wcfrobert

13 ms·

61.
by wcfrobert 1y ago
Reinventing the wheel is the best way to learn. But imo that's really the only context where you should. I love my rabbit holes, but at work, it's often not viable to explore them given deadlines and other constraints. If you want
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by wcfrobert 1y ago
I think the article is getting at the fact that in a post-AGI world, human skill is a depreciating asset. This is terrifying because we exchange our physical and mental labor for money. Consider this: why would a company hire me if - with e
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by wcfrobert 1y ago
I was thinking form 8300. Could seeding a torrent be interpreted as distribution? You're right most of these would result in a slap on the wrist or fines. Perhaps 3 misdemeanors a day? But I think the overall sentiment still stands - t
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by wcfrobert 1y ago
- Not reporting large cash transactions (over $10,000) - Using someone else's ID can be interpreted as identity theft (sharing student ID discount, Costco cards, epic passes) - torrenting copyrighted content (textbooks, music, movies,
65.
by wcfrobert 1y ago
> "The CEO was wavering until Tom found out they both owned the same obscure Italian motorcycle. Tom took him for a ride along the coast. Contract was signed the next day." As a junior, I often wonder how many deals are signed
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I am not a frontend dev but centering a div came to mind. I just want to center the damn content. I don't much care about the intricacies of using auto-margin, flexbox, css grid, align-content, etc.
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
> "Criticism seems sophisticated, and making new things often seems awkward, especially at first; and yet it's precisely those first steps that are most rare and valuable." This is what makes silicon valley is so amazing.
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
All new inventions have tendencies to overturn existing power structure (i.e. disrupt the status quo). It's probably why certain cultures disincentivize innovation and spurn entrepreneurs. But I think creative destruction is a net good
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Hi Simon, how do you decide when to blog on your personal website vs something like substack? Do you post identical articles on both? Do you prefer one or the other?
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
It's probably more interesting to reinvent things on the lower abstraction layers, otherwise we're just reinventing design decisions.
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I find that for me to deeply understand something, I have to reinvent it. There's SO many nuance not captured in textbooks or papers. I reminds me of the feeling of attending lectures by great teachers. Everything makes so much sense u
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I remember I used to complain in graduate school about the insane amount of work I had taking four engineering courses every quarter. Then I learned that my cousin in Asia studies more than 12 hours a day. Goes to sleep at 11PM and wakes up
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
While I absolutely loved the writing, I want to challenge that last part and the dichotomy created. Perfection is an ideal. You can strive towards it at 25 or 45. It's too deterministic to say as soon as you're in your forties, it
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Land is not scarce in the US. My road trip through Nevada to Salt Lake City convinced me of that much. What is scarce is land people actually want to live in - with safe neighborhoods, good schools, restaurants, shops, etc. Restrictive zoni
75.
by wcfrobert 2y ago
This is so bizarre! We live in a world where companies invest billions and hire the best researchers all to capture our attention and serve ads. And now, to claw back any sort of agency, we resort to this.
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Why would I say something is better without a point of comparison? I was born in the 90s. So definitely alive before YouTube and Spotify albeit as a teenager rather than an adult. I guess you're right I'm not familiar with the wor
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
VC and startups are fundamentally about disruption. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs (laws). The incumbent players are not going to sit still and let things be "disrupted". A common response is to make s
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I am not against rationalism at all despite my quoting of Hume. Reason is essential and has done much good to the world. It's just that things tend to get kooky at the tail end of any distribution. The rationalist community have some o
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Or David Hume, 300 years ago: "Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions"
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I mostly agree with you, I don't do SR myself, but I do think the benefit of spaced repetition is solid for medical students/researchers and language learners. Also some people just find it fun to go through their Anki deck inste
81.
by wcfrobert 2y ago
The US outsourced its manufacturing to China in the name of comparative advantage. Bob bakes bread, Alice grow apples. Everyone is better off because of specialization. In Thomas Friedman's latest nyt column, he refers to China's
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Everyone less empathetic than me is a bigot. Everyone more empathetic than me is just virtue signaling.
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I had to stop my lofi Spotify playlist and my Pomodoro timer to play this game... This is a work of art!
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I often "feel" like I have all the details in my heads and LLMs effectively makes me type faster. But that's never the case. It's only when I start writing the code myself line by line that I discover blindspots. For exa
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
The number of books, blogs, papers, textbooks, monograph, tutorials, reports, comments that are worthwhile reading will only ever increase though. Today is as information-lite as we're going to get. I feel like it's only natural t
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Crazy excerpt from the report: > "On BPA in particular, just 10 years ago, the US EPA and the EU EFSA had the same limit. Then the EFSA lowered their limit several times, resulting in a 250,000x difference in the limits. But the EPA
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
I highly recommend the book "Quiet" by Susan Cain. It explores the trait of introversion in depth and makes many thought-provoking commentary about our cultural preference for extroversion. The poster can probably be described as
88.
by wcfrobert 2y ago
Nowadays, reading is mostly a meditative exercise for me. I'm not an "infovore" so I don't care about the velocity of ideas entering my head. Otherwise why not just go on Blinkist and read (or better yet listen to) book
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Wholeheartedly agree. SWEs are not factory workers. They don't punch in at 6am, put on their uniforms, make sure they meet their daily "lines of code" quota before clocking out at 10pm. We should not measure software producti
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by wcfrobert 2y ago
Bullet point lists aren't always the most optimal. Anything longer than 6 bullet points actually reads worse.

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