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Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

blog.sydorets.com

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Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#91

Post by dlcarrier »

dom96 wrote: post #19

I hope and believe that some great companies and teams will use LLMs to build higher quality software. We built Electron because writing UIs using native desktop frameworks is tough. Is it still tough? Surely LLMs make it easier to use and so we will end up with faster and more native feeling applications. What about having a couple of ideas of what might make a feature feel good? Well now you can make multiple proto…

Cross-platform widget engines (Tk, GTK, Qt, wxWidgets, etc…) long predate Electron and have always been robust, stable, well documented, and easy to use. It's not creating a single application for multiple native desktop environments that was difficult, it's writing a single application as both a web interface and a native desktop environment on any platform that's difficult.

Because CSS is constantly changing, inconsistently implemented, and difficult to use, it can't easily be targeted by widget engines (although Qt has tried, and maybe others) and web browsers already exist, so webview environments like Electron are the quickest way to get a cross-platform installable application that can also be hosted on a web server. I wouldn't really call it native though.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#92

Post by _diyar »

I like the analogy the author draws.

But so much of the AI capability discussion can be avoided once everyone understands that a) There is some multivariate supply and demand market for software and b) AI is shifting the supply curve of software.

The shift is uneven, not perfectly monotonic, and might actually result in shifts in the demand curve (as e.g. 10x seniors get more valuable).

This insight makes it easier to see the forest despite the trees.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#93

Post by danielmarkbruce »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #78
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to costco, buy prime filet. Put it in a ziplock in a sous vide at 130 for an hour. Drop it in corn oil at 425 for 30 seconds. Add some butter and salt. That simple process, suggested by Nathan Myhrvold (former MSFT cto) in the modernist cuisine, produces a filet better than most restaurants.

That "simple process" requires equipment most people don't own or know how to operate, an oil most people don't keep in their cupboards, and is suggested in a book most people haven't heard of by a tech CTO they would not recognise the name of. Honestly this is like the Dropbox comment all over again. Everyone is missing the point, it's glorious. :) Most people cooking steaks don't care about the optimal way to cook…

Corn oil is cheap and available at costco. A sous vide is a fancy french name for a $150 device from target that keeps water at a specific temperature...

This "simple process" is much, much simpler than most meals one cooks at home. It's not much harder than microwaving something.

You are missing the point. With a small change in the way you do something, the really good thing can be made.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#94

Post by MostlyStable »

varispeed wrote: post #79
MostlyStable wrote: post #30

I take the point, but I think the author picked a poor analogy. Cooking even an excellent steak is actually not that hard. In fact, I'd argue that it's among the easiest things to master/make at a top level quality at home. Does it require some modicum of attention and understanding? Sure. But starting with a high quality cut, owning a meat-thermometer, and knowing about reverse searing is about all it takes to relia…

How do you get around the idea of poisoning oneself? Keeping meat part raw feels uneasy.

You are protected in two ways:

The first, and by far most important is that unlike ground meat, your bacterial concerns are almost entirely on the surface. Unless something very very very wrong has occurred in the processing and transport chain, bacteria will not have penetrated into the meat. And if it's gotten bad enough that they have, you will almost certainly be able to see and smell it. And the surface is cooked to a temperature far in excess of that needed to kill bacteria.

And even for the interior, rare is not the same as raw. A completely rare steak should be cooked to between 120 and 130 (if you want it "blue" you might go down to 120). That's enough to get a decent reduction in bacterial count on it's own, although admittedly many techniques will not hold it long enough to get the number of log reductions that food safety guidelines recommend, in the case that you somehow did have a large bacterial infection in the interior.

So the answer to your question is that if you are buying your meat from an even halfway reputable source, the only place that bacteria might exist is on the surface, where it has been cut by tools and handled by the butcher/you and in general come into contact with the world. Those bacteria will be 100% killed by the cooking process. The odds of getting sick from a rare steak are low enough that if you are concerned about that, there are innumerable other things in your life that you should be more concerned by.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#95

Post by danielmarkbruce »

pton_xd wrote: post #84
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to costco, buy prime filet. Put it in a ziplock in a sous vide at 130 for an hour. Drop it in corn oil at 425 for 30 seconds. Add some butter and salt. That simple process, suggested by Nathan Myhrvold (former MSFT cto) in the modernist cuisine, produces a filet better than most restaurants.

Reminds me of recipes like brining a turkey in Dr Pepper... sure it may taste fine, but I'd rather not eat food prepared in plastic bags with processed oil.

Then don't go to a good restaurant. Sous vide is extremely common, and oils of various types are used liberally.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#96

Post by et-al »

christophilus wrote: post #46

I found this to be my favorite approach[0]. Also, Lan Lam’s stuff is just generally excellent. And yes, super easy to make with almost no skill. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uJcO1W_TD74&pp=ygURVGVjaG5pcXV...

Interesting, the NYT had a tip on flipping every 90s, but it was with a cast-iron pan and not a "cold sear". That was too smokey for our weak kitchen exhaust, so it was the last time I tried flipping multiple times.

But Lam Lam's cold sear video doesn't seem to make that much smoke on a non-stick, so I'll give this a shot again.

(Personally the reverse sear has been my idiotproof go-to.)

Thanks!

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#97

Post by threethirtytwo »

Before AI we lived a world where a steak took two months to perfect. Now we live in a world where it’s only 90 percent perfect but it takes 1 hour to cook.

Obviously one way is going to and has already taken over the other way.

But if you look beyond this. That 10 percent remaining gap is closing. We will get perfect steaks within an hour as AI improves. And here is the scary part… it will keep improving it will go past 100 percent perfect. It will become better than us.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#98

Post by tstrimple »

MostlyStable wrote: post #94
varispeed wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get around the idea of poisoning oneself? Keeping meat part raw feels uneasy.

You are protected in two ways: The first, and by far most important is that unlike ground meat, your bacterial concerns are almost entirely on the surface. Unless something very very very wrong has occurred in the processing and transport chain, bacteria will not have penetrated into the meat. And if it's gotten bad enough that they have, you will almost certainly be able to see and smell it. And the surface is cooke…

Great answer. Just to add, this is with red meat where E. Coli is the main concern. That exists in the gut of the animal and that bacteria can travel to the surface of the muscles during the butchering process. Poultry on the other hand is mainly concerned with Salmonella which does live in the muscles of the animal. That's why people aren't ordering rare chicken breast.

Re: Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak

#100

Post by spiffytech »

jaggederest wrote: post #90
MerrimanInd wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more of a coffee nerd than a steak aficionado but I've often made the comparison between those two. In both cases, the enthusiast considers their skill in making coffee/cooking steak to be a differentiator and they immerse themselves deeply into the process, skills, and tools. But for both coffee beans and steak the most important factor for a good end product is starting with high quality inputs. In other words,…

Coffee is a good metaphor here too, because bad technique can ruin a good steak just as surely as good coffee. "knows how to use a meat thermometer and reverse sear" describes like 10% of the population or less, same with coffee - there are people who use a bad grinder and a not-regularly-cleaned Mr. Coffee with good beans and get gas station coffee, and there are people out there making solidly B+ class coffee using…

I know people who can cook a lot of food pretty well, but don't understand why they can't use a laser thermometer to check their meat.

Knowing really is half the battle.

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