> The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?
I end up hoarding things for the same reason, and the mental gymnastics I try to play with myself (using that ice cream machine as an example) is to think of cases where I would be willing to make ice cream, but wouldn't be willing to go buy store bought ice cream as an alternative. Usually means I need to quickly go research what I think might be interesting about the thing... and then I fall short because... there's some cool ice cream recipe ideas online... and then I enjoy make the proverbial matcha gelato that weekend... and the machine goes in the packed cupboard for another 3 months.
I'm not 100% sure if that's a good or bad outcome haha. The pattern has repeated itself with any clutter that happens to enable a weekend project once a year.
I think I'm finding a pretty good niche for myself honestly. IMO, Software engineering is more so splitting into different professions based on the work is produces.
This sort of "prompt and pray" flow really works for people, as in they can make products and money, however, I do think the people that succeed today also would've reached for no-code tools 5 years ago and seen similar success. It's just faster and more comprehensive now. I think the general theme of the products remains the same though; not un-important or worthless, but it tends to be software that has effects that say INSIDE the realm of software. I feel like there's always been a market for that, as it IS important, it's just not WORTH the time and money to the right people to "engineer" those tools. A lot of SaaS products filled that niche for many years.
While it's not a way I want to work, I am also becoming comfortable with respecting that as a different profession for producing a certain brand of software that does have value, and that I wasn't making before. The intersection of that is opportunity I'm missing out on; no fault to anyone taking it!
The software engineer that writes the air traffic avoidance system for a plane better take their job seriously, understand every change they make, and be able to maintain software indefinitely. People might not care a ton about how their sales tracking software is engineered, but they really care about the engineering of the airplane software.
I think this is mostly right. The primary difference is that with no code you had to change platforms, but the Prompt and Pray method can be brought to bear on any software easily even the air traffic avoidance system.
It shouldn’t be, but it’s going to take some catastrophic events to convince people that we have to work to make sure we understand the systems we’re building and keep everything from devolving into vibe coded slop.
> the Prompt and Pray method can be brought to bear on any software easily even the air traffic avoidance system.
I guess that's why I see it as a separate profession, as in we have to actually profess a standard for how a professional in our field acts and believes. I think it's OK for it to bifurcate into two different fields, but Software Engineering would need to specifically reject prompt-and-pray on a principled and rational basis.
Sadly yes, that might require real cost to life in order to find out the "why" side of that rational basis. If you meet anyone that went to an engineering school in Québec, ask them about the ceremony they did and the ring they received. [0] It's not like that ceremony fixes anything, but it's a solemn declaration of responsibility which to me at least, sets a contract with society that says "we won't make things that harm you".
> Compare that to ~30% of all energy use for transportation
Transportation, especially ALL transportation, does a LOT. You're looking for ROI not the absolute values. I think it's undeniable that the positive economic effect of every car, truck, train, and plane is unfathomably huge. That's trains moving minerals, planes moving people, trucks transporting goods, and hundreds of combinations thereof, all interconnected. Literally no economic activity would happen without transportation, including the transition to green energy sources, of which would improve the emissions from transportation.
I think it might be more emissions-efficient at generating value than AI by a factor exceeding the 7.5x energy use. Moving rocks from (place with rocks) to (place that needs rocks) continues to be just an insanely good thing for humanity.
Also, I'm not sure about your math. 4% would be 4% of the whole like in a pie chart, not 4% of the remainder after removing one slice. 4% AI, 30% transportation, 66% other. I don't know where that 40% is from.
> Also, I'm not sure about your math. 4% would be 4% of the whole like in a pie chart, not 4% of the remainder after removing one slice. 4% AI, 30% transportation, 66% other. I don't know where that 40% is from.
AI is not currently 4% of the energy market of the US. Only the grid. I should have been more clear about the ALL ENERGY vs GRID distinction.
> I think it might be more emissions-efficient at generating value than AI by a factor exceeding the 7.5x energy use. Moving rocks from (place with rocks) to (place that needs rocks) continues to be just an insanely good thing for humanity.
I really made no statement on the value of doing things. Transportation is obviously very valuable. I just wanted a more fact based conversation.
> the Flipper Zero community seems less than enthralled by the whole thing. A post about the project on Reddit got a pretty tepid response from r/FlipperZero subscribers. The original post got next to no engagement, and a second thread received several responses from people saying they have no interest in the project.
> “No thanks!” one wrote, while another critiqued the project as seeming “AI-generated.” A user claiming to have worked on the project offered to answer any questions about it, and was downvoted and pelted with some mean-spirited replies.
