i can pore all my time, agents running profiling, workloads and so but no one gives a damn. tried the whole year, still do for my personal projects
There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
91–100 of 530 posts
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#92Much like security, optimization is now a function of token spend—which in some ways means it's a function of care. The reason why software may continue to be slower or less secure than it could be is simply that no one cares enough to invest the time and money in improving it.
Off-topic, but Dan, in the name of all that is holy, throw a `max-width: 40em;` on your blog!
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#93Feel like this is the equivalent of a traffic engineer standing at the grand opening of the 5th lane for the highway saying there’s no reason for traffic to be slow anymore. That is, there’s a misunderstanding of why software (traffic) was slow in the first place, and it has nothing to do with our ability to generate code (number of lanes), even if that code is “high quality”.
What's the public transport of software development? Where can I get good train service here?
> What's the public transport of software development?
Understanding.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#94Wow, my browser's Reader Mode saved my bacon on this one. Otherwise, I would have left immediately. I'm all for speedy, simple, plaintext websites, but it is a negligible amount of work in 2026 to throw some barebones CSS in and make it approachable.
Counterpoint - I like Dan's site. I think it fits his vibe and priorities, and I don't find it unreadable. I can always pick my browser width and font size with a couple keyboard touches, and I never have to fight his idea of how I should want to read it.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's all about the test suite. The test suite becomes an executable specification, and the better the spec, the better the results you can get from AI.
It really isn't. It's s about subpar models trained on subpar data doing subpar work. The only reason why anyone takes it seriously is that we've had a glut of subpar developers for 30 years so it all balances out in the end.
No it really is about the test suite, and provably so. As another poster pointed out, speed is a superoptimization problem and the test suite provides the constraints. If the constraints are appropriately set, even a naive genetic algorithm will eventually improve the outcome over time, provided suitable mixing of the proposal scheme. LLMs provide measurably better proposals than naive approaches, so the entire chain is sound. The issue really is an inability to set appropriate constraints on what the user is looking for, and poor quantification of the multiple objectives one should try to balance in practice. What's great is that's a human problem. Diverting that to the models is obviously a disaster.
I agree that there has been a glut of subpar developers for years, and that has lowered the bar significantly. This is mostly because core values shifted. So let's keep our eyes on what really matters rather than acting elitist.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#96Feel like this is the equivalent of a traffic engineer standing at the grand opening of the 5th lane for the highway saying there’s no reason for traffic to be slow anymore. That is, there’s a misunderstanding of why software (traffic) was slow in the first place, and it has nothing to do with our ability to generate code (number of lanes), even if that code is “high quality”.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
That cannot be an emperical statement. Traffic engineers have absolutely wrecked the american city, largely be ause they didnt know the impact of adding lanes.
It's not the only reason. I think that traffic engineers lack/lacked a feel, a certain gut understanding , an inability to feel through the skin. Just look around you. See and hear them at municipal meetings. They are unable to sensually experience the effects of their work, their praxis.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
But it will definitely improve, either speed or volume.
Locally. Under many circumstances. But always? That's not a universal law, as it's a part of a larger system that may perform more poorly if this leg provides more traffic.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
But it will definitely improve, either speed or volume.
This isn't categorically true either, the real world is delightfully complicated, far more so than you imagine. The way cars interact within a road, as they enter an exit the road, or how they choose their route can all create conditions where adding a lane only makes traffic worse and can reduce both speed and volume during peak traffic hours.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, he's just trying to be different. It's vanity. He's had a usable website in the past. This one is explicitly made to be shitty. "Look at me, I'm such a geek" energy.
His site has always looked like this, i'm sure of it. This is what sites look like if you just write them as text. Not everybody knows how to use sql or css or java or whatever thing it is that lets you pick the font.
I'm almost certain he used to have a reasonably styled website. I just tried to look it up but it looks like he's excluded the website from WayBackMachine.
> Not everybody knows how to use sql or css or java or whatever thing it is that lets you pick the font.
lol at the idea that Dan Luu can't add css to his website by copypasting some links into his html. He could make the site readable in about 3 mins and never have to worry about it again.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#100This speaks to me. I've been running an autoresearch loop the past couple of days to improve the load time of my various projects' frontends. I've been really, really impressed with how effective this is. I went from a 4s load on simulated slow 4g to ~750ms: https://image.non.io/speedup-graphs.webp Side by side vid of the results: https://video.non.io/speedups.mp4 This was for https://non.io , which is something I ha…
> This was for https://non.io
Maybe hugged but feels really sluggish to me for it is.