First off, I agree with the point made, though I think a more reasonable comparison would be something like a subaru. The people I know who have to deal with excessive snow or mud on country roads commonly opt for that. Of course there’s the “men” who compensate for their lack of buldge with 350s, dualies, etc. If you don’t work a farm, those whips are dummm.
That was a good perspective though- I grew up hearing Citroen makes garbage.
Side note- The vast majority of pollution is from industry. By a lot. That is where the finger needs to be pointing. Pointing the finger at SUV drivers distracts from the real issue and keeps us blaming each other.
> 100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
Keep in mind that at some places this is general policy, and that tech is given an exception. For example, my company has 2-3 days in-office, but everyone in tech is allowed to be 100% remote, even though that’s not written anywhere.
I was a studio recording engineer for about 7 years. I switched to software, and now I work in industrial global logistics. Job attributes I optimized for over the years: insulated from manufactured stress, autonomy, control over working hours, good relationships with my boss and coworkers.
My reasons for initially dismissing it is because to me it felt like it was taking the fun part of the job. We have all these tasks, and writing the code is this creative act, designed to be read by other humans. Just like how I don’t want AI to write music for me.
But I see where things are going. I tried some of the newer tooling over the past few weeks. They’re too useful to ignore now. It feels like we’re entering into an industrial age for software.
I do this with my friends sometimes. It’s definitely fun. But it’s even more low-key than what the author describes. There’s no big group chat or lighting talks, which would be weird cause we all know each other so well. And I don’t think we get together as much as the author. And there’s no main organizer. We didn’t even have dinner with others the last time. Just meeting at different beaches/parks/forests. Maybe a hang at a house one night.
We tried homeschooling a few times. We were honest with ourselves and determined we were not that great at it. Sure, we could improve. But one of the primary factors in where we chose to live was the school district. Fortunately it has worked out well. Of course there’s always something to deal with- you have to advocate for your kids.
It’s basically public daycare for a lot of people. Including us.
The social aspect is important for us. The idea of having to find other people with kids for activities sounds exhausting. We’re a gang of neuro-spicy introverts. My social circle is comprised of people I’ve been friends with for 25+ years. All from my school days.
I dealt with a lot of bullshit at school. But overall a net gain.
For the longest time I railed against the fact that I am mortal, and my time is finite. I wanted to squeeze everything I could into my days, and I would feel guilty about projects I didn’t get to. This is despite having a wife, kids, house, full time job.
Eventually I burned out on programming-based side projects. I switched to activities that do not require staring at a screen. So I build analog electronics, study music.
Then I had a heart attack. My mortality and the fragility of life was never more clear. I accepted that I could die, and let go of all the mental baggage I was holding onto.
I’ve felt ‘cured’ ever since. I don’t recommend anyone get a heart attack. But I do think people fall into patterns, and get stuck inside of them. Sometimes a “pattern interrupter” can break us out.
The human performance at the bottom of the page was nice. But you can also give a great musician a zipper and paper bag and they can make it sound nice.
It’s just like LLM generated prose to me. The orchestration and motif development is musical sounding, but there’s these artifacts that are like the “It’s important to consider” or “Would you like further suggestions” of the aural world.
I think it would be fun to write up a detailed analysis of a full piece.
> Educators say their tried and true lesson plans are no longer enough to keep students engaged at a time of struggling mental health, shortened attention spans, reduced attendance and worsening academic performance. At the crux of these challenges? Addiction to cell phones.
Yes, cell phones are a problem. But what keeps getting ignored, by practically everyone, is the detrimental effect of letting covid spread unchecked.
Kids get long covid, we know this now. It represents differently in kids than adults. This can have a direct affect on their performance at school, including the symptoms described above.
Getting multiple covid infections increases your risk of long covid. We are failing to take even the simplest of precautions to protect our children. This will impact their everyday life, including academic performance.
I fully expect people will downvote this due to the mass denial that the pandemic is not over. That's fine. But I know there are people reading that actually pay attention to what Epidemiologists are saying, rather than relying on hearsay or institutions motivated to keep the economy propped up in the short term.
> And if I’m struggling, as someone who’s not burdened by having children to take care of or even not having the most demanding job or hours to make ends meet, I have no idea how others manage to have a curious mind and succeed the way they do.
Paradoxically, I _feel_ like I have more time after I had kids than before. This is of course, after YOB (year of baby- first 12mo).
You see, I experienced such small slices of free time during YOB, that I became way more efficient at a ton of stuff, and dropped things that were time wasters.
Because I reproduced, I needed more dough. After working 3 jobs, 90 hrs a week for long enough, I decided to study programming.
Went to a code boot camp and walked out with a job. But the grinding didn’t stop there. What followed that was years and years of grinding, and studying as much as possible outside of programming at work.
Until finally, I got where I was going. I climbed up the ladder until I got tired of climbing, and avoided more stressful and time-demanding roles like management. I get senior dev compensation, don’t work more than 40hr/week, and I don’t commute. This is the life I built.
For everything I pursue, there are others who can run circles around me. But I can still look down from that ladder and see how far I came.
Wait, what am I talking about? Ok, the whole point is I became efficient and middle-class because I have mini-mes that deserve it.
Also, you never know what’s on the other side of that wizard level person you see. Everything I said sounds nice, but I wasn’t taking care of myself. Last year I had a mental breakdown, and am just now getting out of it.
So yeah, you’re not alone, etc etc, you know. There’s probably more people that can relate than you think.
I had surgery for a torn meniscus repair. I’m on the couch for a least another month.
I’m using this precious expanded free time to compose music, my primary form of artistic expression.
Software-wise, I’m on a platform team for a large company. I’m making some performance enhancements to our http client, and a plug-n-play library for app devs to easily integrate LLMs in their products.
Or, if even $300 seems steep for a computer to use for just some windows software, go to a used computer shop. I picked up my daughter’s Thinkpad for like $150
Edit: sorry, missed the portion of the parent comment mentioning used.
That was a good perspective though- I grew up hearing Citroen makes garbage.
Side note- The vast majority of pollution is from industry. By a lot. That is where the finger needs to be pointing. Pointing the finger at SUV drivers distracts from the real issue and keeps us blaming each other.