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I no longer build software

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Re: I no longer build software

#801

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu »

genidoi wrote: post #405
lmarcos wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here it lays the paradox. All the tools you have mentioned have little to do with programming (one individual solving problems by writing code). The tools you mentioned have to do with software engineering (a bunch of individuals solving problems by writing code, plus a bunch of constraints). The joy is in programming, not in software engineering. At least that's how I interprete the GitHub comment (and all these…

I think it's easy to forget that modern tooling (+AWS/GCP/Azure) let's one dev match or exceed the productivity of 15 developers and a couple of PMs in 2005.

I spent all day today and Friday just trying to get a Google Cloud Composer project to run locally. I'm still waiting for that increased productivity that modern tooling supposedly grants me.

Re: I no longer build software

#802

Post by robryan »

nicbou wrote: post #696
SahAssar wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually this means dropshipping, but it could be something different.

Nope. https://allaboutberlin.com Isn't dropshipping extremely overcrowded since The 4 Hour Work Week popularised it?

What you really need is some level of exclusivity, if you can drop ship someones stuff into a different market or bring a new customer base to it. If 50 other people are doing the same thing it probably won’t work.

A decent portion of our business used to be dropshipping onto Amazon against others that were doing the exact same thing with the same terms. Margins obviously ended up tiny and the whole thing was at the whims of Amazon. Glad we don’t do that anymore.

Re: I no longer build software

#803

Post by Judgmentality »

zymhan wrote: post #634
kube-system wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone remember spending hours at AAA getting TripTiks and a highlighted route on a vague map for a (now) simple road trip? And the ensuing argument about the passenger's navigation obligations when you inevitably miss an exit halfway into the trip? And spending significant time preparing the (unreliable 80s domestic) car for a road trip? I recently did a ~1000 mile trip that I used to do as a kid in the 90s. Back th…

Even the improvements over the last 15 years have been immense. Remember using printed directions from Mapquest?

These wouldn't have been so bad if they were accurate. More than once I'd have to drive across multiple states to somewhere that wasn't a giant metropolis, and it would take me through a random field and tell me to turn left at a street that definitely did not exist.

Re: I no longer build software

#804

Post by the_af »

cultureswitch wrote: post #794
the_af wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have an addiction to visiting prostitutes, that can be as costly as a drug habit; and that a good VR rig, coupled with this extensible, customizable VR sex-sim software, can manage—much more-so than regular porn—to mostly sate the same psychological needs that made them retain the services of escorts in the first place Two thoughts: 1- Are men really replacing flesh & bone prostitutes with VR sex sims? 2- Is this r…

I can't comment on 1. About point 2 though, prostitution and even just hookup culture is actually more BNWish than sex sims are. If you are using a sex sim, the taboo is still very much present. And that opens up having actual relationships whereas having systematic, mindless sex with random people will give you the illusion of that being all there is to it. Everyone belongs to everyone else is the primary difference…

Fair enough. Though I can't see how VR sex simulations can bring us closer to the real thing. They seem more alienating to me. Prostitutes are real human beings with actual feelings and needs, at least.

Re: I no longer build software

#805

Post by jethro_tell »

burger_moon wrote: post #412
nicbou wrote: post #75

Add me to the woodworking ex-developers. I built a website that pays the bills, and now I have a lot of time on my hands. I am finishing my first piece of furniture today. It's pretty scary to work without an undo button. The physical world isn't just instructions, but movements. A little twitch can ruin a cut. A clumsy movement can dent a piece of wood you spent an hour sanding. You truly experience the meaning of "…

I went the other way into programming from the trades. Sometimes, especially when I read about people leaving this industry to go work in the trades it makes me nostalgic and miss working with my hands and building real things. But I also have enough bad memories of shitty work conditions and waking up sore day after day to give me a gut check to stay put for a little longer. > I don't think programming is the probke…

I've done over 10 years in the trades, and now 10 years in dev and am coming to the close of this chapter. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do, but I've been looking at a few projects that would be an intersection of the two.

