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Maybe the default settings are too high

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Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#81

Post by godelski »

bigiain wrote: post #67
godelski wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he might shrug and say "I don't know" I have far more trust for people willing to say this. > I would start blurting out half-baked ideas to fill the silence I find that I'm more likely to do this but try to make an effort to stop. There's times to spitball but we should also spend time thinking. And let's be real 30-60s is not that long > This manager also typed with one or two fingers, and pretty slowly too. But…

If shrug-guy is anything like me, he sat there blurting out half-baked ideas and then shooting them down all in his internal monologue, instead of out loud. For me, I sometimes feel like I'm an old school chess engine, exploring as many possible moves/ideas as I can - as many steps into the future as time allows. Constantly evaluating them based on some known-simplified fitness function usually involving pattern reco…

Sure, but isn't there still an advantage to this? If two people are silently doing this then they don't influence one another as much, helping find a wider range of solutions as well as identify issues with certain solutions that the other might not have seen.

Instead if you're blurting out your thinking more in unison. Naturally you'll stray less, exploring less.

Of course you want collaboration but I find the magic is going back and forth between alone and together. I even find this helpful when just working by myself, stepping away from the problem or context switching, allowing the problem to distill.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#82

Post by satvikpendem »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #27
chilmers wrote: post #2

If you’re a fan of LOTR but don’t fancy reading it aloud yourself, I’d really recommend the new audio versions read by Andy Serkis. While I don’t vibe with every facet of his performance, overall it’s a tour-de-force, and really makes the prose come to life. Especially in those descriptive sections that it’s possible to glaze over when reading the text. Having an actor of the calibre of Serkis reading them to you bri…

Noooo. Audio books feed you the content at someone else’s pace, not at your (slow) pace, which is exactly what TFA advocates. Or, what are you going to do? Hit Pause after each sentence so you can fully digest and savor it?

Then just use 0.75 or 0.5x speed? I don't understand this question.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#83

Post by godelski »

rgoulter wrote: post #72
godelski wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he might shrug and say "I don't know" I have far more trust for people willing to say this. > I would start blurting out half-baked ideas to fill the silence I find that I'm more likely to do this but try to make an effort to stop. There's times to spitball but we should also spend time thinking. And let's be real 30-60s is not that long > This manager also typed with one or two fingers, and pretty slowly too. But…

> I'll be honest, this is the big reason I don't get all the hype around coding agents. I do find them useful but typing isn't the bottleneck. Not even close. It's always possible to go slower for practically no cost. -- So, any benefit from going slower is obtainable for everyone. Whereas, typing faster takes discipline and effort. There are diminishing benefits to putting in more effort to type faster. The main ben…

  > typing faster takes discipline and effort.

  >> ***typing isn't the bottleneck***
I believe you read too fast

  > The main benefit isn't so much "more output" so much as "reduced latency". e.g. It takes less time to type out queries that help you gather information.
You've missed the critical part of what I was saying.

While typing I'm doing other things in parallel.

Those other things are things that require you to scrutinize and look at each character. I think the vacuum analogy from the OP is quite apt here. It's much harder to debug other people's code and more so an LLMs.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#84

Post by fgonzag »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #68
nabbed wrote: post #50

This can work with the way you think as well. Many years ago, I had a technical manager who never felt any pressure to be the first to come up with the answer to a question or the solution to some problem. If I was having a technical conversation with him, and we arrived at a particularly subtle or complex issue, he could go completely silent, just staring straight ahead with his fingers to his lips. I would find it…

I often do this in meetings and have gotten into the habit of saying "I'm thinking". It's not much but it gives both of us time to think and explicitly makes it clear I don't expect the person to say something. I think that helps.

I just blurt out "processing" when they start looking at me weird. People tend to take it well.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#85

Post by nemo1618 »

dsubburam wrote: post #18

Music is an interesting case. You can't slow down the consumption of music (you have to let it play at the speed the performer intended), but you can dial up the attention you give it. Listening with headphones, eyes closed, and phone+doorbell etc. switched off would be close to max. Sitting at a live concert (I am thinking classical) is up there too, because you've given yourself permission to not think of/work on a…

You certainly do not need to play music at the speed the performer intended! There are whole genres (and subgenres) based on this. :) Personally, I have found that slowing a familiar piece down by ~5% tricks my brain into perceiving it as novel again, which helps me attend to it more closely and appreciate it more.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#87

Post by jaredsohn »

godelski wrote: post #81
bigiain wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If shrug-guy is anything like me, he sat there blurting out half-baked ideas and then shooting them down all in his internal monologue, instead of out loud. For me, I sometimes feel like I'm an old school chess engine, exploring as many possible moves/ideas as I can - as many steps into the future as time allows. Constantly evaluating them based on some known-simplified fitness function usually involving pattern reco…

Sure, but isn't there still an advantage to this? If two people are silently doing this then they don't influence one another as much, helping find a wider range of solutions as well as identify issues with certain solutions that the other might not have seen. Instead if you're blurting out your thinking more in unison. Naturally you'll stray less, exploring less. Of course you want collaboration but I find the magic…

Another way to think of it is if you're blurting out your thinking you're reducing redundant work and perhaps inspiring the other person to think of additional solutions that are offshoots of what you're dismissing. I see merits to both ways of looking at this.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#88

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #40

I can't control the speed that I read. In fact, I noticed that whenever a book becomes most exciting, I start reading especially fast (to the point of skipping words), because I want to know what happens next. So I spend the least time with the best parts of the best books. Ever since I realized that, I have switched pretty much exclusively to audiobooks. I don't really know if it's faster or slower overall, but it's…

I feel the same way. It goes away if I already know what's going to happen. For this reason I strongly recommend reading the things you love a second time.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#89

Post by Uvix »

bigiain wrote: post #77
sublinear wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate audiobooks because they're way too slow and full of moods/tones that often contradict how I would have read it. I can't be the only one who thinks they're overindulgent and annoying.

For me, "overindulgent and annoying" is way too harsh. But they feel _sooooo_ slow and I kind of resent "missing out" on the other books I could have read while the audiobook plods along (even at chipmunk 2x babble speed).

I save audiobooks for times when I couldn't have read something else - while doing chores, driving, etc. - so I can avoid that "missing out" feeling.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#90

Post by wombatpm »

bell-cot wrote: post #48
neutronicus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a capability with which having children will make you intimately familiar

By the 3rd week of Goodnight Moon at bedtime, are you still reading the printed words?

Throw in an occasional Goodnight Opus and learn to depart from the text
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