fallous

26 ms·

241.
by fallous 9y ago
Of course, and yet there is a reason that demographics is useful only when dealing with aggregates... it tells you nothing about a specific individual. Trying to use inferred data from the behaviors of millions of people is quite useful in
242.
by fallous 9y ago
Actually casinos DO depend on wins to keep people gambling, there just needs to be more losing over time. If nothing else the psychology of inflating personal successes and devaluing losses will achieve the needed goals, although adding al
243.
by fallous 9y ago
"Mobile computing" is almost always "mobile consuming," and trying to fit the requirements of computing into the design of a consumption platform is necessarily compromising, if not failing outright.
244.
by fallous 9y ago
Indeed, but the opportunity of that control also carries the potential for ruin. Skew the algorithm for maximum profit and the result is less long-term revenue thanks to a reduction in usefulness to the user, which leads to either inattent
245.
by fallous 9y ago
Jeeves is my butler, not my executive assistant and presuming otherwise will get Jeeves fired as well. Competent human assistants know to negotiate formally or informally with their employers the limits of their authority. Unfortunately th
246.
by fallous 9y ago
No I should not have, because Jeeves' job is to serve me and at no point did I confer to him the right to insert his decision-making over mine with regards to garment selection. Had I done so, then indeed I should have been explicit a
247.
by fallous 9y ago
Think of the problem in this way... you have a butler that is very very knowledgeable about all manner of things, which surely is a valuable and useful resource. When you ask him to pack you a tuxedo for attending the baseball game he resp
248.
by fallous 9y ago
Behold the wisdom of the disclaimer "past performance is no guarantee of future results."
249.
by fallous 9y ago
The problem isn't the one doing the inferring, it's the inferring.
250.
by fallous 9y ago
Yes, mostly because an external judgement that doesn't actually know their intent isn't as good for the user as their own judgement.
251.
by fallous 9y ago
Note you changed the nature of the problem by turning "infinite difficulty" into "finite difficulty." Subtract all the difficulty you want from "infinite" and you still end up with infinite, unless of course y
252.
by fallous 9y ago
The reason this problem keeps popping up is due to the mistaken belief that you can deduce intent via inferred behaviors, and worse that deduced intent is preferable (or at least comparable) to explicit intent. You can't and it isn&#x
253.
by fallous 9y ago
"I am able to do X." "It is now easier for you to be able to do X." "I am unable to do X." "It is now easier for you to be unable to do X." The latter makes no sense. Moving from the impossible t
254.
by fallous 9y ago
Interfaces are not necessarily supposed to make things easier, they're supposed to allow the user to achieve things that they otherwise could not do (there is no easing of "can't do it") or that they otherwise had to exe
255.
by fallous 9y ago
Learning a new interface isn't especially novel for consumers, most of the interfaces you take for granted were adopted in the last 30-40 years. The necessary tipping point is that the reward for the effort of learning a new interface
256.
by fallous 9y ago
Mission/vision is often the largest thing rather than a small thing with regards to long-term success. Waging a war without an overall mission and vision for achieving it results in, at best, a collection of battles that can only acci
257.
by fallous 9y ago
Just picking a nit, but the problem with a genie isn't that it misinterprets you but that it literally does exactly what you ask for. The mismatch between "what you wanted" and "what you asked for" isn't the g
258.
by fallous 9y ago
I think there's two main categories these kinds of things fall in. First and most obvious is "ride hype train hoping to grab ICO windfalls." The second is "people say this is the future, we don't want to miss it!&
259.
by fallous 9y ago
I've seriously contemplated a roll-your-own "dumb phone" solution not only for myself but also for my mother and in-laws (they're all in their 70s). An Adafruit Fona would provide all of the telephonic functionality I&#
260.
by fallous 9y ago
In the early 80s the computer was thought of and perceived by almost everyone as a tool to be used to achieve some further end. Today if people think of computers at all (given the ubiquity of embedded computing) it is as a means of consum
261.
by fallous 9y ago
Indeed. My first real swing at self-employment was thanks to an ad in either Boy's Life or some comic book encouraging kids to sell greeting cards door-to-door. I sent off for the kit (which I believe was free), waited impatiently, a
262.
by fallous 9y ago
Alas, I suspect there is very little correlation between "smart" and "wise."
263.
by fallous 9y ago
I think our experiences aren't that different but our view of what juniors need probably does diverge. "Algorithmic or read-up-on-it technical or math" aren't the things I consider to be deeper thinking for programmers b
264.
by fallous 9y ago
I'm not sure that's possible in any truly meaningful way. Design is a very high level of abstraction that expresses a world, a particular view of that world with regards to a general set of problem domains, and a set of principle
265.
by fallous 9y ago
"Do the task the way you want it." That's a far more mechanistic view of "interesting work" and "features I would like to do myself" than the parent seemed to express.
266.
by fallous 9y ago
You do not give them hard tasks that are critical because of the risk involved, until they prove they can be trusted with those tasks. Supervising and teaching a junior dev working through a hard problem most assuredly satisfies problem-sol
267.
by fallous 9y ago
Indeed. Pair-programming isn't "programmer with an audience."
268.
by fallous 9y ago
I believe that nowhere in my response did I suggest that you be incompetent in your management or be a lousy teacher. I specifically mention that you look for particularly hard or challenging problems in which to do the pair programming pre
269.
by fallous 9y ago
If it's a particularly challenging feature or problem you might consider pair-programming as a solution. It allows you to apply your expertise (and scratch the itch of wanting to do things) while also letting another engineer contribu
270.
by fallous 9y ago
I'm afraid the author has it wrong when he claims what Google cares about is "It cares about giving you great answers to the questions that matter to you right now." It cares about making money via ad revenue. Even assu

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