I bought a Miata as my midlife crisis car (I'm 60 is that still midlife?). I have to say I didn't realize how much fun this car is. Its turned boring trips to the store into an experience. Cruising down the street with the top down feels really relaxing. Plus its just amazing in corners. I don't drive fast but now I don't slow down for corners. Its like a go kart. I know everyone is moving to hybrid and electric vehicles but having a stick shift sporty convertible is just way more fun.
I give Claude small incremental tasks to do and it usually does them flawlessly. I know how to design the software and break into incremental tasks. Claude does the work. The productivity increase has been incredible. I think I'll be able to bootstrap a single person lifestyle business just using Claude.
When my child was an infant, my wife parked in a parking lot and starting chatting with a friend about 10 yards away. Minutes later a woman came by and starting claiming the child was not safe and was going to call protective services. This freaked both of us out that a stranger could potentially have the power to cause the government to become involved with our family.
Fortunately, we didn't let that experience prevent us from letting our kids wander freely. But it does just take one over-concerned parent, to get you into trouble.
I used to live near a busy street. I eventually got used to the noise but when I bought my house I made sure to find a quiet spot. Now, its dead quiet at night and the difference in my quality of life is significant. I also made the city put shades on the street lights so they wouldn't shine on my house. Another huge improvement.
Here's a real schedule:
CEO: we need to launch x end of Q2
PM: Here are the four monthly milestones
Engineer Mgr: Let's estimate the stories. Now put them into eight sprints
Go!
Part of that I think is the culture and not the language. Personally I try to use the least powerful method that gets the job done and that usually keeps me unblocked. In practice that usually means using it as a better Java and not going down the functional monad path. I know scala has gone through a rough patch and maybe migrating from 2 to 3 is painful. But if you try starting a new project now with the latest Scala 3, I think you'll find that its pretty nice. Even IDE support is pretty good.
If Waymo is not cheaper, I don't see how it replaces Lyft/Uber. I imagine that not having to pay drivers and the deal with the associated liability, will eventually be cheaper so will free up money.
Isn't that how it always is when new technology disrupts an existing market? We no longer have telephone operators, toll booth agents, gas pump attendants, etc
One reason I just bought a 2025 Miata, is that has physical buttons for almost everything. Even the touchscreen can be operated with physical buttons. That and the manual transmission, makes it feel almost retro. It does have a lot of alerts like lane change monitors, but it doesn't bother me too much.