bwestergard

4 ms·

1.
by bwestergard 10d ago
"The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, t
2.
by bwestergard 10d ago
When the test code "looks like a mess", how do you get assurance it is testing the right properties? Like you, I've found that LLMs can improve test coverage by decreasing the amount of developer time spent writing tests. But
3.
by bwestergard 12d ago
Their alternative explanation seems, uh, pretty sensible to me? "On the other hand, cybersecurity practitioners have largely viewed these incidents as consequences of companies failing to adopt basic security precautions. They do not s
4.
by bwestergard 1mo ago
"The contemporary rate of extinction is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the natural background extinction rate—the typical rate of species loss through natural evolutionary processes." https://en.wikipedia.o
5.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
"People weren't their strongest even when most did manual labor." Is there good historical data on some measure of strength across representative populations over time in the modern era? I'm doubtful. We do know that the
6.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
The worse the experience of working life gets, the more important an idealized family life becomes for many downwardly mobile or precarious people. Most people's family lives cannot actually live up to this fantasy, so scapegoats - gen
7.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
It is remarkable that we cannot figure out how to organize ourselves politically in a manner that would ensure everyone had access to this ordinary abundance. Instead, our institutions largely focus on new goods and services for those who a
8.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
I'm not sure the extended imaginary friend metaphor will catch on with professionals.
9.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology studies wild birds.
10.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
"the overall strategy of undercutting American frontier labs’ profit margins" I don't doubt that's an unregretted side-effect for political leaders in China. But the major motivation is to accelerate diffusion within the
11.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
A counter argument: A strong distinction between "intelligence" (understanding what is) and "values/principles" (understanding what ought to be) was characteristic of much early modern European philosophy from Desca
12.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
All good advice. I'm a unionized software engineer (CWA at National Public Radio) in a unit with all my tech worker colleagues. Happy to answer questions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832370#48837175
13.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I don't understand how the throttle and RPM can be modified independently. Surely the RPM depends on the throttle?
14.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
About $153k a year gross take home pay, or around $180k total compensation (including retirement contributions, healthcare, etc). You can see the wage brackets in our collective bargaining agreement here: https://tinyurl.com&#x2F
15.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I'm a unionized software developer, and have been part of two separate organizing campaigns at two different employers. Happy to answer questions about how it all works - there are only about ~6000 dev/product/design/qa
16.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Git annex is a remarkable piece of software and I've been inspired by lead developer joeyh's approach to both FOSS and life. For example: https://joeyh.name/offgrid/
17.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
This made my day. These workers will be better stewards of Wikipedia than management.
18.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Former BLS officials still believe the numbers are reliable, because the methodology is public and there are lots of ways for well-financed actors (e.g. wall street traders) to spot manipulation. https://www.npr.org/2025&#x2
19.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
To go by the numbers, it's pretty good. Not as good as the truly anomalous post-pandemic peak of hiring. But still good compared to almost every other occupational group. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources&#x2
20.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I think many of these problems still arise if inference is effectively free in monetary terms to the end user. In many economic processes, time to getting the final and correct answer is the major driver of profitability.
21.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I could only laugh out loud at this. I'm no expert in European religious history, but it is an interest of mine and I've read a fair bit more than the typical American about it. I am certain that every church father and major theo
22.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
"There’s a lot of boring work AI can automate with minimal risk. There’s also the potential to decrease risk with AI too, including ensembles of different AIs modals and AI + human." I think the trouble, economically speaking, is
23.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
Birding is also a great way to discover interesting environments in your home locale.
24.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
Why prove the Pythagorean theorem rather than just prove 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2? For any practical application, you are only interested in finite set of concrete identities, so anything beyond that is surplus to requirements, surely?
25.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
Seems right, ship it.
26.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
I am very sympathetic to your situation, and fear something similar happening to me. But the article is addressed to investors, who are interested in aggregate labor demand declines. "A chart showing “total number of jobs” is not mea
27.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
They do track median and 25th/75th percentiles.
28.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
The decline in junior hiring began before ChatGPT had wide adoption, so AI is not a likely cause. https://www.employamerica.org/labor-market-analysis/dont-bla... The New York Fed has also released some research suggest
29.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
Not really a question of linear versus non-linear change when we see, in aggregates, almost no change at all.
30.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
The shift toward healthcare employment is a very long running trend driven by the greying of the Baby Boom generation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES6562000101

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