sfpotter

41 ms·

511.
by sfpotter 4y ago
This is a pretty weak article. The author lists five reasons an epidemiologist would be interested in Julia and then only gives a (kind of simple and contrived) example for one of them.
512.
by sfpotter 4y ago
They're different. IIRC, multiple dispatch is dynamic (i.e., happens at runtime) while C++'s function overloading is static (happens at compile time).
513.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Maybe instead of criticizing the way in which the article was written you could comment on some if its actual contents. I feel like people on HN get incredibly hung up on minor things like the title of an article and can't move past th
514.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Well, given a charitable read of my comment, that obviously isn't what I was implying. There are plenty of fields which require tons of specialized training but which nevertheless can be useful with only a modest amount of time investe
515.
by sfpotter 4y ago
If you have to write many slides fast you are going to give a bad talk.
516.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I guess it depends on what field of academics you're in. Speaking as a fellow academic, all the time I've spent improving my ability to communicate visually has repaid itself many times over. This has helped my talks, my skills in
517.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I disagree. If you're giving presentations as part of your job, then part of your job is to give presentations. Presumably, you should also do a good job of giving those presentations. Giving a good presentation means communicating e
518.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Honestly, it's not that bad. I've used Beamer for years, and every time I make a presentation using it I fantasize about finding something like Powerpoint to use instead. You think adjusting things is bad in Powerpoint or Keynote,
519.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Using Markdown for presentations seems like we're going in the wrong direction, if anything? Presentations should have as little text as possible, but Markdown is a text-first markup language. I feel like if I used Markdown, I would en
520.
by sfpotter 4y ago
https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2023/p27... If you ctrl-f "rust" in this PDF, there are zero hits.
521.
by sfpotter 4y ago
For what it's worth, the word "Rust" doesn't actually appear in the "A call to action: ..." document. It does appear in the original NSA document, but not in the part of the text that Stroustrup quoted. Not sur
522.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I guess we should lower our standards, then...
523.
by sfpotter 4y ago
How is he weirdly pessimistic? He's consistently right. Personally, I would be happy if there were fewer people moving into overheated areas. Every person working on crypto, quantum computing, AI, self-driving cars, virtual reality (am
524.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Re: batteries: bear in mind the purpose of his scorecard. It's about things which were dramatically overhyped.
525.
by sfpotter 4y ago
"I'm not qualified to have a nuanced opinion about this, but let me confidently tell you what I think..."
526.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I mean, the two are obviously not mutually exclusive.
527.
by sfpotter 4y ago
These look awful! They are very displeasing aesthetically. They look like they were done by someone with absolutely no artistic ability. Clearly there is some technical interest here, but I just felt the need to point out the elephant in th
528.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Well, I hope you don't have any kids!
529.
by sfpotter 4y ago
You don’t think a newspaper can attempt to guide public opinion by limiting the scope of the discourse that occurs within their opinion section? I would argue that NYT has a clear ideological perspective which can be easily inferred from th
530.
by sfpotter 4y ago
What would hitting a child accomplish in either of those cases? If you're able to disarm the child or remove everyone in the vicinity to safety, would you still feel the need to beat them? To what end?
531.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Please read the other responses to your comment and consider the possibility that you are wrong. Hitting children is never OK regardless of the form it takes. Context makes no difference. There is always a better option. Hitting children is
532.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I basically agree with what you're saying. My response was based on the reader saying something about "mathematical thinking" in their post. In my experience, programmers talking about "mathematical thinking" usuall
533.
by sfpotter 4y ago
Honestly, unless you're very gifted, a book on its own is not going to be enough to really develop your skills. You need to work interactively with a teacher. Getting a degree in math is a good start, but even then it will be limited i
534.
by sfpotter 4y ago
But what is it? The README is just a bunch of screenshots and disjointed comments about what features it has listed in no particular order. It would be great if there was some summary from a birds eye view of what the project actually is.
535.
by sfpotter 4y ago
If you train as a nurse or a physician's assistant, you will have no trouble getting a job and won't have to go through all the rigmarole associated with becoming a doctor. This is not to say that the AMA isn't a cartel and
536.
by sfpotter 4y ago
You said it yourself: they're carrying a disproportionate amount of their team's output. If the amount is disproportionate , something is screwed up. I suppose they might not be sandbagging. They could be overqualified and simply
537.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I also don’t get this. If there are so many developers wasting their time taking themselves up the garden path working on useless tasks, why isn’t management doing its job? Just seems weird to have this myth of the 10x developer when it’s c
538.
by sfpotter 4y ago
I don’t get this thing with “10x developers”. Why are all these really good programmers working on things which are evidently way too easy for them? Their skills really need to be soaked up in more productive ways rather than having them be
539.
by sfpotter 4y ago
If you really want something to be fractal, there needs to be a limiting process. You can't refine something infinitely in physical space, because of fundamental physical limits. So, you could say it is "only" self-similar. B
540.
by sfpotter 4y ago
As far as using GC-like features from C goes, one benefit is that it isn't all or nothing. If you use Java, you basically need to have everything be GC'd. If you use C (or something similar like C++ or D), you can pick and choose

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