perrygeo

5 ms·

1.
by perrygeo 5d ago
I wonder if the definition of "code quality" needs to be updated? Consider DRY: There's a lot of cases where, if I was writing by hand, I'd prefer a succinct abstraction that's easier to type and reduces repetition
2.
by perrygeo 6d ago
Well, there's some nuance. I'm not really proud of my code . I'm proud of the software that gets built with it. Code is just sitting in a git repo somewhere, not necessarily running. That's a big distinction for me. Con
3.
by perrygeo 7d ago
I never use AI for writing but do so regularly for code. They are quite different to me. My reason: code can be checked objectively. I can run it and confirm it works. I don't get attached to it. I don't feel pride in it (even whe
4.
by perrygeo 7d ago
Deterrence is exactly what we should be doing. Many responses here were some variation of "he'd never try" or "let him try, we'd win". That's not deterrence - that's ignorance and provocation, respect
5.
by perrygeo 7d ago
> Forget the ‘hive mind’ of AI agents ‘going rogue.’ They did what humans programmed them to do. Finally, responsible journalism.
6.
by perrygeo 7d ago
Read between the lines. He's saying "Mess with us, we'll nuke you." They mean it. Putin is desperate enough to do it. Anyone responding to this with Euro-bravado is an idiot. Some of y'all didn't grow up during
7.
by perrygeo 8d ago
More commonly known as an "accountability sink". These existed before but it is so much worse with AI.
8.
by perrygeo 9d ago
Nice article about how to train/fine-tune a language model. However, it misses the whole point of database query planning. You can't just ignore the planning time itself, as if the database query were a static entity to be optimiz
9.
by perrygeo 10d ago
Asking a model to "write a throwaway program to do X" is vastly more productive and reliable than asking "do X". Running code provides a feedback loop, the model can iteratively improve the solution instead of guess. Ev
10.
by perrygeo 12d ago
The whole "alignment" angle is a farce. Not clear if alignment is even technically possible. But even assuming that, we're talking about "alignment" in a future full of well-adjusted humans where we prevent rogue AI
11.
by perrygeo 12d ago
Excellent article. Always upvote Phillip Ball!
12.
by perrygeo 12d ago
While I personally agree with the precautionary principle, when have we actually done that, as a society, in recent history? Fossil fuels, social media, industrial ag, and plastic pollution - there was barely a facade of precaution - post w
13.
by perrygeo 13d ago
In 2020 we eliminated sulfur dioxides from international shipping fuels to reduce pollution. We inadvertently did a little geoengineering project, albeit in the wrong direction. Pretty solid evidence that this sulfur removal had direct warm
14.
by perrygeo 14d ago
Amazing work. It's one thing to say "async is complex". It's another to parse that statement so carefully as to have a cross-language theory of async execution. Looking forward to digging into this!
15.
by perrygeo 16d ago
Yes mercator distorts size at high latitudes. But it preserves angles which is more important for many (most?) mapping applications. Literally no one is using a mercator projection to determine size at the continental scale. We use mercat
16.
by perrygeo 16d ago
The stolen data claim isn't the smoking gun. We can already assume the frontier labs are accessing our data, as they have repeated done. Not news. The big claim is that OpenAI sniped the research. Not a model, a human did so. Intention
17.
by perrygeo 17d ago
I've tinkered with SDR some and did a bit professionally. I always found GNU Radio to fall into the uncanny valley - too GUI to scratch my programming itch but too low-level to be useful for exploration. Between libraries like `pyrtlsd
18.
by perrygeo 21d ago
Empirically false. Python's type system is not sufficient to describe runtime variants, period. I have worked on at least three system that used mypy in strict mode yet hit runtime errors constantly. I get where you're coming from
19.
by perrygeo 21d ago
"LLMs are next-token predictors" is a perfectly accurate mental model. But that doesn't preclude higher-level models such as "LLMs emulate artificial general intelligence". Both can be true. In systems, we can have
20.
by perrygeo 22d ago
Or another angle - will we even need a framework? Frameworks exist to give humans better a better interface for common patterns. But LLMs can find and replicate patterns all day in vanilla Javascript without getting bored or annoyed by bad
21.
by perrygeo 22d ago
> I rarely have type problems in my programs that python typecheckers can't catch. > I do have type and dirty data problems of the dataframes/csvs/parquet I'm reading. Something about those two statements makes my
22.
by perrygeo 23d ago
What's ironic is that the book goes to great lengths to explain this. The entire point of the book is: use leverage to grow assets. The alternative, not taking debt and using income to directly pay expenses, is literally called out a
23.
by perrygeo 23d ago
Polars is much better than pandas in this regard. But using it via Python still carries the risk of runtime errors. Python's linters leave many holes unfilled - it catches some stuff but still leaves everything else to the runtime. L
24.
by perrygeo 23d ago
I agree. But the data science/engineering space is enamored with Python. Makes good sense when doing interactive work. Makes no sense in production. But by that point, most developers consider it a sunk cost and just keep their Python
25.
by perrygeo 23d ago
For me, the superpower of polars is production stability. Pandas tends to push all problems to runtime, with all sorts of hidden heuristics. Particularly around column types and missing values. It's very hard to know if you've tes
26.
by perrygeo 24d ago
> The military can afford to learn. You can't do that in a business. are you literally saying that businesses cannot afford to learn? Businesses must afford to learn. Under capitalism, that's the job description. Those that f
27.
by perrygeo 24d ago
That's just "counting". But for many people (the vast majority of humans), they can and do easily visualize sheep as they count them.
28.
by perrygeo 24d ago
> Where is all this love for coaster brakes coming from?! Childhood nostalgia? They are indeed terrible brakes from a riding perspective. But a) no cables or pads to mess up, b) beginner friendly and c) skidding. Great for kids riding ar
29.
by perrygeo 29d ago
Yes. Extrapolated further, my AGENTS.md files barely have any content. It's an index with links to code sections, skills, documentation, etc. I think of AGENTS file like a router - the job is present what's available and dispatch
30.
by perrygeo 29d ago
> Most new businesses have some form of AI in them Most new business are customers of AI companies. They are consuming AI . They don't build AI. They don't advance AI technology. They are not using AI in innovative ways. They

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