great article. reminds me of the saying “9 women can’t make a baby in a month”
Some things just take time
61–70 of 295 posts
Re: Some things just take time
#62> everybody who is like me, fully onboarded into AI and agentic tools, seemingly has less and less time available because we fall into a trap where we’re immediately filling it with more things You fill a jar with sand and there is no space for big rocks. But if you fill the jar with big rocks, there is plenty of space for sand. Remove one of the rocks and the sand instantly fills that void. Make sure you fit the roc…
I think that's kind of the point though: AI is the sand, but it's the rocks that hold all of the value; the further you get away from using AI the more real value you obtain. Like, a few of the rocks have gold deposits in them, and the sand is just infinitely copious but never holds anything valuable. And you've got a bunch of people running around saying, "Behold my mountains of sand!"
Re: Some things just take time
#63Also you know, for programmers, say a 3 day work week is right there up for grabs. Even still employers would see big productivity increases.
you know what most of us end up doing on those other days? we start side tech projects that require even more effort for even little return. You can't trust us with self-care. There's just too many shiny toys out there!
Speak for yourself!
Re: Some things just take time
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is nitpicking his point. But anyhow, you can buy large-ish burlapped trees but they aren’t as healthy, often die, and nothing close to a 100+ yr old estate oak tree or a decades old rose garden. You just can’t make it faster, transplanting plants that old will kill them.
You're moving the goalposts on his poor analogy :) Most of the trees do just fine, and these nurseries will typically provide a warranty.
Besides nitpicking, even your original point isn't even true. You cannot transplant a 100 year old tree (which has not been constrained in size dramatically) and expect it to survive for any reasonable length of time.
Re: Some things just take time
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> status symbol. This sort of thing was done at a time when everybody did it, and now that it's not done, nobody does it No kid ever said "did you see the sweater that Timmy's grandma knitted for him? That kid is so cool! " Mostly because they all had grams sweaters as well. I don't know what term you were looking for, but a handmade present for someone dear is about the furthest thing from a "status symbol" that I c…
What are you referring to with the phrase "status symbol"? I can't connect it at all to your listed points. An Olympic medal is about obvious a status symbol as I can imagine but it can't (meaningfully) be bought or transferred. The status signified with a knit sweater is membership (and good standing!) in a caring family with elders not yet fully subsumed into their phones. People, acquaintances and strangers alike,…
> it can't (meaningfully) be bought or transferred.
https://www.ebay.com/b/Olympic-Medal/27291/bn_55191416?_sop=...
> People, acquaintances and strangers alike, frequently comment on the knit socks I often wear,
Ok, that explains pretty much everything about your line of thought.
Thanks.
Re: Some things just take time
#66> We pay premiums for Swiss watches, Hermès bags and old properties precisely because of the time embedded in them Lost me in paragraph three. We pay for those things because they're recognizable status symbols, not because they took a long time to make. It took my grandmother a long time to knit the sweater I'm wearing, but its market value is probably close to zero.
I feel you, I guess i succeeded in not being lost and keep reading by solving the conendrum in telling myself: it certainly should take time to grow the cows for the bags. Nonetheless I'm glad i finished reading it, it was a good essay.
Re: Some things just take time
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> status symbol. This sort of thing was done at a time when everybody did it, and now that it's not done, nobody does it No kid ever said "did you see the sweater that Timmy's grandma knitted for him? That kid is so cool! " Mostly because they all had grams sweaters as well. I don't know what term you were looking for, but a handmade present for someone dear is about the furthest thing from a "status symbol" that I c…
I don't care about the opinion of kids. I'm also completely unimpressed by someone wearing a Rolex though, so different mileage for different people.
You should be able to understand the definition of a common term such as "status symbol" though.
Understanding words does not require being impressed by anything, nor caring about the opinion of kids.
Re: Some things just take time
#68I've been working on a clone of Sid Meier's Pirates but with a princess theme (for my daughters). I've been using AI to help me write it and I've come to a couple conclusions: - AI can make working PoCs incredibly quickly - It can even help me think of story lines, decision paths etc - Given that, there is still a TON of decisions to be made e.g. what artwork to use, what makes sense from a story perspective - Playte…
LMK if you finish it, sounds like something my daughter would enjoy!
Re: Some things just take time
#69Speed is useful, when you have a good idea or a hypothesis you want to test. But if you are running in the wrong direction, speed is of very little value. With LLMs it might be even harder to stop and realize that you are creating the wrong thing, because you are not spending effort to create the wrong thing.
I'm seeing this cultural pattern where developers have started accepting LLM output with very little scrutiny. This ends up code that works on the surface, but most of the times problems are not addressed at their source.
Creating these wrong things is only cheaper with LLMs. Since developers now spend less time and effort to create that wrong thing, they don't feel the need validate or reflect on them so much.
The risk is not the tool itself, but the over-reliance on it and forgoing feedback loops that have made teams stronger, e.g. debugging, testing, and reasoning why something works a particular way.
Re: Some things just take time
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are you referring to with the phrase "status symbol"? I can't connect it at all to your listed points. An Olympic medal is about obvious a status symbol as I can imagine but it can't (meaningfully) be bought or transferred. The status signified with a knit sweater is membership (and good standing!) in a caring family with elders not yet fully subsumed into their phones. People, acquaintances and strangers alike,…
> it can't (meaningfully) be bought or transferred. https://www.ebay.com/b/Olympic-Medal/27291/bn_55191416?_sop=... > People, acquaintances and strangers alike, frequently comment on the knit socks I often wear, Ok, that explains pretty much everything about your line of thought. Thanks.
(edited for clarity)
> https://www.ebay.com/b/Olympic-Medal/27291/bn_55191416?_sop=...
Of course you can buy an Olympic medal. You can't buy the status conferred by the medal (of Olympic champion / nth runner up).
> Ok, that explains pretty much everything about your line of thought.
I don't understand this either. Are you insulting me?