I'd like to have another couple careers before I retire. The best part of a career is learning, getting it, then doing something as a journeyman and looking at your work and thinking, 'I got it'.

Re: I no longer build software

#806

Post by fortran77 »

cpursley wrote: post #284
cpursley wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your overall tone is negative and elitist. Thee $300 supermarket bike (I have one and put over 40 miles on it weekly and it's help up fine for four years) provides access to folks who otherwise can't afford the fancy $1,500 aluminium/carbon machines. Fancy bikes are still getting made and even getting better. Newly rich kid or VC funded startups distributes money from wealthy people to an every growing software indus…

The downvotes are fun. I guess some people are just against inclusiveness? I'm very grateful to be in this industry despite not having the "correct" background.

You won't find a higher percentage of "gatekeepers" within a community than the Hacker News community.

Re: I no longer build software

#807

Post by chris1993 »

cultureswitch wrote: post #794
the_af wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have an addiction to visiting prostitutes, that can be as costly as a drug habit; and that a good VR rig, coupled with this extensible, customizable VR sex-sim software, can manage—much more-so than regular porn—to mostly sate the same psychological needs that made them retain the services of escorts in the first place Two thoughts: 1- Are men really replacing flesh & bone prostitutes with VR sex sims? 2- Is this r…

I can't comment on 1. About point 2 though, prostitution and even just hookup culture is actually more BNWish than sex sims are. If you are using a sex sim, the taboo is still very much present. And that opens up having actual relationships whereas having systematic, mindless sex with random people will give you the illusion of that being all there is to it. Everyone belongs to everyone else is the primary difference…

BNW == brave new world?

Re: I no longer build software

#808

Post by bbrree66 »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #168

It seems like nowadays you just can't make money building interesting things anymore. Most of the available programming work is really just writing glue code to make big software systems work as intended, to the point where it can feel more like writing configuration files than actual programming. Put simply, 98% of programming these days is scripting. On the other hand, you have lots of fun things one can do with co…

> 98% of programming these days is scripting

LOL. What a silly comment.

Re: I no longer build software

#809

Post by madamelic »

chpmrc wrote: post #800
coldtea wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we've mostly solved trivial non-problems if/not regressions? People lived in 1990 and didn't feel that bad to have to call a travel agency to get a ticket, or, god forbid, to actually meet friends and not in VR space... I'll give you "self driving cars" -- well, I would if they could work today, which they don't...

"Trivial non-problems"...What does it remind me of? Oh yeah: Dropbox is just a nice UI on top of rsync.

"Everything that has ever been invented has already been invented", said in 1899.

It's very hard to think of future inventions at large. We are absolutely not done and programming + Computer Science has just started.

Imagine civil engineers giving up their craft in ancient Rome because everything that will ever need engineering has already been engineered.

Re: I no longer build software

#810

Post by bialpio »

the_af wrote: post #777
bialpio wrote: post #742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define "good"? One criterion that comes to my mind is: prostitution is illegal in plenty of places, so reducing the need for it reduces crime. If by "good" we think "good things are the ones where no-one gets hurt", it can also be seen as an improvement - black market for sex is probably not always a safe space (w/o even considering cases of human trafficking).

I'm not sure how I define "good", but consider this: not all prostitution results in somebody getting hurt -- if it does, that's definitely a serious thing to be addressed -- and when it's consensual, it's about two people connecting (money involved, of course). I know a cliché is to consider every customer/prostitute relationship as predatory in nature, but I'm not convinced this is always the case. People sating th…

The main problem is that since it is illegal, there's no easy way to address abuse (victims will not want to talk because they are potentially at risk of being punished). So if VR can reduce the amount of sex workers (less demand -> less supply), it may (?) lead to less cases of abuse. That sounds to me like something Better, but maybe not as Good as some other alternatives.

It's also interesting: why is human connection considered good? People connect because it makes them feel something, but if you could achieve the same result w/o human connection, would it be that much worse? It feels worse to me, but not sure why. :-)

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