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The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

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Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#161

Post by daliboru »

Tepix wrote: post #46
daliboru wrote: post #37

I see a similar issue in 2025, but with vibe coding. It all boils down to the 3 key factors: speed, quality and cost. And you can't have it all Know your trade-offs.

With vibe coding, you have none of those. The initial speed advantage will disappear once you need to maintain the mess.

Tnx for the comment. Discussing tools (in this case, vibe coding) naturally raises the issue of what skills are actually needed to use them effectively, such as prompting, which in turn leads to a broader question about the role and relevance of traditional software engineering skills. It's a whole other topic...

You can create value with vibe coding. As I said, know your trade-off, your context.

You wouldn't use a hammer to fix a watch, would you?

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#162

Post by caseyy »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #48
EZ-E wrote: post #19

There is the curse of knowing how, and maybe more importantly there is the curse of other people knowing you know how.

Family members asking you to fix their printers.

Family is the F-word I can't stand, much like Louis Rossman. Whenever someone pulls "but I'm your family" or "but I'm your friend" into an ask, there's a 95% likelihood you're being guilt-tripped. Whether you wish to help the manipulators is your choice, but it's important to understand what's happening.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#163

Post by dspillett »

PixelForg wrote: post #52

Hopefully the future me is able to relate to this, because I really feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to working on personal projects. I have many ideas that I want to build, but I'd have to learn new languages, yet I just can't sit and go through the documentation every day like I should. Still haven't finished the rust book. The other way is start building already, and if you come across a block, then learn abou…

> Hopefully the future me is able to relate to this, because I really feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to working on personal projects.

I've been there for a decade or more. It is part of my recent burn-out…

The trick is to prioritise and not care too much about too many things, to avoid the choice paralysis in choosing what to do next. Unfortunately I've not mastered that trick yet, or even come close. In fact I'm increasingly of the opinion that dropping tech projects completely, accepting that is no longer a hobby and no longer something that will ever bring me joy again in future, is the prioritisation I need to perform, so I can instead have more mental capacity for other hobbies (and, of course, commitments in life).

You are far from alone in this trap!

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#164

Post by jurgenaut23 »

> Burnout does not just come from overwork. It comes from overresponsibility.

I don't _think_ it is accurate. I think burnout comes from putting energy into things that don't have meaning. Case in point, this article: as you realize that fixing everything is a never-ending game with marginal ROI, you end up burning out.

If overresponsibility alone caused burn out, I think that every parent out there would be impacted. And yes, parental burnout is a _very_ real thing, yet some of us may dodge that bullet, probably by sheer luck of having just the right balance between effort and reward.

Throw this tradeoff off balance, and most parents just burn out in weeks.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#166

Post by daliboru »

layer8 wrote: post #158
daliboru wrote: post #37

I see a similar issue in 2025, but with vibe coding. It all boils down to the 3 key factors: speed, quality and cost. And you can't have it all Know your trade-offs.

How do you achieve speed and quality at the same time?

To quote one movie character: "Bro, when you can't fix a problem with money, you fix it with a lot of money."

Jokes aside, you find the crème de la crème of engineering, and pay as much as they ask for.

Speed + Quality = $$$$$

On the other hand,

Speed + Cheap = Crap Quality

Cheap + Quality = Slow

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#167

Post by diggan »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #164

> Burnout does not just come from overwork. It comes from overresponsibility. I don't _think_ it is accurate. I think burnout comes from putting energy into things that don't have meaning. Case in point, this article: as you realize that fixing everything is a never-ending game with marginal ROI, you end up burning out. If overresponsibility alone caused burn out, I think that every parent out there would be impacted…

> I think burnout comes from putting energy into things that don't have meaning.

That'd mean that people who are burned out all did so because they did stuff that didn't have meaning? Ultimately, I think you can get burned out regardless of how meaningful it is or isn't. People working at hospitals (just as one example) have probably some of the most meaningful jobs, yet burn out frequently regardless.

More likely that both different people burn out because of different things, and it's a mix of reasons, not just one "core" reason we can point at and say "That's why burnout happen, not the other things".

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#169

Post by liefde »

PixelForg wrote: post #52

Hopefully the future me is able to relate to this, because I really feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to working on personal projects. I have many ideas that I want to build, but I'd have to learn new languages, yet I just can't sit and go through the documentation every day like I should. Still haven't finished the rust book. The other way is start building already, and if you come across a block, then learn abou…

What you're feeling is not laziness. It's the quiet ache of misalignment between your values and your current energy. You love the craft. You want to savor the process. But the weight of “shoulds” — finish the book, learn the language, do it the right way — has turned your joy into pressure.

The discomfort of having gaps in your knowledge is not a flaw. It’s a sign of integrity. But perfectionism disguised as discipline can become a cage. You’re not stuck because you lack ability — you’re stuck because you’ve built a narrow path and called it the only way forward.

There is another way: give yourself permission. To build messy. To learn sideways. To follow joy, not obligation. To trust that your curiosity is enough.

You wrote this here because something in you is ready to shift. You’re not asking for advice. You’re asking to be seen. And you are.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#170

Post by xandrius »

PixelForg wrote: post #52

Hopefully the future me is able to relate to this, because I really feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to working on personal projects. I have many ideas that I want to build, but I'd have to learn new languages, yet I just can't sit and go through the documentation every day like I should. Still haven't finished the rust book. The other way is start building already, and if you come across a block, then learn abou…

Just for info, you can use AI to teach you the code fundamentals you're lacking, not just to write the code for you.

Say, you have to use a new IDE and don't know how to use it, ask the LLM the steps to perform whether action your want to take.

The worst you can do is nothing at all.

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