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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

#221

Post by whizzter »

riggsdk wrote: post #219
crazygringo wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 1,000%. The one I don't quite know how to solve is when I'm tapping a device to connect to -- whether a WiFi router or an AirPlay speaker or whatever -- and I swear to god, half the time my intended device slides out from under me a newly discovered device enters above and pushes it down. Or sometimes devices disappear and pull it up. Maybe it's because I live in an apartment building with lots of devices. I've…

To me the BIGGEST annoyance is the iOS “End call” button. Just as I’m about to tap it, the other person ends the call and what I’m actually tapping is some other person on my call list that it then immediately calls. Even if I end the call quickly they often call back confused “You called, what did you want?” Apple: PLEASE add a delay to touch input after the call screen closes.

Happens to me far too frequently as well!

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

#222

Post by jonlandrum »

codelikeawolf wrote: post #101

> We write a new tool because we are overwhelmed. Refactor it, not because the code is messy, but your life is. We chase the perfect system because it gives us something to hold onto when everything else is spinning. This really got to me because I've been doing this without realizing it for as long as I can remember.

Yeah, I feel called out by that line

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

#223

Post by 0x1ceb00da »

chamomeal wrote: post #144
XCSme wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Software doesn’t stay solved. Every solution you write starts to rot the moment it exists. I don't really agree with this. Yes, it gets outdated quickly and breaks often if you build it in such a way that it relies on many external services. Stuff like relying on "number-is-odd" NPM package instead of copy-pasting the code or implementing it yourself. The more dependencies you have, the more likely it will break. I…

That sorta supports the point the article was making though: > ExternalLibrary V2 just released? Instead of postponing the migration, update your code and migrate ASAP. The later you do it, the harder the migration will be. Is, to me, almost the same sentence as > Every solution you write starts to rot the moment it exists

> Every solution you write starts to rot the moment it exists

Not if you work on temple os.

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

#224

Post by matheusmoreira »

pammf wrote: post #153

A good part of that is a disguised sense of superiority. Life becomes way lighter when you realize other people are also smart and what you’re “fixing” can very likely be: - something so unimportant that no one felt it was worthy working on - something that was supposed to work like that, and you simply don’t agree and want to make it your way

All of programming comes from a sense of superiority.

Programming is the closest humanity has ever gotten to godhood. We're creating entire structured universes out of unstructured bits. The system reflects the understanding of its creator.

We're all pretending to be gods, warring over the system's design.

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

#225

Post by sanderjd »

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…

Hey! I relate to this! And thank you for sharing.

This happened to me when I was going through a similar transition as the OP is highlighting. At first, creating software was difficult and novel. Then after getting over that first learning hump, I spent a pretty long time feeling drunk on the power of being able to get computers to do exactly what I want. But familiarity breeds contempt, and eventually it felt more like "this is it?" and the pure act of creation for creation's sake lost a lot of its appeal.

I think this is a pretty common transition! For me, the path out of the doldrums is two fold: 1. I have a lot more going on in my life now that has nothing to do with computing (mostly family, but also other interests), and 2. I'm a lot more focused on what I'm creating and why it's useful than in the act of creation itself.

This almost certainly not what you want to hear, but this is why the quickly developing gen AI tools are increasingly exciting to me. I believe they open up the world of what can be created within a given time constraint. They also definitely (at least for me) make the act of creation itself less enjoyable, and I lament that. I'll probably always feel nostalgia for how I felt about the craft of programming a decade or two ago. But my perspective has just shifted from the "how" to the "what".

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

#226

Post by jonlandrum »

davnicwil wrote: post #72

Fractal complexity. It's not only that solutions decay, though that's true, but also that the search for improvement itself becomes recursive. When you identify something can be improved, and fix it, your own fix and every individual step of it now become the new thing that can be improved. After the most fleeting of pauses to step back and appreciate your work, this becomes your new default. Indeed I often look back…

"Just build the product" this was a good read, and a trap I get sucked into. Always focusing on amassing ever better tools, and forgetting that the practice of using those tools is what really matters.

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

#227

Post by ajuc »

XCSme wrote: post #209
ajuc wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when Turbo Pascal 7.0 programs started failing with Division by 0 error cause Turbo Pascal runtime does calibration loop at the start to calculate how many no-ops to sleep for 1 millisecond. So - your HelloWorld written 10 years ago suddenly stopped working after CPU you run it on got too fast.

Yes, if you change hardware, the software can break (a lot less often now than before though, as hardware changes are a negligible and they usually think about backwards compatibility).

I'm not sure if it's more or less often now, but over decades almost everything breaks one way or another.

Even if your code, OS and hardware had no bugs and was designed perfectly and you keep the same hardware to run you code forever - there's layers under the hardware - the reality outside the computer.

You have written perfectly secure website. Then quantum computers happen.

Countries are created and fall apart. People switch writing systems and currencies. Calendars get updated.

Your code might technically work after 100 years, but with almost 100% probability it won't be useful for anything.

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

#228

Post by nico »

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…

Maybe try using AI to jumpstart your process and get the basics up and running

For me, it’s brought back the joy of coding and building things: I feel like I was in a rut for years before that

Also, finding people to share the stuff with helps a lot too. Even if they are personal projects, it’s nice having others to show it to, appreciate it and give feedback

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

#229

Post by pmarreck »

alias_neo wrote: post #175
pmarreck wrote: post #159

Oh wow. This hits hard in the feels. Here's my personal submission for "UI problem that has existed for years on touch interfaces, plus a possible solution, but at this point I'm just shouting into the void": https://medium.com/@pmarreck/the-most-annoying-ui-problem-r3... In short, an interface should not be interactable until a few milliseconds after it has finished (re)rendering, or especially, while it is still in…

I've had this a few times, particularly on mobile, where you're doing something and some pop-up will steal focus, but of course you were tapping or swiping or something the exact instance it popped; it stayed just long enough for the after-image on your retinas to catch a single word and you realise it might have been important, but it's gone now, with no sign. This happened to my just the other day; I was purchasing…

The fact that Android even has a notification history is huge.

iOS does not!

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

#230

Post by Aeolun »

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…

> parental burnout is a _very_ real thing

Doesn't often come from a lack of meaning though? Or maybe the meaning is more micro in this instance, and you wonder what the point is of telling them to pick up their dirty socks for the... 327th time.

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