3 ms·

No, I don’t think that it’s leaking, it is just “normal” behavior. But why it is became a normal? When optimization stopped be mandatory?

garretraziel 1y ago
Perhaps computer resources are cheaper than developer time spent on optimizations.
- razoorka 1y ago
  But let’s agree, that you will not be able to scale just with resources forever. Basically AI already struggles because of lack of resources
  - estimator7292 1y ago
    This is antithetical to capitalism's founding principles. Resources (profit potential) will always increase unbounded forever. That's the only way the scam works
  - antonvs 1y ago
    I don’t agree. AI is a special case that has nothing to do with what you’re talking about. AI uses a lot of resources because we don’t currently know any other way to implement it, not because it’s been developed to optimize for other factors.
- kasabali 1y ago
  Computer resources aren't cheaper, they're externalized (to users, environment, etc.)
- Rotundo 1y ago
  They are not, if you consider all the instances of the bloatware running. How many users does Spotify have? Multiply that by the 79GB mentioned above. Is it still cheaper?
  - estimator7292 1y ago
    Irrelevant because Spotify doesn't pay for, nor do they have to care about user's resources. If a user doesn't have enough ram to use Spotify, Spotify doesn't care. That user canceling their service is lost in the normal user churn. Spotify most likely has no idea and doesn't care if resource wastage affects their customers. It isn't an immediate first-order impact on their bottom line so it doesn't matter
- fnicfnac 1y ago
  [dead]
- tatersolid 1y ago
  This is definitely not true for the client-side software under discussion. Millions of devices requiring more resources and energy. The problem is that’s an externality to the developer.
  - dzhiurgis 1y ago
    > energy My MacBook Pro M1 16" seems to be averaging about 13 watts of power, about the same as previous i7. My house idles at around 200 watts (lots of smart devices, etc). Hardly worth obsessing over it.
estimator7292 1y ago
IDEs I think are a bit of a special case. Under the hood, it's constantly re-compiling and re-analyzing everything. That truly does take up a lot of memory and CPU. Probably not as much as if it were super aggressively optimized, sure, but still very heavy. Full featured IDEs like this have always been heavy, as far as I know. It's only the pure-text editors without advanced full code analysis that can get away with low resources.
- razoorka 1y ago
  Ok, fair enough with IDE, but for instance I was using web storm ide for years and sometimes struggled with memory issues. But when I switched for cursor, I forgot about this at all
antonvs 1y ago
> But why it is became a normal? When optimization stopped be mandatory? A lot of it is simply economic. CPU, RAM, and disk are all much cheaper than engineers’ time. A single headcount with a multi-$100K salary can pay for a lot of hardware resources.

garretraziel 1y ago

Perhaps computer resources are cheaper than developer time spent on optimizations.

razoorka 1y ago
But let’s agree, that you will not be able to scale just with resources forever. Basically AI already struggles because of lack of resources
- estimator7292 1y ago
  This is antithetical to capitalism's founding principles. Resources (profit potential) will always increase unbounded forever. That's the only way the scam works
- antonvs 1y ago
  I don’t agree. AI is a special case that has nothing to do with what you’re talking about. AI uses a lot of resources because we don’t currently know any other way to implement it, not because it’s been developed to optimize for other factors.
kasabali 1y ago
Computer resources aren't cheaper, they're externalized (to users, environment, etc.)
Rotundo 1y ago
They are not, if you consider all the instances of the bloatware running. How many users does Spotify have? Multiply that by the 79GB mentioned above. Is it still cheaper?
- estimator7292 1y ago
  Irrelevant because Spotify doesn't pay for, nor do they have to care about user's resources. If a user doesn't have enough ram to use Spotify, Spotify doesn't care. That user canceling their service is lost in the normal user churn. Spotify most likely has no idea and doesn't care if resource wastage affects their customers. It isn't an immediate first-order impact on their bottom line so it doesn't matter
fnicfnac 1y ago
[dead]
tatersolid 1y ago
This is definitely not true for the client-side software under discussion. Millions of devices requiring more resources and energy. The problem is that’s an externality to the developer.
- dzhiurgis 1y ago
  > energy My MacBook Pro M1 16" seems to be averaging about 13 watts of power, about the same as previous i7. My house idles at around 200 watts (lots of smart devices, etc). Hardly worth obsessing over it.

estimator7292 1y ago

IDEs I think are a bit of a special case. Under the hood, it's constantly re-compiling and re-analyzing everything. That truly does take up a lot of memory and CPU. Probably not as much as if it were super aggressively optimized, sure, but still very heavy. Full featured IDEs like this have always been heavy, as far as I know. It's only the pure-text editors without advanced full code analysis that can get away with low resources.

razoorka 1y ago
Ok, fair enough with IDE, but for instance I was using web storm ide for years and sometimes struggled with memory issues. But when I switched for cursor, I forgot about this at all

antonvs 1y ago

> But why it is became a normal? When optimization stopped be mandatory? A lot of it is simply economic. CPU, RAM, and disk are all much cheaper than engineers’ time. A single headcount with a multi-$100K salary can pay for a lot of hardware resources.