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patrickcollison.com

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Re: Questions

#81

Post by solresol »

ricardobeat wrote: post #7

> Why can't I connect my editor to a running program and hover over values to see what they last were? Why isn't time-traveling debugging widely deployed? Why can't I debug a function without restarting my program? Why in the name of the good lord are REPLs still textual? Why can't I copy a URL to my editor to enable real-time collaboration with someone else? Why isn't my editor integrated with the terminal? Why does…

> Why can't I debug a function without restarting my program?

I do this in Erlang all the time. It's one of the most fun parts about the whole system.

Re: Questions

#82

Post by ai_ia »

JepZ wrote: post #64
hyperpallium wrote: post #44

> Is Bloom's "Two Sigma" phenomenon real? ... one-on-one tutoring using mastery learning led to a two sigma(!) improvement in student performance. When I tutored, I found students often had some misunderstanding, somewhere. So my task was to listen , to find that misunderstanding, so I could correct it. This "teaching" is listening, more than talking. The idea is they are lost, but to know what direction they need, I…

I think the One-on-One Tutoring things is something the AI current movement could make a difference. Everybody seems to be obsessed with building really cool stuff, but our teaching system is quite obsolete and could get better by adding smart systems. That said I must to add, that I am referring to teaching humans who are 12 years and older (IMHO young kids require physical interaction if you want to avoid psycholog…

I am working to solve this by creating a conversation bot based interface that can make personalized learning viable. If you are interested for updates you can sign up here: https://tinyletter.com/primerlabs/

P.S: I was supposed launch a month back. But a lot of rewrites made it difficult. For now, I can say I will be launching soon.

Re: Questions

#83

Post by elorant »

unixhero wrote: post #47
chucky wrote: post #35

> Why are there so many successful startups in Stockholm? Several reasons. First, you need to recognize that any Sweden-based startup will, when it gets to be known internationally, have a Stockholm-based office. So it's not about a city of 1 million inhabitants, it's a country of 10 million that's the true number here. As an example, I believe Spotify opened their original offices in both Stockholm and Göteborg more…

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

Israel doesn't have long dark winters and yet they're the pioneers of innovation and start-up culture.

Re: Questions

#84

Post by throwawaybbqed »

dvdhsu wrote: post #21

(I work at Retool, and Patrick is an investor.) > Will end-user applications ever be truly programmable? If so, how? I think that most end-user applications now have APIs that allow you to manipulate the data. For example, Salesforce, Lever, Excel, etc. all have APIs for reading and writing data. Allowing end users to build custom UIs on top of those APIs seems like a simpler problem. Retool ( https://tryretool.com )…

Not everything useful has APIs. The most frustrating example in my life is WhatsApp. It is positively horrible. On IOS? Only way to backup your chats is iCloud. On Android .. only backup option is google drive. On an ipad without a cell phone (low income seniors who cannot afford cell plans) .. go away. It is sad and messed up how much of a locked in kingdom we have in software today. It has NEVER been this bad.

Re: Questions

#85

Post by ynv »

elorant wrote: post #83
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

Israel doesn't have long dark winters and yet they're the pioneers of innovation and start-up culture.

Well, their summers are kinda long and hot.

Re: Questions

#86

Post by batty_alex »

elorant wrote: post #83
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

Israel doesn't have long dark winters and yet they're the pioneers of innovation and start-up culture.

As someone who has worked with teams from Israel, I'd like to hear more about this if you have good sources.

In my experience, it's been the opposite. They like to play office politics, focus on keeping work off their plate, and they're not really team players.

I may just have a bad sample of Israel tech workers, though.

Re: Questions

#87

Post by throwawaybbqed »

Regarding the question of education/college costs rising drastically, I thought a key answer was that govt started to fund education a whole ton less.

In Canada (where this has not happened as badly), an undergrad in CS used to cost 3K annually a decade and a half ago, and costs 10K now. Other disciplines cost 6K I think .. CS degrees cost more since colleges decided that students earn a lot more and there is huge demand anyways. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

So .. Patrick's education costs question has an easy answer - govt funds got pulled in the US, and the wide availability of student loans acted like steroids. In places where got funds didn't get cut (e.g. Canada), things cost about the same (when adjusted for inflation and increases in salaries necessary due to things like rent/house price increases).

The question why we could get to the moon in just 9 years, or make the tallest building in 140 days? That is simple too. As a society, we are less desperate than our parents. We are more demanding when it comes to life (hence, wages and living conditions). This has spilled into the regulations we make as a society. I read it was near impossible to make some types of factories in the US anymore - due to our concern form environment, etc. I personally find a lot of red tape frustrating but then I remember .. we (as a society) put it there for some reason.

Re: Questions

#88

Post by AsyncAwait »

elorant wrote: post #83
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

Israel doesn't have long dark winters and yet they're the pioneers of innovation and start-up culture.

Just because something is a factor doesn't mean there can't be other factors that lead to a similar outcome.

Re: Questions

#89

Post by coldtea »

fredsir wrote: post #70
coldtea wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they prefer it?

I never implied they didn't prefer it, so I wonder why you seem to think so.

Well, he literally called it "insanely better", and you felt the need to double-check whether they do prefer it.

That's enough implying in my books.

(Besides, if we're to play this game, I never said that _you_ "implied they didn't prefer it". I just asked, "why wouldn't they prefer it").

Re: Questions

#90

Post by ddevault »

>Why do there seem to be more examples of rapidly-completed major projects in the past than the present?

I'm no historian so this is probably misguided, but I feel like this is an indicator for a society on the decline. Corruption is increasingly rampant in both the public and private sectors, and money is being siphoned off at every step. If we don't figure out how to fix it, mounting costs and inefficiencies could put and end to our era prosperity soon. We've allocated power to people interested in screwing others for short-term (e.g. their lifetime) gains. Rah rah doom and gloom.

>Could there be more good blogs?

>Are there incentive structure tweaks that yield more good blogging?

The missing validation mechanisms like Facebook likes the author mentioned are largely filled by link aggregators. Posts on HN and Reddit have a score which acts as a similar dopamine drip to likes. I feel validated and encouraged to write more when my blog generates discussion around the net (though often with an equal sum of embarassment when my flames make it to my colleague's desks).

>Why are programming environments still so primitive?

This guy should try working with plan9 and acme for a few months. Author, if you're reading these comments, you should install 9front, spend a weekend grokking it and becoming comfortable in a workflow there, then set up a Linux VM with vmx(3) and a 9P mount to your host system to get your Real Work done while continuing to learn about the plan9 model. Be prepared for your entire workflow to be turned on its head and to have to find creative ways out of your problems. Maybe today is one of those days where you change your life in a big way :)

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