msteffen

14 ms·

151.
by msteffen 3y ago
I think it could be ethical to let people try experimental treatments in the context of a phase 1 clinical trial , ensuring that something is learned from the attempt. However, I have also heard that an issue with that constraint is that c
152.
by msteffen 3y ago
I’m at https://prog.blog . I only have a few posts (sort of meta-software-engineering-focused. The posts are on, like, “why does programming always take longer than you think?” and “how do you make decisions while working on a pr
153.
by msteffen 3y ago
IME GPT-4 is bad at doing things and great at looking things up for you. Rather than trying to get it to do things, I ask it how I should do it (and argue with it about any hallucinations that come out—a process that often teaches me a lot!
154.
by msteffen 4y ago
I wonder if they’ll keep the site up or the old problems around. Some of them were great.
155.
by msteffen 4y ago
Bill Ackman wrote a great tweet about this: https://mobile.twitter.com/BillAckman/status/163456439891936...
156.
by msteffen 4y ago
Very cool!
157.
by msteffen 4y ago
As someone who went from IC to management, my perspective is that getting PRs merged is still that satisfying. I just don't have to be the author of the PR. More generally, I think some ICs do think that if managers and meetings went a
158.
by msteffen 4y ago
Matt Yglesias claimed it in a meme: https://mobile.twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1588193914640...
159.
by msteffen 4y ago
Is this in any way related to https://www.sagemath.org/ ?
160.
Decisions and Teamwork in Software(prog.blog)
1 points by msteffen 4y ago|1 comments
161.
by msteffen 4y ago
This is part three of a three-part blog series on decisions and creative work I wrote: http://prog.blog/tags/decisions/
162.
Decisions in Software Engineering(prog.blog)
3 points by msteffen 4y ago|0 comments
163.
by msteffen 4y ago
I mean the website isn't a monolith; some parts are good, some parts aren't. Different writers have different perspectives. I think TFA is trying to argue that it's possible to see the world as a basically safe place, despite
164.
by msteffen 4y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12622796 > There is such a build system, but I can't remember the name right now. It tracks system calls to see every file opened by the compiler to produce exact dependency grap
165.
by msteffen 4y ago
Not quite the question you asked, but "Classic Set Theory for Guided Independent Study" by Derek Goldrei is a great self-study intro to ZFC, which is the formal foundation of any other math you'll read about. I think the earl
166.
by msteffen 4y ago
Instead of trying to prevent myself from getting distracted, I try to encourage myself to refocus on the goal right away. E.g. if I'm googling a random question, I write it down for after I'm done. If I'm reading an article,
167.
by msteffen 5y ago
Man this thread is taking me back to my digg.com days. If you're not willing to take the Internet flamebait from time to time, are you even alive...
168.
by msteffen 5y ago
> The solution is to put these vile pieces of sludge in prison forever, or execute them - not turn against liberty So, concretely, are you arguing that Reddit mods shouldn't have the power to shut down r/fatpeoplehate, but shou
169.
by msteffen 5y ago
Another UChicago student here (former math major). I think the UChicago math department took education seriously in a unique way that I wish they got more credit for; the Inquiry-Based Learning classes, the summer classes for Chicago public
170.
by msteffen 5y ago
This is so scary. Good for the author for sharing her experience
171.
by msteffen 5y ago
Let me try a contrarian suggestion on the peanut gallery (and maybe the OP will buy too): LeetCode is bad pedagogy precisely because it's repetitive. Consider this problem: https://codingcompetitions.withgoogle.com/code
172.
by msteffen 5y ago
As someone who knows a lot of big law attorneys, I think the author's example of lawyers is mis-informed, perhaps in an interesting way. The reason first-year attorneys are unhappy is because their jobs are difficult, insecure, and yet
173.
by msteffen 5y ago
Two pieces of advice: 1) Think of getting hired as a numbers game, and think of applying for a job as a sales process. That means having a funnel for companies, e.g. "discovered -> openings available -> resume drop -> recruite
174.
by msteffen 5y ago
Yeah, specifically, I will occasionally read things of great value on HN/Twitter, but most of the time there's nothing good on there. But intermittent rewards are more addicting than consistent rewards, so I keep checking them. If
175.
by msteffen 5y ago
Yeah, at a previous job, I had inherited responsibility for maintaining a particular poorly tested (and hard to test—lots of API dependencies), widely-used library. Most changes were contributed by users and I managed by reviewing new code
176.
by msteffen 5y ago
To the comments: many here seem to accept as given that nobody running for office deserves the privilege, but I don't think that's true at all. In fact, I think governing is hard work, and expecting people who aren't interest
177.
by msteffen 5y ago
It seems like no one has figured out a good system for moderation on the internet. IIUC, Facebook hired contractors to do it, then realized that that didn't work and created XCheck to cover the visible cases, and is now in trouble beca
178.
by msteffen 5y ago
Pedals charge battery, battery drives motor. 5% less efficient than chain drive.
179.
by msteffen 5y ago
This was fascinating. If any Go compiler experts happen to read this and know why `Entry{}` was copied on the stack before being copied into the buffer, I think that would be cool to read and tie off this article nicely
180.
by msteffen 5y ago
I think part of it is that it takes a lot longer to teach an engineer everything you know than it takes to make a piece of software great, and success may be impossible, and you probably won't get any credit. Who was Einstein's be

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