Slow news day at Gizmodo? This appears to be a report on a project done by someone not directly related to Flipper Zero in any way, that made less of an impact than this person thought it would.
I know it's rather rude to make fun of someone for trying to make/write something... but I truly cannot think of a funnier and more worthless premise for an article. Gizmodo could pivot to the Onion of technology.
Retraining people once they're alive again not only requires logisitics and hiring N-centuries from now, but also requires that anyone really cares. You could imagine a world where 100s of people are being reanimated at once, but I don't think the economics would ever let that event happen.
Once this passes through a few generations of people responsible for tending to the needs of rich people's frozen brains, the empathy and money will be gone. Imagine inheriting a business funded from people wanting to skip over the entirety of your lifetime because they assume your time is too boring for them. Plus, your impact on that business will be null. There is nothing you can do except keep it going and get more rich people's brains in there. The only "innovation" that's going to drive business is bringing someone back to life... which for a large span of brain custodians, will only be possible AFTER their death. Maybe you need to model it after a religion; humanity has kept stuff going for long spans of time under that framing... but are you still just a servant to these ancient people who you have not met, and will actually NEVER meet since you'll die first... having spent precious time in your life taking care of them? Seems like an uninspiring religion.
Or... you do some fraud, which is much easier. They're already functionally dead, and you presumably have access to a lot of their money. Money that is worth more in your lifetime, than in their future.
People have historically cared very little about the personal feelings of the pharoah as they dust off his bones and take his nice things. Doesn't even need that long. Guess what, T+200 years, the brains are getting dumped in a river.
I was reading it as "joon note" originally! I only realized I was misreading it when coming back to the comments. If you wanted to change up the name, maybe "June Note"? It has a nice ring to it IMO, and doesn't stray too far from your original name. Nature-y too, which seems to be a bit of a theme.
Really nice job on the app though! I think written-beyond's comment says more than enough: you've made what should be a default feature, that no one had thought to make.
lol, yeah...about the name..I think it's too late to change it now? Didn't realize it sounded a certain way until much later.. I wanted it to be "Zuunote"(like zoo-note but domain taken) but it was already taken by my other project, so "Joonote" sounded closest to it to my mind at the time...yeah crap haha
Electric kettles are much better designed, and are what the parent comment is talking about. This [0] is the canonical white-labeled kettle that you can have for 30 of your hard-earned canukistanian kopeks, and are the average kettle around here. No scalding since the lid's handles are deep enough that you can open it on an angle to direct the steam away from you. Big handle on the side instead of the top. Switch on the bottom away from hot metal casing. And the kettle just lifts off the base, so you're not futzing around with a cable while pouring hot water.
The example that comes to my mind is lockout tags. [0] It usually means temporarily jamming up a specific control marked as the lockout/ignition/energizing control while you're working on some big and gnarly machine. There's a bunch of regulation around the specifics of what that control has to prevent if not activated/lockedout, but usually it's a dirt-simple breaker switch or hydraulic valve, controlling whatever the main source of energy into the machine is. The ones with holes are for padlocks that everyone will lock padlocks onto so you have a count of who's still "down there".
If you ever URGENTLY needed to start a machine, and you knew it was safe to do so, the average shop gremlin could always break the tag and start it since they're normally made of craptacular plastic or thin sheet metal... but it's easily enough friction to make you rethink what you're doing. Never known anyone that's ever had to break a tag like that.
> I feel the same way about the current crop of AI tools. I've tried a bunch of them. Some are good. Most are a bit shit. Few are useful to me as they are now. [...] If this tech is as amazing as you say it is, I'll be able to pick it up and become productive on a timescale of my choosing not yours.
I think the point the author is making is not that it's all useless, but against the very overly simplistic idea the plot of Amount of AI vs Productivity in All Situations is a hockey stick chart.
Being told to be excited about something when clearly all they're saying is "it works sometimes, other times not so much. I'll keep checking and when it's good enough for me I'll get on board" is aggravating.
I end up hoarding things for the same reason, and the mental gymnastics I try to play with myself (using that ice cream machine as an example) is to think of cases where I would be willing to make ice cream, but wouldn't be willing to go buy store bought ice cream as an alternative. Usually means I need to quickly go research what I think might be interesting about the thing... and then I fall short because... there's some cool ice cream recipe ideas online... and then I enjoy make the proverbial matcha gelato that weekend... and the machine goes in the packed cupboard for another 3 months.
I'm not 100% sure if that's a good or bad outcome haha. The pattern has repeated itself with any clutter that happens to enable a weekend project once a year.
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