relate to "hacker ethos". And while "hacking" is sort of ambiguous, I don't recall ever seeing "hacker ethos" defined by quick and dirty solutions.
    - cco 2y ago
      No, though those concepts are of course related historically, I'm not confusing the two. The hacker's ethos is about freedom of information, freedom of access (apropos to this video about vibe coding accessibility tools), community, collaboration and so on. I've never seen or heard "elegance" associated with hackers, hacking, the hacking ethos etc. If I were to go further, elegance as it is used here has some anti-hacker connotations, i.e. it is a gatekeeping term to separate "true" coders from "amateurs" which is very anti-hacker. Anyway, I don't think I'm conflating these terms, but it could be true that my understanding of the hacker ethos is wrong.
      - int_19h 2y ago
        > I've never seen or heard "elegance" associated with hackers, hacking, the hacking ethos etc. If I were to go further, elegance as it is used here has some anti-hacker connotations, i.e. it is a gatekeeping term to separate "true" coders from "amateurs" which is very anti-hacker. This is where I would strongly disagree. Are you familiar with shibboleths like 1337?

int_19h 2y ago

> perfectly in the spirit of the hacker ethos I would strongly disagree on this count. Hacker ethos, at least as traditionally understood, emphasizes grokking and elegance.

cco 2y ago
I couldn't think of any two concepts less associated with "hacking". I think you may have an understanding of that word that is not very common.
- int_19h 2y ago
  It sounds like you're thinking about a "hack", as in quick and dirty solution. But that does not relate to "hacking", and most certainly does not relate to "hacker ethos". And while "hacking" is sort of ambiguous, I don't recall ever seeing "hacker ethos" defined by quick and dirty solutions.
  - cco 2y ago
    No, though those concepts are of course related historically, I'm not confusing the two. The hacker's ethos is about freedom of information, freedom of access (apropos to this video about vibe coding accessibility tools), community, collaboration and so on. I've never seen or heard "elegance" associated with hackers, hacking, the hacking ethos etc. If I were to go further, elegance as it is used here has some anti-hacker connotations, i.e. it is a gatekeeping term to separate "true" coders from "amateurs" which is very anti-hacker. Anyway, I don't think I'm conflating these terms, but it could be true that my understanding of the hacker ethos is wrong.
    - int_19h 2y ago
      > I've never seen or heard "elegance" associated with hackers, hacking, the hacking ethos etc. If I were to go further, elegance as it is used here has some anti-hacker connotations, i.e. it is a gatekeeping term to separate "true" coders from "amateurs" which is very anti-hacker. This is where I would strongly disagree. Are you familiar with shibboleths like 1337?